The rest of April in a nutshell

I have been a bit rubbish with my blog recently, there are several reasons for this:

q             SWAG has been very, very busy recently – there will be so many colour co-ordinated happy dogs out there J

q             My computer is useless at uploading video and I am not very good at editing video! And I have a short attention span for things like this.

q             My handling has in general been pretty Pants!

q             Did I mention I have a short attention span? I always enjoy things when it’s a novelty – after 5 or so Blog posts – I know see it as a chore! Lol

So we have been to several shows since my last Blog:

Wallingford – I was really pleased with parts of pretty much all courses run by the 3 merlies. Cruze had a clear in 2 classes with a broken toenail (so no agility classes for him) I did not push on any turns or anything as wanted to know that he was comfortable and stayed sound after which he did J  He also went clear with Dan in the Teams which was especially good as I was running Tigger in the same Team (I do so love that dog!) and his Girlfriend Wren was in the Team which I thought might just make the crazy merlie head explode!! Maybe I will have to break his toenails more often as he was clear all weekend!!

Thai had some really good bits and his times were up there with the top dogs when he just had a pole in several classes. Dan ran him in one Agility class – they looked very good together and Thai is rapidly becoming a bit of a Daddy’s boy! Which is nice as we now have 2 each. J Thai seemed much more confident and was motoring around courses – I think this might have had something to do with me trying really hard to handle well and only having him to concentrate on. Nothing still quite came off though.

Magic had some really nice contacts over that weekend but was a bit of a madam in her weaves, deciding she couldn’t do left hand weave entries and that right hand weave entries came up too fast – so she either came out early (left) or missed entry (right).

Then it was Easter.

As usual Dan had put lots of effort in during the week based on the problems he had encountered over the weekend before. This time it paid off!! Weaves all weekend were pretty much spot on J Magic won G3 Agility on the Saturday and is now Grade 4. Magic worked really well over the weekend, with just a pole here and there for most of her runs. She is looking on top form and I think Dan will enjoy Grade 4 classes.

I was useless the entire weekend!! Cruze had done no contacts at all for over 2 weeks whilst his nail was healing so didn’t expect much on Friday. However, he came 4^th in the G6 jumping and 9^th in the Combined 6/7 Agility. Then that was it – I have failed to achieve a clear round since!!!

I really enjoyed running my first 6/7 Olympia Qualifer. The atmosphere was really good, the others rings had finished, the sun was out, so pretty much everyone on the showground sat around and watched, whilst the Show Management handed out sweets and lollipops! How lovely J
The course itself was pretty tricky, I had no expectations of actually achieving anything but using my new found determination to try my hardest in every class (so at least when I don’t go clear I still have something to take away from it!) I attacked both runs.

The start was tricky and dog after dog did not get past the first 6 obstacles without fault. I had decided to handle the boys in two different ways and both worked so I was really, really pleased with that. This course again highlighted my need for work on turns and tighter control. My sheepdogs do tend to bring in a herd of sheep or two everynow and then on a course – which is really disheartening when I finally get a clear but have had 2 huge unnecessary turns and am out of the places. Both missed the weave entry – for 2 different reasons – the weaves were a fairly hard entry off a long jump but it was a right handside entry so I thought if I got where I needed to be I might be ok. Thai took the longjump very fast and REALLY tightly. I expected a leap and a wide turn which would make the weave entry easy enough for Thai, I got a tight wing wrap around the long jump marker pole and he entered at the 2^nd weave as he made it too tight for himself. Cruze I got there to help him turn – didn’t help as he rushed and missed the entry. A common theme for Cruze over the weekend which I thought we had overcome but obviously not.

We then had Cornwall and Dartmoor shows last weekend – not much to say really – the show seemed to have a slightly odd vibe about it and the classes seemed to run slowly we didn’t get home until about 7pm on Saturday and we only live ½ an hour away. We also didn’t get home until late on the Sunday – but that’s because we had to wait for Dan to get another trophy J Magic won her Grade 3 jumping J So Magic seems to be keeping up her theme of winning out of each grade several times over as this was her 3^rd jumping win.

Pat had joked that she didn’t want Dan to leave her behind in Grade 3 when he won out at Easter – so she made sure she wouldn’t be lonely and won Grade 3 Agility with Dooley on the Saturday and Chilli on the Sunday!! Absolutely amazing I have to say! Dooley’s run was one of those runs where you just knew no one would be beating it – it was so smooth and flowing and Dooley’s drive and motivation around the entire course was evident, I was almost clapping along with Pat in the weaves!

I’m not going to say anything about my runs as can’t really remember if I achieved anything – which probably means I didn’t! Oh no actually they both had lovely agility rounds on the Saturday – but Cruze took a dislike to the straight, narrow A Frame with slats in the way of his little paws and Thai did a lovely dogwalk at which I panicked and told him to wait, so he slowed across the top and beginning of the down, crept towards  the bottom and released himself – we got 5f – which didn’t matter anyway as I hadn’t completely ruined his round by slowing him on the dogwalk!

Blackdown this weekend. My main goal?  I really would like to see if I could manage to not be an idiot!!