Meddle not in the affairs of the dragon; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

For those of you who wonder what on earth dragons have to do with Agility; we were at Caerphilly show this weekend and Caerphilly Show = Dragon trophies! Much sort after Dragon trophies.

I have won trophies at Caerphilly before, but only in sponsored classes, so never a dragon and I was determined to win one this year and name him Borris! .... But it was not to be. Hex decided to remain consistent and clip just one pole in a majority of her classes , Sprite was out of action and when Kif wasn’t being special needs – I was! We did have some good results though:

Hex

15^th – C3-5 Dog Vegas Qualifier

Kif

4^th – G5 Jumping (Just 0.3secs off a Dragon!) Video to follow

Sarah & Jemma

4^th C1-2 First Contact Agility- Qualifying her for her first Agility Final!!!

Sarah & Jemma had about as many ‘if only’ rounds as I did with Hex this weekend

Sarah & Elliot

2^nd – Grade 2 Jumping = DRAGON! Sarah has named her Dragon Fred

Jane & Boot

9^th – G3 Agility. Not an easy course – Well done!

Borris, I will be coming for you next year!!!

South Devon

Two years running this has been one of my favourite shows of the year, but this year was different.

I don’t want to dwell on it too much as the day has been and gone and thanks to pep talks from Karen, Ang, Mike, Toni & Daz (and a call to France) I made it through the day and didn’t leave at 10.30 when I had planned to after my first couple of runs.

I felt completely overwhelmed emotionally from Sprite’s deteriorating health and spent the morning on the verge of tears and making stupid mistakes with Hex. Ironically Sprite’s runs were the best of the day, he had a 3^rd & a 5^th even with tunnel vision and stiffening limbs.

And that’s all the news really. We’re looking into getting Sprite different meds but it looks like this really will be his last year in competition and after over 11 years competing in the ring with him I am finding it very difficult to come to terms with, we’ll just have to see how the next couple of months pan out.

Burtle Demo

Can't believe we pulled this one off! Hardly any dogs, even less people and we still managed to entertain Burtle... even if it was only for 16mins of the 30 we were allocated : s

I know that Spud & Tess were put off by having the A-Frame first - unfortunately the overhanging tree meant I couldn't have a jump before it as had been planned but Kelly & Jeannette both stuck with it and finished their runs really well all things considered. Chas was a good boy and so was Welly, poor Sprite is still struggling to see properly, he only lost the tunnel 2 jumps before the end and he still had fun, but seeing him this way is really upsetting me - I don't think I will be entering anymore shows with him.

Hex, Boot & Rio put in some lovely clears.

A-SIT cleaned up in the show's competitions:
Charley (Kelly's Daughter) & Spud won Best Fancy Dress as Little Red Riding Hood with Spud dressed as the wolf in Granny's clothing - so cute!
Anne's Chas won most Handsome Dog
Hex won Best Trick with her elephant stand trick... only we did it on an overturned metal dog bowl and passed it off as tap dancing - teehee!)

Thank you so much to everyone that took part, special thanks to Matt (The Muscles) & Mandy (MC) who didn't even have a dog to play with and also to Kelly & Jane for the extra work they put in at the field. EVERYONES help made the equipment moving really smooth. Thanks to Burtle Church for having us and to Richard for the use of his trailer.

Cornwall & Diamond Dogs

Cornwall

Up at 4.30am in the morning Matt & I travelled south to possibly the only place in the country where it was raining and for what? – More ruddy poles!!!

Hex had a pole in both jumpings and fell off the dog walk in the agility – whoops!

Sprite still wasn’t 100% - He did a lovely clear round up until the end – He thought he had finished, but he actually had 2 more jumps to do. When I asked him to do the last ones he was confused and thought he’d gone wrong, I think he’s seeing in a sort of tunnel vision, he’s aware of what’s in front of him but doesn’t seem to know what’s around him. He went in the wrong end of the tunnel in the agility but had fund.

Kif had 2 clear rounds – just out the placings in each.

So not a great day.

Bit of a better day at Diamond dogs, although I made some silly mistakes.

Kif got a clear

Hex got a 6^th

I did get to try out some of my ‘new moves’ in the jumping and considering she’s only got to practice them twice she did one VERY nice turn – thanks Baby!

Well done to Jane for 4x Clears with Boot & achieving her Agility Warrant Bronze!

Sprite had a really nice walk Abi & Kim and their dogs so he’d didn’t miss out even though he didn’t have any runs.

Now I have a Demo to organise for Saturday and lessons to finishing planning for Little Orchard.

It’s Thursday! – When did that happen?!

Tuffley shows seems a bit of a blur now so I am straining my grey cells to remember what happened.

Results:

Hex
9th CSJ 3-5 Qualifier
Kif
3 x Clears

Sarah & Elliot
28th C1-4 Jumping
Sarah & Jemma
2x Clears

Hex was being a clumsy b*tch again – a pole in everything Saturday and not even my ‘keep ‘em up’ yellow trousers could keep all the poles up Sunday but she did put in an okay run in the CSJ – Probably was the most wide and ‘novice’ run I’ve put in, in a while, I could feel my arms flaying and preyed the poles stayed up which they did.

I left Tuffley feeling rather blue. I had a great time camping, tucking into a BBQ, sharing cake and catching up with people ringside but my heart just wasn’t in it and I missed Sprite (who is still not 100%). Little things were upsetting me and it was hard to cover it up. But I felt much better after a private lesson with Anthony on Monday morning, I won’t bore you with the details but I feel much better about myself and inspired to do some new exercises with Hex. It’s so difficult to find time for your own dogs when you’re teaching all the time – especially in the weather we’ve had; it’s too hot to leave a dog in the car & I’m completely drained. But I MUST find time or my dogs will go to waste.

Stitch is back to his terrierish self... although he is still supposed to be ‘taking it easy’. He’s on holiday in France at the moment with Mum, Dad & Phee – I hope they have a fantabulous time!