agility nationals fundraiser agility trial

Well we actually entered an agility trial today - wooohooo :-)

Have to say - although I had a stinker of a headache (think it was the lack of food and water) I had an absolute blast.

The weather was very kind to us - only had a couple of little spurts of rain - so can't complain at that - considering the grey clouds that were upon us.

The jumping rings were a bit soggy though - no fault to anyone except mother nature :-) Made it very hard to run and the dogs were sliding about too - poor mini and her face plant - she's all good though - in fact I think around 50 per cent of the dogs and handlers either slipped or landed on their rear - poor Erica Pope running Roy feet slipped away from her and she still got up and ran - the second slip was a bit hard to recover from - luckily she was allowed a re-run and performed an awesome run with Roy.

I didn't have luck on my side today at all - was wanting my final leg in Excellent agility - Diva managed to nail the seesaw (along with all the other contacts and weaves) - it was just a jumping sequence left - normally diva would have nailed the jumps if I could help her out and actually tell her where to go - my legs were like lead - my quads were throbbing for some reason - must've hurt them from friday?? not sure - anyhoo she went to do a wrong jump (where my body was telling her to go) - managed to push her off the wrong one and by the time she was at the "next" jump to do she was upon it and dropped it - doh!!! I stopped after that - my legs were sore and gave up - she was a good girl, and she got the seesaw - yey Diva.

Masters jumping was a bit of a disappointment too - I sent her in the wrong end of the tunnel - doh!!! it was as if I was watching someone else run and didn't work her at all - oops - again my wee diva I'm sorry for stuffing it up. We got in the correct end of the tunnel and done a rather nice round - not like a normal blitzing diva run but nice all the same - just that one thing - if only..... hmmmm!!!!

And wee mini was in too. She done her first excellent jumping - I was terrified and not sure how she would cope - must say even though we didn't come close to clear she done a not too bad round - along with a face plant. She's getting there - starting to understand the obstacles and what I am asking of her.

Wee minmin was also in Novice agility - OMG - she got 1 fault - and it was dropping the first bar - awch. I mean the round wasn't very pretty at all but go minmin. Trying to think back what happened - she was funny on the walk - didn't jump off at the end - rather done a 2o2o position but at the beginning of the contact zone on the down ramp instead of actually on the grass. I asked again and she moved slightly further down - 3rd time she done it correctly - tells me she's trying to work it out - kinda getting the idea - that's cool - indicated what level she's at and clearly doesn't understand that the position I am after is at the end of the contact rather than there abouts - she's thinking though and not just blowing me off - which is nice. She stayed on the table and let me get a bit away from her - good girl, after the table there was about 2 or 3 jumps then the weaves - still learning the weaves - have to help her into the entry (not practised them nearly enough) so I mucked about with her and got her lined up nice and easy and she done them all - yay- it was just the a-frame and last jump (think it was a spread or broad - can't remember now) - anyhoo she nailed the a-frame with a running (which is what we are doing - well for now :-) - then she went to deviate from the last jump straight in from of her - hey blondie you've gotta finish correctly - not sure where she was going but kinda went behind me or something - was weird - I called her though and like little harry potter she reappeared as fast as she had vanished and done the last jump - great effort mini - well done wee chicken.

There were some awesome runs and heaps of hardline stories too.

Megan had an awesome day - Epic got 3rd in Masters jumping with a lovely run, she also done a fab round with Dancer and won Excellent agility - well done Megan. Tom done a few specy runs too - think it was masters agility they were hooning around the course and got 1 bar down - what a shame it was a blinder too. Steve done a fab round with Spud - nailed the contacts and got a refusal on one jump - lovely contacts though. Tracey ran a great round with Makko and just got a penalty on the seesaw - owwww. Nicola ran a smashing round with Kite - he's coming on fab and with super fast contacts - as per normal for nic's dogs. There were other's too which I can't name right at this second but will remember as soon as I post this blog.

Tell you though I got a bit of a wakeup call and a motivator today when I saw Karen had her young dog Sonic in Masters agility and Masters jumping. She's doing a bloody good job with him. I can remember him and mini both being in novice together and now he's further ahead than diva who's about a year older than him. Kriszty had a bit of a laugh and said I had to actually enter trials to get qualies - yeh yeh - I know I have been soooo slack so need to get my but back into gear and back into the ring. I mean taking nothing away from Karen - she's progressed sooo quickly and so well - but she's give me a shake - thanks Karen - you've motivated me to get my butt back into the ring.

So my goals for this year (yes I am going to trial):

Get Diva her Excellent agility title
Gain 2 legs towards Diva's masters agility title
Gain 2 legs towards Diva's masters jumping title (she's got 1 so far - woohoo)
Achieve 1 good clear round with Mini in excellent jumping
Achieve 1 good clear round with Mini in novice agility

Note: by clear I mean no mucking about or babying - getting the job done and done right!!

Well that's the target for this year - now I think our next trial is the end of september (I think it's the Royal which I never have any expectations of going clear due the atmosphere so it's probably october) so we've got a lot of time for me to get my fitness up and to practice and pray :-)))