Ribble March 2012

Resultswise, not such a good show. We didn’t bring home a single rosette. It also rained consistently.

Apart from that, it was awesome. I entered Kim and Dylan, and didn’t know if Kim would want to play or if Dylan would be able to. Saying I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement; we were all joyously happy to be there and rocking out and running fast and easy and loving every single second. I couldn’t have asked for a better day, even if we did just bring home a lot of Es and faults.

Kim was first up in her C1-7 Agility, in which we had no chance against the half a dozen Ag.Chs. (Really nice course from Hannah Grantham though, who was a super judge all day). In fact, neither Kim or Dylan would have been placed in anything even if we had gone clear, as all the good dogs and handlers had descended for the Small and Large KC Agility Stakes classes, and they all brought their Medium dogs too. Kim was bouncing on the line and I knew she was keen but my, she was keen and she flew around. We picked up 5f because I stood in front of the weaves and she thought I was an idiot, but she was so happy to be there and was just having the best time.

Likewise in her C4-7 Jumping (the same course as Dyl’s C5-7 Jp), she flew around and only held up to give me the sideeye at the weaves, because she thought I was wrong. She finished second out of the G6 dogs, some 8s off Jackie Tarn’s superfast collie bitch, but Kim is 11 and so we can cut her some slack.

Her G4-7 Agility was last and just had one too many awkward pull throughs for Kim, although she did a beautiful dogwalk and was still enjoying herself. Pausing to bark at the other ring probably wasn’t the most time-saving move either, and it was a tight course time, so we got 1 TF. She’s also not keen on the rubber-contact seesaws, so that was slow as well. I don’t care, she is amazing.

Dylan hasn’t trained since his chiro adjustment and that’s not normally good for him, but I was more worried with him just being ok. Our first class was the C6-7 Agility Stakes, challenging but I didn’t think it was impossible. We ran clear if cautious and I think finished somewhere around 25th place? His jumping was much better, wary but not stuttering and not uncomfortable, and on the video he looks like a dog who is surprised to find it’s not painful but daren’t quite stretch in case it is. Dogwalk was slow, not sure why, and he stuttered into the final jump because I am a useless handler who stopped giving him any kind of direction so I’m not surprised. I was pleased with his run though, and his finishing time was 38s to the winner’s 31s (Dawn Weaver’s Breezer), which is promising.

It got better from there really, his G6-7 Agility was a nice course and we got E’d because he was feeling good and bounced off every which way and did some extra jumps. Same in the C5-7 Jumping, it was all about the extra bits! His jumping was really great though, no stuttering or paddling, just smooth and stretchy and clean, and he was powering through his weaves in a way he hasn’t for a while (although I only noticed now he’s doing it again).

I couldn’t have asked for more from either dog, I’m so happy that they were happy! I did wonder about calling this Kim’s retirement show but she had such a good time I’ll try and find her some more nice classes to run somewhere in the summer.