Yorkshire Bouncers

YB is always a small, friendly and local show; lots of flyballers present, which helps!

Kim

Kim had her last set of Primary classes today. We had a really good day, she was a lot more motivated and enthused than she had been for the rest of the summer season, noisy and tugging and listening. She dived for her lead at the end of every class too, which was just fantastic! (Not in a training sense, it’s incredibly annoying, but I also love to see her happy and wanting to play after a run). Her Primary Jumping was a nice course and she ran it well, even though I had a bit of mad improvisation in the middle when I realised I was in the wrong place to do my planned front cross for the weaves and had to throw in a blind cross instead. I’m getting way more confident about using blind crosses, they do work fantastically if you get it right. Anyway, Kim came 7th, and top Medium, which was nice!

Primary Agility was another nice course, although the ring was pretty boggy underfoot and it included quite a nasty Aframe call-off. Didn’t think we’d get past that bit! Kim was a bit too crazy for her agility and it was fairly messy, quite a few wide turns, a pause on the downramp of the dogwalk and a bit too slow on the seesaw, but she still came 2nd! We were just beaten by another Medium, Sally, who is a lovely little dog and she has really come on the past few months so really chuffed for her and her handler.

I love running Time Fault and Out, and Kim seems to enjoy it too. We got a pretty poor score this time though, we only did 11 obstacles before Kim missed the dogwalk contact! We actually ended up completing the rest of the course as it was the fastest way to the last jump, Kim kicked into crazy-fast once she’d heard the whistle. She did an awesome seesaw as a result! TFO is a lot of fun to run and watch, it’s my favourite Games class.

Finished up running straight away to do Primary Helter Skelter, which I don’t like doing with Kim — she needs a break in between, we never get as good a run immediately after running elsewhere. Which is a shame, because it was a Helter Skelter course I thought she’d really go for, big open spaces and plenty of work-away opportunities. She actually had a pretty good run, not flat out but she enjoyed it and apparently she came 4th! We left before the Games results came out because I didn’t think we’d got anything, so really chuffed. [ETA: Bit of a shocking result all around! The winner was miles in front of everyone else, but Kim beat some fast dogs and was only 2s off super-fast Charlie dog!]

Dylan

Introductory Agility was first for Dylan, a straightforward course but I wasn’t too sure about the seesaw immediately after the Aframe. I hadn’t really clocked that it was a lot like a Power and Speed section though, and Power and Speed is Dylan’s favourite so he was super happy with it! He had a nice run, not on full burners but it was the first run of the morning. Held all his contacts and he didn’t find the dogwalk as scary as normal. Somehow we came 10th in that, very pleased with him. Emma and Bailey put in a cracking round, Bailey did the Aframe in 3 strides and flew the apex which was hilarious but she has such gorgeous running contacts she nailed the contact anyway! They came 2nd which was fantastic, so pleased for both of them.

Natalie‘s Intro Jumping course was pitched towards the bottom end of Introductory but it’s still nice to have a blast around. I set Dylan up but he broke his wait; I was really annoyed at myself for not going back and requiring a wait from him, but then again I know if I had, he would have got worried and stressed and even though he might have gone clear, it would have been a overly-cautious clear as he doesn’t like getting things wrong. Not sure what I’m going to do about that, but it’s something to think about, anyway. Because he broke his wait I was in the wrong place so we had a messy start, and then I lost all spacial awareness and ended up layering in the central pipe tunnel whilst Dylan ran the top line … and by layering, I mean “nearly falling over”. But he overcame the bad handling and finished up nicely and came – wait for it! – 10th. The winner finished in 15.64 and Dylan finished in 18.76 so not too bad.

I don’t think we should talk about Dylan’s TFO round but it we had one huge positive so I will! We completed 3 obstacles successfully and then Dylan forgot what weaves are. He was nailing his weaves at the BAA Finals so not sure why we’ve regressed here. Anyway, whistled on the weaves but Dylan had set off for the tunnel by then. I moved off and called him to bring him through the obstacles to get to the last jump but the boy was having none of it. He flew up the dogwalk, absolutely no hesitation and then nailed his 2o2o at the end before thinking about actually looking for me. I have to admit I was trying not to laugh at this point, especially when the judge said something about Dylan having a great dogwalk. So apparently the thing with the dogwalk is for me to be 20ft to the left and telling him to do something else, then it’s not scary at all and actually it’s a lot of fun.

Dylan finished with his last ever Intro jumping class, Helter Skelter, with a bit of an awkward weave entry so I stopped Dylan before it and made him come right in to heel before letting him try, and he nailed all 6 before flying the rest of the course. I think he really hit into something near to top gear on the Helter Skelter, I was really pleased with him. Apparently he came 11th so well chuffed! We’ll have to see how far off the winner he was, considering his weave issue. [ETA: The winner was well in front with 21.49, and Dylan finished in 29.13, but we wasted 5/6s at the weaves which would have put him in the top-5. Not too shabby!]

On a very serious note, I’m beginning to think Dylan is either cursed or has a fetish. So far in his limited career, he’s had 4 10ths, 3 11ths and a 9th. He was clearly aiming to be 10th with the 11ths and the 9th, which would have made 8 10th places (out of as many clears, basically!). Are we doomed to get 10th places forever!?

I’m not really complaining, I’m just happy we get placed at all. What is weird is that looking at Kim’s results from last year, you’ll note she got a 7th in Introductory Jumping and a 2nd in Power and Speed (agility) at Yorkshire Bouncers, and a 3rd in Helter Skelter (4th this year). I think Kim likes this show!