Various..

I’m a bit behind at updating the blog but I better get on top of it before I forget everything completely.

The last weekend in January saw us travelling down to Swindon for the Cani-X event at Lydiard Park. Thankfully no snow or ice this time and it remained nice and dry. The route was a circuit of the grounds of Lydiard house & park, nice and straightforward with no horrid hills to contend with. It was my first experience of interval starts which I found somewhat hectic, but understandable in some venues where the paths are narrow especially at the startline. There is a random draw for bib numbers and you must run in this order. This means lots of hanging about at the start with lots of hyped up dogs with your own hyped up dogs attached to your waist and you trying desperately trying not to let them get tangled up. It was a bit chaotic to say the least.

On the Saturday I ran Rex & Pip. They ran well except for a pit stop for Pip to go for a poo. Why she couldn’t have gone when I walked and walked her before the race I don’t kow. We ended up with a time of 22:41.72 which wasn’t bad considering Rexs determination to go in the late and any passing ditches. On Sunday I ran Blaze and Rex and finished in 22:02.96. Blaze is fine with overtaking dogs and being overtaking but hes still a little unsure of passing passerby dogs I guess because the approach is head on. The other thing I struggled with was getting the dogs to run across open fields. We usually follow a path or track so the dogs know to run straight. Some of the route was marked across open grounds and didn’t follow a path as such and both teams were a little unsure of what way to go. We ended up 4th overall – typical as the prizes go to 3rd. but there were some cracking teams. On the first day a lady with two Malamutes ran in 17.something – crazy!

Our next show was then the Hare’n’Hounds Valentines weekend. Saturday was a write off with the exception of Incas very last run in G4 agility where she came 3rd. Although D was running well he didn’t seem to respond to my hand signals as well as usual. I came to the conclusion this was to do with the black wrist splint that I was wearing on my left hand thanks to spraining my wrist at Center Parks the week earlier. Either he couldn’t see my hand signals as well or I was being more cautious in using my hand (or a combination of both) but we had several classes where he randomly went the wrong way, and in the others it was some bad handling decisions on my part. Thankfully Sunday was better. I ran (albeit rather cautiously) without the splint and D managed 4th in G5 agility, 2nd in G5 jumping and 11th in C1-7 BC Jumping.

Last weekend it was the final instalment of the East Anglian Winter Series and also Blazes first show. I ran both my gamblers classes NFC and trained my contacts, but I decided to run both agilitys rather than do NFC like I usually do. D was in first and did a cracking run and ended up winning it. This gave him the points he needed to go Senior =) Inca also did a great run and won her Senior..but I was a bit annoyed with myself to discover she actually needed games points rather than agility. Oops, lol. D also managed a 3rd in Senior SC over a very fast course.
Si had Blaze entered in Beginners Steeplechase and Nursery Agility. He ran both NFC and took in a toy to keep him motivated as Blaze can get a little distracted. However, he surprised us both and did 2 lovely waits, stopped in 2o2o on both his contacts and didn’t run out of the ring or get freaked out. He did go off sniffing in the agility as he lost momentum but Si got him focused again and they completed the course. He definitely lacked confidence in the SC as was much more cautious than normal but we’re both over the moon with how he did and it’s the experience more than anything for him.

Hes got a Grade 0 vegas show at Grantham next month before his Grade 1 debut in April. I’m nervous and excited for them at the same time =D