Jo Harker invited me to come up to the Hare n Hounds show up North! Well the Easter one actually, which I will go to. So I thought I would try it out beforehand going to the New Year Show at Richmond. Although this is a good 3.5hr drive, it isn't so bad for me as my Dad lives in York. It was a good opportunity to combine a family visit with an agility show.

So we travelled up on relatively clear roads on the Friday 24th Jan, to arrive in York before dark. I decided to take the Bongo just in case we did get snow as it would feel safer than the Fiesta in the snow.

We made ourselves comfortable at my Dad's house in York knowing we would have an early start on Saturday morning for the hour long journey to Richmond.  I also knew that I still wasn't feeling that well after having Flu this week, but was determined to go to the show to try it out and meet up with Jo Harker.

It snowed overnight - a couple of inches. But the roads where fine and we got to Richmond with time to spare. I helped on Jo's ring as she judged, scribing the whole day.  The atmosphere was lovely and I noticed that there was a lot more men competing than in the more Southern shows :-)

Dylan got a bit fed up being in the van all day. He ran well, but my cold prevented me from being very effective. My favourite course was Jo's graded 4-7 agility course (see below). Dylan & I ran it well until I halted at the second set of weaves as I wasn't sure what I should do to then get him to the tunnel. Of course I should have run with him and then lead him to the tunnel. 5 faults only and a good time. Never mind - next time. The other courses were nice too, but with my cold and helping I didn't have time to write them down & now I can't remember them!!

By Sunday the snow had gone. It was still chilly. We had the day to enjoy the show and Dylan got to meet other doodles and not stay in the van all day. The clear round was still out of our grasps as my brain decided multi tasking was not possible. Remembering to talk to Dylan and remember the courses was not possible. I got lost twice! Shame really. This was my favourite agility course which I can remember now, but jump 4 eluded me at the time, so we ended up with 5 faults for a refusal! Dylan did a perfect "feet" and super snake. I didn't layer the fence when running from 10 to 11. The tricky bit was the last tunnel to 18 and then 19. I ran fast, beat Dylan believe it or not and called him over to 18. He jumped that but did twiddle a little as I crossed behind him to the final fence.

I met Chris the lovely organiser of the HnH shows. I also met Pete & Pam Ayling, who are clearly very clever at agility. It is lovely to put faces to names from the Doodle Agility League. Dylan was mistaken for Freddie - they do look so alike. Amazing to think Dylan is medium and Freddie is large! Here's a supper picture that Jo took of the two doods.

We got home in good time on the Sunday. 3.5 hour drive isn't too bad. I had collected my sister's old freezer on the Saturday night and now we have all the space I could need for the raw feeding of both cats and both dogs!

I was really looking forward to today's show as last weekend at Adam's Agility Show was not pleasant and although we had had some good bits nothing that strung together to make a clear. Why is Grade 6 so hard? Well today the courses were hard & when I get a planning package/app thing, I will map out the two combined grade 6-7 runs in jumping & agility. All I wanted was a clear round each time. My plan was set, carefully thought out to achieve the clear and where possible in the fastest time. Not a foot wrong did I put. I even had the confidence on one run to change my plan after watching other people nearly trip over their dogs. Dylan was a star and followed my ever command (well body movement anyway).  It resulted in me winning the first jumping run which was combined with grade 7 dogs too (about 10 of us altogether). My second run was a graded 5-7 jumping which was comparatively easy, but a fast flowy course with 2 twiddles ... I ran and Dylan did as asked. First in grade 6. Third course was a very tricky combine grade 6-7 agility with two A frames and no dog walk. I was fantastically happy to complete the course clear and elated to discover I was 1.2sec off the grade 7 winner with a couple of other clears as well, so I would have been second! The fourth run was the grade 1-7 agility course, which was well worth waiting for. Jump and dog walk followed by a nice flowing course. Running start and I held back to see if Dylan would find his position on the dog walk ... brilliant he did, lots of praise and then on our way. I thought I had lost valuable seconds with the dog walk, but in fact we won the grade 6 and was only 1 sec away from the grade 7 winner.

Dylan is a star :-)