Wyre/Thames

Well I went to Wyre and Roger went to Thames !! Last year we both went to Wyre as Rip was in the Veteran Jumping Final (he came 2nd in it bless him) and we both thought it was a lovely show in a idylic part of the country so I wanted to go again and as I don't work on Friday I could spend Friday travelling up. Roger sort of (haha!) works on Friday and also he had to work on the Saturday so really it was way too far for him to drive up after work on the Saturday so....Sue, Duessa and I stayed at a posh BnB.

At Thames Roger had entered 3 classes on the Saturday in case he got finished work early - he did get there in time to do one class but it was a hard course for JaiJai (he tells me!) and he got E-d. On the Sunday he was paired up with a French lady who was coming over from France for the weekend - Josie was with her Merle collie and they came 17th in the Chum Pairs and also Roger got a 9th in Grade 4 Jumping with Josie.

Wyre...a lovely show - 4 runs for the large dogs - Fleet had all 3-5's - 2 combined and 2 graded each day - people have said that it's not fair on the Grade 3's to run in combined 3-5 but actually the 3's seem to do very well and I know of 3 grade 3 dogs that won combined 3-5's over the weekend :) I know Mediums is not quite the same but Cad used to beat Grade 5's when he was running at grade 3 :)

Fleet only had one clear and he got 6th in 3-5 combined Jumping - he seemed to have 5-fault-itis! Rip did a lovely run in Veteran Jumping and came 5th.

I had got this far into the year with Cads and he was still Grade 5 so I had two more weeks to stay in Grade 5 if I wanted to compete at DIN and the KC Festival as a "Novice" so this was what I decided I wanted to do - have fun but not worry too much about places - bless him with a very held dog walk contact he came 3rd in Medium 4-5 Agility and worked well in his other classes. We had a Medium 1-7 Jumping and I quite liked the course it had the course and thought it would be fun to try out a few things that I would do in training but perhaps not be brave enough to do in the ring - Cad whizzed round and then Sue told me I was in the lead??? Bug would have of course beaten Cad but she had a pole down, Nooooooo I can't be in the lead in 1-7 (Cads needs either one jumping or one agility to take him to Grade 6......) class closing in 2 mins.....2 more dogs appeared one a collie that I know is not at all speedy and a black terrier I did not know - well thankfully the black terrier (a lovely dog I now know is called Morph - what a cool name!) beat us and I was very pleased to come 2nd.

Poor Cad he must be the only dog that has an umambitious handler! One more weekend and then he can go up a grade if he really has to.....I know he does not have the speed or length of leg up against the speedy mediums but we shall continue to have fun :)

This post includes a few more of Ians photos (Cad) - thanks Ian :) and some photos that Sue took (Fleet and Rip) - thanks Sue :)

Pads

Pads is a nice show run by a friendly group of people. Also there are a good seltection of classes and the dogs get quite a few runs. Roger and I had been asked to ring manage for our friend Don Nunn who was judging - this was interesting in that the ring party was made up of people given a one hour to slot to help many of whom did not turn up and I know a lot of them were there but I could nto be bothered with the hassle of chasing round after them. Yes I know their one hour slot might not have been at a good time for them but they could have come along at another time during the day....grrr moan over! So Many Thanks to some friends especially Joy and Linda who both helped loads which really made our life a lot easier.

I have made some lovely friends competing in the Medium Classes, one thing thats really nice is that we all can offer advice to each other when walking the course, have got to know each other and the dogs, can commiserate when things don't go to plan and celebrate when things do - of course we have these friends at our own clubs but these are people spread all over the country which for me is the really nice part of this. One of these nice people Mike who has a lovely Medium Blue Border Collie called Gemma has a friend called Ian who comes along to a lot of the shows and Ian has started to take photos of the dogs competing so here is one of Cads:-

My dogs did really well on the Saturday:- Cad got 2nd in Medium 3-5 Graded Agility (the Grade 5 bit) and 4th in Medium 3-5 Combined Jumping. Fleet got 5th in 3-5 Combined Jumping and a 10th in 3-5 Combined Agility and also got through a few round of the knockout running with Matt and Buddy - we only needed to get through one more round to qualify but maybe it's best that we didn't as it means that Matt can still run in the next heat with Tasha and Sue! It was really nice that the Veterans had two runs - a Veteran Jumping (Rip came 5th) and an Anysize Jumping (Rip came 5th and Fog came 8th).

We went out for a nice meal with Don and Christine on the Saturday evening at a local pub that we have been to before.

On the Sunday Cads had one messy clear in a really tricky agility - he really did not want to go back up the course and do a jump as he had spied the see-saw and really wanted to do that - cheeky little chap! The rest of my runs with Fleet and Cads had some good bits just not clear. Fog went clear in Anysize (he only does anysize now as the higher jumps in Veteran he can't manage...:(...) Rip got 7th in Anysize and 9th in Veteran Jumping.

I keep getting behind!

Oh dear I am have such good intentions and then they fall by the wayside! I will try and do a quick re-cap of what we have been up to.

Mad Weekend - it seemed like a good idea on the weekend of 17th/18th May to go to Ribble for their one day (inside!) show and then nip (haha) across to Dog Vegas for the Sunday - Roger was working on the Saturday and he wanted to compete on the Sunday and that was the only show just about within reach....phew it was a lot of driving though!

At Ribble Cads got a 2nd in 4/5 Agility and a 3rd in 1-7 Helter Skelter, Fleet got a 3rd in 5-7 Jumping and I got clears with Josie and JaiJai just out of the places (JaiJai's runs were taken very steady due to the plastic poles!) and Rip did a lovely run in a clear round only Anysize. I nearly left JaiJai behind...long story...!

Dog Vegas was ok - nice to have 4 runs with Cads however they were all 5-7 combined and small in number and the standard was very good with speedy legged G7 and Ag Ch collies there - bless him he did lovely clears in the jumpings and was 1 and 2 out of the places. Fleet came 4th in 3-5 Agility - afterwards I found out it was a Dog Vegas Qualifier and the first 4 qualify for a final in August - with shows and travelling I am not sure we can attend but its nice to qualify. Rip had a place in Anysize. Roger had no clears but his dogs did some good bits.

hmmmm Supadogs...well there has already been lots of postings on the weather/river overflowing....it is a flood plain so it was only really a matter of time and after two nights in the caravan with hardly any sleep due to rain and high winds I was actually glad to get home to walls made of bricks...much as I luv my caravan! Roger was working the first day and so I had his two to run...I got a 9th in Grade 4 Jumping with Josie and an 11th in Grade 5 Jumping with Fleet and JaiJai did an awesome run in 3/4 Agility just spoiled by going into the second weave. On the Sunday Fleet got a 20th in a large in number 4/5 Jumping. Rip and Fog had clears in Vets/Anysize.

I cancelled 2 days leave and went back to work - the weather was not that nice and I would rather save the leave to take at another time.

Phew I thinks that's it I have caught up - need to do a separate posting on Pads Show.