A bit of a catch up..

Its been rather a while since I last updated the blog – almost 3 months to be precise! And I never did get around to posting about LAE or our Easter agility show either. Sadly (or luckly depending on what way you look at it) I don’t share Nats brilliance for recollecting events several weeks/months on so I’ll try and summarise what we’ve been upto.

Sadly our caravan was declared out-of-action before we got a chance to use it this season. It wasn’t worth repairing so we’ve done fewer shows, either more local ones we can day trip to or ones where we’ve stayed at a premier inn or Travelodge nearby. I don’t miss all the packing and setting up but I do miss having my own “base” to chill out in with the dogs. As a consequence we’ve don’t far fewer shows, and even some of the shoes we have entered we’ve not gone to. Its most unlike me to have weekends off during the summer. I’ve been able to take the dogs to flyball training and teach some clicker workshops for the club I work for.

Agility wise, Blaze started competing at LAE back in April. Much to our surprise he had a great first weekend gaining a 2nd in G1 agility with Si. The following weekend at Vegas he got his first jumping win and at Norfolk he got a 2nd in a C1-4 jumping class with me handling him. He is a little certain in the show environment and certainly doent have the confidence he usually has to attack the courses. We’ve been using some of the Dorwest Herb products with him which seem to have helped, but as usual hes kept us on our toes. Nothing seems to work consistently but I’m sure he’ll get there in the end. He won into G2 at RVA and also qualified for the JDL Team Final in July. Unfortunately it was a bit too much for him and he got slightly distracted by the crowd, much to my amusement…but not so much to my husbands, lol.

As for my lot..Inca won into G5 at Dog Vegas at Easter. I still remember that run as if it was yesterday and I really don’t think she could have run it better. It really blew me away. Shes by no means consistent but I enjoy running her however well we do.

Diesel has been running well. We’ve had a few 2nds and 3rds which I am still surprised about. Part of me dreaded getting into G6 as I didn’t feel we had the potential to go anywhere. Whilst he might not be the fastest he can cope well on the more technical courses (if his mum gets her handling right!) so over the right course its anyones game. The closest we got was the “hard course” at DV. The G6 winner had time faults and only a couple of G7s got round it. We got round within the time (*just!*) but I over cued a turn and he dropped a pole. These kind of runs give me hope.

Pip has spent most of the season doing allsorts/anysize. I had hoped to do contact work at the UKA Nationals but the lack of caravan meant this wasn’t meant to be. I don’t want to risk her throwing herself off the agility equipment so her G7 comeback has just been in jumping classes but she proved shes more than capable winning a C6+7 jumping class at DV in July. Shes one amazing girl!