The show season has started

Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaase can I go jumping now?

Well the first show of the year has been and gone! And what a show it was!!!!!!!!

Amazing time, amazing dogs, amazing friends J

Please also note our very nice new fencing in the photo above :) Thank you Feroda Agility

To say we were all a little over excited at the prospect of the NADS UKA show last week is probably something of an understatement; some of our camping group were packed and ready to go by Monday! 3 of the 6 groups camping together were there at 2pm as stated on the schedule and we were all set up by 4.30pm.

I forget how tiring UKA can get, we have 3 dogs competing and run 4 classes a day each, so 12 runs each day, plus I was in the Pairs class on the Sunday 3 times.

Add in a little Phaze time around the rings and we pretty much didn’t stop from 7am until it finished at 6pm each day. So not a gentle introduction into the season but a very fun one!

Thai was a good merlie and won his Senior jumping, his Agility run on Sunday was FAB, very difficult and tight push round a jump for the 2^nd obstacle (which I don’t think Cruze would of actually fitted through!), I remembered my training with Toni and instead of trying to always move towards the next obstacle I looked at the dogs line and used a should turn into weaves, lovely contacts, rear cross the tunnel at the end and pull to a jump to the left, with a jump to the right sitting very close by……….or in my case pull him completely off the left jump and make him run round it!!!! Oooops! I E’d Thai in one of his SC classes as didn’t call him off a tunnel but I was really pleased with how he opened up on that course. Another SC and the one pole-itis monster reared his ugly head for the first and no doubt not the last time this season! Then GAMES classes….I have no idea how to run Games classes – but I wanted to get Thai up into Champ and the Games points is what is stopping me……..and they have still stopped me! We were doing quite well in Snooker, I’d reached the colour sequence section and then let Thai sail over a jump instead of calling him into the weaves and that was the end of that!! Gamblers I am a little more capable of, I seem to be fairly accurate at working out where I will be at the end of the 30 seconds and we got the 15 point Gamble and came 3^rd.

Thai ran pairs with Wren, we were clear in the jumping part but unfortunately Wren heard Tunnel and went for the tunnel, she was meant to hear A-frame but never mind!

Cruze was a little over excited at being at a show, he had started whining on Thursday when we were packing the van and not really calmed down since then!

We managed a very messy clear in the Jumping class, wasted about 5 or 6 seconds, completely my fault, added a switch in to makesure I could get to the right end of the tunnel and ended up getting in the wrong place and making it much harder than it would have been had I not swapped sides!! Ooops again! Cruze was also clear in a SC and came 2^nd J. I was generally very pleased with the speed of Cruze’s contacts over the weekend so hopefully we can get it together this weekend.

Cruze was in the pairs with Magic, Magic competed the Agility section beautifully, baton change and let go of Cruze………………..and he was GONE!! Cue a little hectic screaming from me and being the idiot that I am I lost him as trying to turn for the weaves and he missed the entry L so 5 faults, we qualified these 2 last year for the Final but then couldn’t go so it was a real shame that I messed up this year as we have a very good pair here.

Magic was a little star as always. One of Dan’s goals this season was to get her up to Champ SC; well that goal was comfortably achieved with 2 wins on Sunday, one by 4 seconds! Magic also gained a 4^th in a SC class on the Saturday, some people think UKA is not as competitive as KC but Magic came 4^th in this class 0.28 seconds behind the winner – I’d say that’s fairly competitive!!

Dan has been retraining magic’s contacts over the winter so this was the first chance to see how she was coming along. Some were lovely, some not so great – so a bit more work to do this week. Magic’s agility rounds were lovely, just an accidental extra jump on the Sunday, which was a real shame as she looked very good over a handly course and first try of rubber contacts. Magic took to the rubber contacts much better than either of the boys, Thai slipped as he hit the up on the dog walk and then crawled over it L Cruze tried to slide his seesaw – something I have spent time over the winter training – and came to an abrupt stop L

I also had the privilege of running the very handsome Harrjak Tigger

I ran him in a SC class, where he only had one pole down J My fault as I realised how long he was jumping and thought he might miss the last 2 jumps that were slightly off angle and caused him to catch the pole as I said ‘Tigs’ to get him to check in with me and see the jumps slightly to his right. It was an amazinf feeling running him though! I hope my little Harrjak will be half as drivey as Uncle Tigger.

I also ran Tigger in the pairs class with Pat and Dooley and Tig was FAB and went CLEAR!!!!! It was quite a handly jumping section so I wasn’t sure that I would be able to control Tigs well enough having only blasted him round a SC previously, luckily the really fiddly bit was after the weaves so I had him with me and at a slightly slower pace (well for Tigger anyway!) and we got home clear! Unfortunately Dooley had suffered a slight pilot error so none of the 3 pairs I ran in made it home double clear L but it was a very fun and fast class to take part in! Thanks again to Lolly for letting me run her gorgeous boy – and here’s to the teams in a few weeks where I get to have another go!!!!

After running Tigger at the weekend I am no longer going to look at pictures of the Tigger pup I know of that is available, as I liked him already, but I suggest you all do!!!!!!

So first KC show on Sunday J Carn Brae here we come!!!!!!