Beautiful Beacon!!

Our next show after Nuts was supposed to be Lincoln.  Unfortunately we had to miss it but looking at the weather I don't think that was such a bad thing!!

Over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend I travelled down to Dorset to stay with my family. Whilst I was there we went to our 1st UKA show to try and promote the "Team England" supporters merchandise that Wanda had designed. 

The weather was sooo cold.  Not really what you want when you are trying to sell T-shirts!!

Reno didn't run very well at this show.  Not sure why?  Maybe it was something that had been building up for a while or maybe he didn't feel comfortable being there on his own without any of his Doggie friends?

Either way on the first day of competition he decided to run around every 1st jump as soon as I let go of his collar:-(  He did do a couple of good runs afterwards but, of course, had already been faulted.

The beauty of UKA shows is that you can decided to use your time in the ring as a training round so I used this option for all but one of his runs the next day.  It seemed to work well and I was brave enough to run him for competition and get a clear in his last run.

The Agility Nuts weekend in May had to be cancelled due to the venue being waterlogged.  What foresight I had to enter Beacon on the Sunday as at least we had a show to go to:-)

Beacon is always one of my favourite shows.  I think it is the lack of camping that makes it all so social.  I go knowing that the competition will be tough but there will be plenty of time to chat!!!  So here's how we got on........

Agility Combined 1-3 - Judge: Charlie Wyatt - One of my very favourite judges!!  I decided to introduce a new start line routine at this show (similar to what I used to do with Kiros) so this was my first try.  I take Reno's lead off in the queue and do a bit of heal work with him, Sit him outside the ring and give him some sausage then recall him to me in the ring, sit and leave him.  It didn't go too well this time as Reno decided to go and visit a folded flat tunnel in the corner of the ring so I had to drag him back.  After that he did a reasonable wait but self released of the Dog Walk (2nd obstacle) so was replaced.  He ran the rest of the course beautifully:-)

Jumping Graded 1-5 - Judge: Jo Hysolp - A lovely course for a fast Belgian :-) (I wonder why!!!!) just a missed weave entry and a bit of dodgy handling at the end in this one.  Reno loved it.

Agility Combined 3-5 - Judge: Mike Hallam - I think this course was a bit too difficult for us at the moment so lets just say Reno took his own line!!  Very good contacts though.

Just two more shows to Blog about until I'm up to date!!!

April Nuts

Onto the first Agility Nuts of the Summer Season.

This show was at a super new venue - Bilsthorpe Miners Welfare Sportsground.  The running surface on the rings was excellent and there was a lovely big exercise area.  The show didn't go without hitches but the team and competitors all rallied round to make the weekend really enjoyable.

So onto the Agility..............

I only had Kiros with me on the Saturday as I was judging on Sunday.  He had a great time, as always, winning Veteran Agility and Power and Speed, coming 2nd in Veteran Jumping.

Reno

Saturday

Elementary Agility - Judge: Di Polkey - E'd because he broke his wait so I corrected it.  Worked contact by using his ball but excellent weaves!!

Elementary Jumping Gamble - Judge: Pat Bishop - It's fair to say that Reno didn't do the course I intended but he still managed to amass enough points to get 5th place.

Elementary Power and Speed - Judge: Di Polkey - E'd in the contact section as he came of a contact before released and had to be corrected :-(

Elementary Jumping - Judge: Pat Bishop - Clear and 2nd place to Tiber:-)

Sunday - As I was judging in the Agility ring I only ran Reno in Pen Sensky's Elementary Jumping which I handled really badly, messing up his weave entry.

Here are my courses from the weekend

Elementary Agility

Starters Plus Agility

Veteran Agility

Elementary TFO Agility

Starters Plus TFO Agility

Veteran TFO Agility





Bretford Show

Next instalment of my Blog update!!!

Back from the Lakes and I'd entered both Reno and Kiros at Bretford Show on Easter Sunday.  It was clear that Kiros needed a bit longer to recover from his holiday so I decided to only take Reno.

I walked our first course with a bit of trepidation.  It wasn't really our thing - a couple of boxes that aren't my strongest handling point and the weaves at the end of the course.  I was so worried that I'd mess them up if we managed to do the rest clear.

Well I didn't and Reno got his first KC clear round and 7th Place.  Looking at the video I know there are a few places where I could have tightened him up but I was delighted with this run non the less.

Reno thoroughly enjoyed the show, running really well and playing with his friends Kody and Heidi and brother Speedy.  He even managed an other clear in Graded 1-3 Jumping finishing in 8th place.

I'm so proud of my little Mali:-)

Low Nest Farm

Lots and lots of Blog updating for you starting with Ade's surprise Birthday trip to Low Nest Farm near Keswick in the Lake District the week before Easter.

Ann and Mark have been here several times before and, knowing how much Ade and I would enjoy it, they decided to book a few days for us all to celebrate Ade's 50th Birthday later on this year.  Some how we managed to keep the destination a secret from Ade and he still had no idea where we were going when we set off at lunch time on the Tuesday.  In fact, due to his rather poor sense of direction, he still had no idea of where we were until we got to Penrith!!!

It started to snow towards the end of the journey and continued to do so for the rest of that evening.  The plan to walk into Keswick for our evening meal but we wimped out and went by car.  Over a lovely warming meal Ann revealed the schedule for the next day.........................

It started at 7.15am with Mark and me taking the dogs for a stroll up to Castlerigg Stone Circle.  The sun was just coming up and there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground.  The Lake District as I've nether seen it before.

These are the views from our Studio window that Ade took whist Mark and me were out walking.

8.30 was breakfast at No 10............Ann and Marks Studio!!!!!!!!!

Followed by a quick dash to the Bus Stop to ensure we caught the hourly bus.

Our day was a perfectly planned Bus Pub Crawl.  The weather steadily improved and we even managed part of the journey on the open topped bus.

Enabling Ade to get some great shots.

I had to include this shot of the most perfect place to do Agility!!!  The Doggies had been well looked after whilst we were out by Alison, the owner, but we spent the evening playing with them in the paddock and generally spending some quality time with them.

Thursday was Doggies day....................but it started with breakfast at No 10 again.

A nice long but reasonably flat walk into Keswick then along the disused railway line into Threlkeld.

Plenty of water stops for the Dogs and a lovely pub lunch with time for the Dogs to relax.

Followed by a walk back to Low Nest Farm via the stone circle.  Unfortunately Kiros (and Ade!!) really showed his age on this last bit.  The walk was about 2 miles too much for him :-(

We were due to go home the next morning but I couldn't resist another walk before breakfast.  Just Reno and me this time.

Thank you to Ann and Mark for organising this fun filled break for us and the weather couldn't have been better.