JDA Agility

Lincoln Showground is always such a gorgeous venue! I have never camped in rain like it on Saturday, the thunderstorm was right overhead but when it passed the sunset was stunning and Sunday was such a nice day.

Kim

Every time I start talking seriously about retiring Kim, not just toying with the idea, she comes along and tells me that she can run and she loves to run and she won’t just do it occasionally. She had an absolute ball this weekend, she was bouncing onto the line in every class and giving me plenty of sass.

She is still not running full out. In almost every class she is taking the first 12 obstacles on cruise control, before hitting number 12/13 and suddenly kicking into gear — she still managed to get placed (4th and 5th in the two Combined 3-5 Agility’s) with those kind of runs against some very good dogs. The only course where she did run at reasonable Kim-speed was the final agility (Graded 3-5) where she came 3rd, 2s off the winner and I had pulled her off the tunnel entry so we had a spin before picking up the line again.

I’ll stand by what I said though – just the shows she’s been entered in.

Dylan

My boy stepped up again this weekend. I was very, very proud of him; we didn’t win any classes or do anything extraordinarily fast, but he proved to some people that he could be the dog I always thought he could.

He started off with a lovely run in the Combined 1-3 Agility P1, but I didn’t push his contacts (ie. I didn’t “hold” them, but I asked for a fraction of a stop before release) and we had an enormously wide turn which put us out of the placings. His dogwalk was a huge improvement, as was his Aframe.

And then it all went a bit downhill for the rest of Saturday! It was pouring down with rain in the Grade 3 Jumping, and he slipped heavily on to his hip after the second jump. We carried on but he slipped again and nearly crashed through the tyre (thank god it was a soft tyre!) and then as I was pulling up to stop him, he slipped again and landed on his nose. We retired from that round, but it through us both off the rest of the day. Dylan was ultra-cautious in the next 2 runs and we finished well out of the placings.

Thankfully Sunday was bright and chirpy! As was Dylan, because he set off with a cracking run in the Grade 3 Agility. I knew going in that there were nearly 170 dogs in the class, but my goal was for a top-10 place, so I pushed all his contacts and we got within touching distance; 12th, 0.04 off the dog who had won the agility the previous day, and 2s off the winner. There were moments where we could have made up time, but probably not 2s worth. Maybe if we work harder on his speeding up his dogwalk, and try and improve my timing.

We then went and made what I thought was a complete hash of the Combined 1-3 Jumping P1; Dyl broke his wait, stuck his head through the timer beams, and then set off and it all went a bit wrong from there! He was reasonably quick but I realised half way around that my shoelace was undone and so daren’t run, and so we made a complete mess of the top bit but we finished clear. Extremely surprised when we then came 8th!

Still wanted the top-10 in agility though, so we pushed again in the Combined 1-3 Agility P2 (140+ dogs), and finally got our 8th. I can only think of one place where we could have tightened up, but it would have maybe made up 0.5s, if that. His dogwalk was passably good for once, his Aframe was lovely, as was his seesaw.

The Grade 3 Jumping was a complete write-off; I hadn’t walked the course, completely misjudged everything, and at one point shouted the jump number at Dylan instead of “left”. Poor boy, I must be such a disappointment to him.

Huge congrats to Helen and Lucy for going Grade 4, it’s so well deserved, especially after all her injuries last year.

Congrats to my super friends who made the whole weekend fun; Emma and Bailey for 2nd in Grade 4 at their first show at that level (and for nearly winning the Combined, it was such an awesome run!), and to Katie and Jet for their fab placings, especially the 10th and 11th in the Combined 1-3 Agility classes (with wiiiiiiiiiide Jumbo Jet turns – make sure she wins next time so we can have sparkley cake!) Jetly also came 3rd in the Jumping and encountered a wishing well for the first time in the Agility, which was both hilarious and super-cute. Just walls and brush fences to conquer now!

Also to Mel and Spike, Jeremy and Rosie, Abi and Cody (will you let someone else win please?!) and Solo the speed demon, Sylvia and Molly (who had an announcement over the tannoy to celebrate Molly’s first ever non-faulted contact — it’s only been 5 years!), Liz and Percy and supercute Jas, and to the Bonwillan Beagle crew who brought home 5 trophies and just showed everyone what kickass dogs Beagles can be (I would happily take Rasha home with me!). Pretty sure I’ve forgetten at least 6 people, but it was a fab show!