The newest ones are on the far top left - lilac one and green one

Back from the show today. Really pleased with Dylan

All contacts were perfect.
The Graded agility run he missed the weave entry because I needed to help him more ... but otherwise a good run (5 faults)

Jumping CG1-4 (ie all medium grade 1,2,3,4) - Clear round not the neatest but happy with the run ... 4th place out of 93 dogs in total

The best result today was an agility run again all other ABC (anything but collie) medium dogs (CG1-7) which was a Crufts Qualifier. Fab clear round despite me being a bit worried about it as it wasn't straight forward ... I decided to make it as simple as possible.
We were the only Grade 3 dog placed (9th) - places up to 15 - the rest were grade 6 & 7 dogs!! Yahoo! There were 110 dogs down to run!

So I'm very happy & Dylan will get extra for dinner!!

So we went to Chipping Norton show - our first Grade 3 show.
A lovely sunny day and quite a short one for us too as we didn't get there until 9am and left before 2pm!!

Anyway 3 runs
- a clear jumping round against all other medium dogs, ie those graded from 1 (starting grade for novices) to 7 (expert handlers and dogs!). We got a 7th place: so that was great.

- 5 faults on the agility run ... Dylan jumped off the dog walk - our current failing atm. My fault this time as I wasn't up with him, but otherwise a nice round

- elimination from the other jumping ... completely my fault as I forgot how to turn for a "pull in" ie over one jump pull in between that and the next jump and then over the next jump. Jumps are side by side facing you. It took my brain 3 attempts before I remembered what to do and then Dylan did it perfectly!! Ah well I haven't had that before in a ring but have done it in training. Will know better next time!

Next competition is Sunday at Axstane at the Orsett Show Ground in Essex. I have 3 courses to run - Jumping Combine Grade (CG) 1-4 (ie all grade 1, 2, 3, 4 dogs in medium) - 93 dogs, Agility Graded 1,2,3 (ie each grade only competes with itself, but grades 1,2,3 all compete on the same course - 66 dogs in total and 37 in grade 3, and finally a Crufts Qualifier ABC CG1-7 - so competing again all medium dogs, but ABC means Anything But Collies - there are 110 dogs in that one.

I had 2 days at Shuttleworth College this week at the RVA KC show. Yesterday was not good as Dylan seemed to have no energy and neither did I! Note to self: Don't book a day of agility after driving back from a family camping weekend in Dorset!! Anyway after a good night's sleep and normal food rations the second day has proved brilliant ...

We are working on the dog walk contact in training and it is noticeable that Dylan has to shorten his stride as he comes to the end to make sure he doesn't jump off. I had practised running with him and then shortening my stride and getting him to do the same and then stopping .... on the flat of course but just before his run! In the ring both time I tried the same thing as we came to the end of the dog walk and hey presto Dylan ran all the way down! Result!

So after a couple of 5 faults in the first agility (A frame contact apparently) and then the Steeplechase (all jumps and tunnels in a flowing course) - knocked a fence down!, we had 2 more runs in the afternoon. Jumping was first and it was just beginning to rain. Nice course with twists and turns - Dylan was fab, helping me out and we won that comfortably with 2 seconds to spare! Next was the agility graded into 1 and 2. We are running at grade 2 until the weekend when we will be grade 3 due to agility win a month beforehand! It was really wet now ....

On the starting line waiting for the scribe to say ok ... I wanted Dylan to wait as the second jump was a wall (he hadn't done a wall before) but wait wasn't an option .... over the jump, wall & jump and then he was going to run past the weaves to the tunnel ... I called his name and he stopped dead, looked and then I sent him to the weaves and the tunnel ... a quick (not easy in the wet muddiness!) turn to jump and seesaw then round right on 3 jumps to the A frame ... good contact and round right again to 3 jumps and another then left to another jump and the dog walk .... running fast to keep up and got to the end of the dog walk stamped to shorten my stride and watched Dylan to the same looking at me ... what next ... go on I said pointed forward to the last jump and then slipped & fell ... still commanding Dylan to go on ... he briefly looked at me as if to say are you okay and then jumped the last jump as I rolled past it!! --- mudd up my legs and bum!! But a clear round and despite having to call him back for the weave entry 2 seconds faster than the next clear ... result - 1st place!

So at the weekend we have Chipping Norton - our first grade 3 show ... wish us luck ...

For Kennel Club shows to win a grade and be promoted you need either an agility win or 3 jumping wins ...

Well we got our Grade 2 agility win at the Godmanchester KC show on Saturday May 12th - I was really pleased with Dylan as he has a habit of jumping the end of the dog walk and receiving 5 faults accordingly, but on this occasion for the grade 1-3 medium agility he didn't and the rest was great stuff. When he is clear generally we are quick and usually in the places. We won beating all the other dogs graded 1, 2 and 3. It takes 25 days before the new grading kicks in and so this Sunday we are competing at the Chipping Norton show in grade 3 for the first time! However before then we have 2 days at Shuttleworth College competing at Grade 2 still at the RDA show ... I am hoping the weather holds.

The last show we did was last Sunday at Packington show and we managed a 2nd place in an agility (with 5 faults for (you've guessed it) jumping off the dog walk!) - however it was a qualifier round for the Agility Club Starters Cup final held on 28th July - being 2nd was enough to qualify, so I have until then to sort out this dog walk contact!!

It's quite cool being a member of The Agility Club because I get to earn points for my club (Faldo) and see how my friends are doing. I keep a record of my wins and places too.