Hare'n'Hounds Halloween

I love that Hare’n’Hounds are theming all their winter shows, it’s fun and cute and apparently traumatising for Jet, but it’s such a nice touch for already awesome shows.

Jet had a very tough course for first thing in the morning with her Grade 3 Agility, lots of flick-flacks and pull-thrus in the smallest ring, and a tunnel-weave-Aframe into nowhere that I knew was going to be a bit of a problem for us. Jet (like Dylan) needs to be raced along her contacts to get the best out of her, and it just wasn’t possible to do so for the Aframe in this class. I lost her at jump 6 when she picked up the tunnel way too early, but she actually ran the class really well and I was very happy with her!

Dylan also had a very tough course first, his Graded 4-7 Jumping class. Although I knew this was going to be Dylan’s first Grade 5 show, but I hadn’t actually thought about the splits, and he had tough classes all day with the Grade 7 dogs. Dylan tried so hard in the Jumping, I lost him at the pull-thru before the weaves, but he really worked his socks off.

Jet was back in for her G3-4 Agility, which was a really beautiful course in the biggest ring, so very open and with lots of room to run. It was also the ring where the judge had a cloak on, and the scribe was wearing a Halloween bobble headband. Jet has issues with people wearing hats, but the first thing to freak her out was a Halloween poster on the wall. So I didn’t actually know if she was going to run, and I spent all my time reassuring her instead of the usual pre-run routine. Once we set off, she was absolutely fine, but I was all over the place with my handling, nearly collided with the judge* and then I didn’t get her weave command in early enough.

I then whisked Jet off to run her ABC Agility, which was in the same ring as the Grade 3 Agility and had a very similar course. Jet had a lovely run and our only clear of the day, although her contacts were too slow and that really pushed us out of the placings. She finished 7th overall, so not too shabby!

Jet had her nice ABC, and with hindsight, I should have entered Dylan in the Border Collie Jumping rather than the Open, but at least we drew Part 1 of the C1-7 Jumping which had by far the smoother course. Dylan had a slightly lazy run, wasn’t really stretching or driving on as well as he has been lately, but he went clear and actually finished 12th, and beat some Grade 6/7 dogs to do so. I think he was the 3rd Grade 5 dog, which was a very good result.

Jet had her final run in the Grade 3 Jumping, and flew around but just rolled a pole on one of the straights. Can’t complain because it was a really smooth, nice run, and I caused the pole. We really felt to be working more as a team by the end of the day, and I know Jet had fun because she tried to rag on my arm when we were done.

Dylan had his two agility classes to finish, and I was a bit concerned as he hadn’t really run as well as he could in the Jumping, and I want to keep hold of that madcap enthusiasm he’s been showing recently. Thankfully it call came flooding back in the C4-5 Agility, which was in the big ring and was a really wide open course, lots of space and room whilst being challenging enough for the dogs. Perfectly pitched! Dylan and I lost the plot immediately, obviously, when faced with a nice course. I don’t think we’ve ever made such a shambles of a run! Dylan had beautiful fast contacts, and I’ve genuinely never seen him power into his jumping as well. Shame we were all over the place! I finished up happy and so did Dylan, and I think the very stunning Flatcoat in front of us won the class.

Final run was Graded 5-7 Agility, and Dyl and I showed off our inexperience at this level. We went clear, but it was not at all pretty. Beautiful fast contacts though! Somehow we finished 4th regardless, which I’m happy with. Based on this weekend, I think Dylan could win out of Grade 5 this winter, but I think we would both be overfaced in Grade 6 at the moment, we aren’t ready to move up. The tight spacings and multiple potential obstacles meant Dylan spent a lot of time dithering between jumps, and I wasn’t clear enough or fast enough with my cues to get him where he needed to be.

*Not my fault! Judges should not assume everyone is going to handle the dogwalk from the same side! Because I was trying to avoid the judge, I couldn’t get to where I needed to be and Jet got 5R.