South Durham

Another KC show! Even I can’t resist the siren song for too long … that, or there aren’t any BAA shows on during September/early October. Either way, we had a fantastic time, with only one complaint on my part and I’ll get to that in a minute! I had Kim with me (of course!) but Katie had also entrusted her beloved Jet to me too, for her first KC show.

My first class was Open (or 1-7, as it is now I suppose!) Medium Helter Skelter with Kim. It was a really open course, a bit of a trap with the tunnel but it ran very fast and we ran a nice clear but not quick enough for the places. I didn’t really expect to get anything, since I knew as soon as I’d run it that Kim only really kicked in her gears on the back straight. I did check the results when they came out and Kim would have placed 12th. I was pleased to find out though that all the dogs that beat her were mainly Grade 7 (with a couple of Grade 6 dogs), so even without pushing she’d beaten all the other Grade 1-5 dogs.

Almost immediately after I had to run Jet in her Graded 1-4 Agility class. I am not used to running more than one dog at a show, it was harder work than I thought! I had to walk double the amount of courses and track all the different rings … good practise for when Dylan is out, I suppose. Anyway, Jet was one of the first dogs to run in the class and she set off like a lunatic! I did ok until we got to obstacle 7, our nemesis – the weaves – and I hung too far back and she popped right out. I brought her back around and she back jumped the previous obstacle before we finally worked each other out and tackled the weaves again. This time, perfect weaves, and we were off again. We had another backjump mid-way where I tried to do a rear cross, but she hit all her contacts and we got around the course so I was thrilled!

Kim was in her second class (Combined 1-3 Jumping, click for a larger version on the left) just 10 minutes after Jet was finished, so we hung around again. I got Kim a bit more hyped up and then offended her when she broke her wait and I made her go back. She hates that, she wasn’t impressed at all. Anyway, we set off and despite a really wide turn around 2-3 we ran a great clear and I was fairly confident we’d just won our first combined class. We actually won it by a full 10seconds, and Kim got a gorgeous 1st rosette. This was also the course that Jet a couple of hours later in her 1-3 Jumping, after I’d formulated a plan for the weaves. I was quite worried that Jet’s big, bouncing jump would have a problem with the box, but she actually handled it a lot better than Kim. Next was weaves … when I was reviewing our run in the morning, she’d picked up the weave entry as I was calling “go weave”, which had pulled her off. I’d decided this time to just keep my mouth shut and let her run the weaves herself. She picked up the entry and weaved away with me walking next to her, and we were off! She had no problems with the rest of the course, and actually finished just out of the placings.

Running the same course with two completely different dogs really made me realise how unlike they are! Kim is deceptively quick, with long flowing strides, she has experience on course, and we have 5 years practise running together which means if I do make a mistake she bails me out. She also likes to question my commands if she thinks they’re stupid. Jet, on the other hand, is all enthusiasm! She’s bouncy but much faster than Kim, does everything 110%, and she does everything I ask without a second thought, which means I have to be careful to give her clear commands. They’re both great dogs, just need handling very differently! It was definitely an experience to have two dogs to run.

Jet’s second class was a Graded 1-4, and I was really optimistic about the course with her. If we could crack the weaves again, it was exactly the kind of course Jet loves, with only the last 3 tightly-spaced jumps giving me a bit of a worry in case we had a pole down. She hit her weaves perfectly again and we absolutely flew the rest of the course, and she bounced the last 3 jumps so it wasn’t a problem at all! She came a fantastic 3rd and I was so proud of her. I can’t take any of the credit because it’s Katie who has trained such a fantastic little girl, and done all the hard work with her. She just loaned me an amazing dog for the day, and so (of course!) Jet’s rosette went home with her.

Jet also ran a Combined 1-3 Agility later in the afternoon, which actually went quite well until we lost focus mid-course. I’m still not entirely sure why, but my mum standing ringside with some chips may have had something to do with it! We got E’d for another backjump, but we went on and finished the course. We broke our weaving style simply because Jet was so far on ahead of me she turned around to check whether she was right when she got to the weaves, but when I pulled her back around to give it another shot, she did the full 12 beautifully. We also ran in Open Pairs with Sam and Dash (http://www.aprilmagic.co.uk/), which was a lot of fun! I think we got a 5 on the weaves, but it was a nice run to finish the day. Sam took the fantastic photo of Kim in this post. Jet also had a run with Cat (http://www.themodernlove.co.uk/)in Juniors, and they were unlucky to get an E. It was probably the most difficult course Jet has ever run and I thought Cat did a great job handling her.

My one complaint was the running order of the classes meant that Kim ran her first two classes before 9:30, and then never got to run her second two (both agility). Admittedly we did have to leave early but we hung on until 3:30 in the hope she might get to run, but no such luck. Even if we had have stayed, it would have meant there was a 6-7 hour gap in between her first runs and her last. I’m by no means singling out South Durham here, as every KC show I’ve been to this year has done the same thing, with one or two runs first thing and one or two runs last in the ring. I could understand this happening once or twice but every time?! Could it be (surely not!) that in trying to please the majority of people, the Mediums — as the smallest classes — are getting the toughest deal?

This is only a minor gripe though, because the show was great, lots of classes for Mediums and very generous with their placings (Kim’s 1-3 class had less than 10 dogs in it but they still placed to 5th). Beautiful rosettes and glass tumblers or trophies for the winners, and the judges and their courses were all fantastic too (I particularly liked Louise Raine’s courses). I will hopefully be back next year!