Bob Sharpe Training day & Ribble

Saturday we were back at Snetterton for a weave and contact workshop with Bob Sharpe. Blaze was absolutely full of it, although he did finally get it together by the end of the session(typical spaniel). D was up for it and the session focused more on getting me to push him that little bit further. As usual, D always tries his best =D

Saturday evening I headed off towards Accrington picking up Wendy and her gang along the way. It was all arranged a bit last minute but worked out really well even if I did end up leaving a lot later than planned (no thanks to getting a chip in my windscreen on the way back from Bobs session).

Sunday we arrived at Ribble, welcomed by very wet and muddy car park and it seemed to do nothing but rain all day. Diesel had 3 classes ; C3-5 Jumping, G5 Jumping and G5 agility. Inca had just two; C1-4 jumping and G1-4 jumping.

Inca was in first in the C1-4 jumping. A straight blast follwed by a sharpe turn into the weaves and a bit of handling needed at the end. In theory I thought she would love it, but I managed to pull her out of the weaves when I crossed behind (follwed by a very dramatic leg crash and tumble). Still, there were only 9 clears so she still ended up with a place (15th I think). Her G1-4 Jumping wasn’t until much later but the course was lovely; nice and open with plenty of room to stretch her legs. We’d seen Wendys Brissie fly round in just over 26 secs and go into the lead for G3 but I wasn’t sure how we’d do. I know Brissie can beat D and Inca is usually slower than D so I was expecting somewhere around the 27 mark. Inca loved it, she ran her little socks off finishing just over 25 secs and going into the lead of G4. We both managed to hold onto the win so Brissie won G3, and Inca won G4 - woohoo!

Diesels first class was C5-7 Jumping. I was having a few issues remembering the course first thing but relaxed somewhat when I realised it was the combined class rather than the graded. It felt like it would flow so I was surprised with the lack of clears in the class. In fact there were only 12 out of over 200 G5-7 dogs! A lot of dogs took the spread at the start – a lot of dogs couldn’t cope with the diagonal line their handlers set them up at, not helped by the fact it was also on a hill. For this reason I wimped out and set him straight. We got past the spread but we had a pole at the first wing wrap. I then ended up being in completely the wrong place for the rest of the course. Oops! His G5 Jumping just wasn’t up my street – wing wrap after wing-wrap and I went in very half hearted – so needless to say we had several poles. Finally D had his G5. It was actually a really nice course but I knew we’d have the top pole down, and we did. But he did some lovely held contacts and worked the rest of the course really nicely (including a tunnel under the a-frame and scoop into the weaves) so I was still really pleased to end on a high.

So results wise it was rather surprising. I certainly didn’t think Inca would get a G4 win so soon, but equally I am pleased that we’re beginning to focus this new gear of hers in the right direction. As for D, I’m sure we’ll get it together soon.