Orchard Agility Summer Show - August 2014

This was our last show of the summer season, mainly as my wife +Susi Cooper is due to give birth very shortly. The weather was good, a little cold at times but it held out. We were running Zazu at grade 3, Doople and Shadow at grade 6, and Winnie in anysize.

Getting ready on the start line

Doople and Zazu were running in the Embroidery Shop Final, which is a grade 1-5 competition with qualifiers through out the year. It consists of two agility rounds, one preliminary round which sets the running order for the final run. Both dogs had a lot to live up to as Shadow won the trophy two years ago. No pressure then!

Doople ran both rounds really well. A little slow in the weaves but we've been having trouble with those in training lately. We finished the first round in 4th which meant that we ran towards the end in the final. We went clear but there were faster dogs, so we finished 6th overall.

Zazu seemed to enjoy his rounds. We had trouble with the weaves as usual and got eliminated in the first round. In the final his inexperience showed and we were eliminated when he kept running. He got all of his contacts and was running down them better.

Doople sussing out the competition

On to the rest of the show.

Zazu's other run on Saturday was very good. I pulled him off a jump but he managed 12 weaves fairly quickly and his contacts. He finished 3rd with 5 faults. On Sunday he acted very funny in the jumping, deciding to wander off over a jump rather than following me. We did manage to layer a jump, the weaves and the judge at the same time, intentionally! I basically sent him on and an a different way with a jump, the weaves and the judge between me and him. His final agility run was fairly steady but good. We finished in 3rd place.

Shadow had a good day on Saturday with some tricky courses. We came 5th in the combined 5-7 jumping only a few seconds off the leaders. In the graded 6-7 agility however we came 1st! It was a good run with really tight turns. I don't think we could have run either class better. This does mean that she is now finally grade 7, the top grade. It has taken a while. There's less to talk about on Sunday, I was awful. I just couldn't put everything together. We did go clear in the jumping run which was as simple as could be for a grade 4-6.

Winnie had an anysize run on Saturday and she actually ran very well. She was charging around and really enjoying herself. We went wrong but never mind. It's the first time in quite a while that we've seen her enjoy herself that much at a show.

It was a good way to end our summer season with Shadow finally making it to grade 7. I'm not sure how many shows we'll be doing this winter but we'll hopefully keep doing some.

Posing after a long hard day

Orchard Agility Unaffiliated Show

Only a few weeks late but never mind! We decided to have a quite weekend so we went to the Orchard Agility unaffiliated show as it is only 30 mins away. We really went to this show to give Zazu some more experience in a relaxed environment. We ran Zazu at grade 3, Shadow at grade 6, Doople at grade 5 and Winnie in anysize.

Spoiler: Zazu looking proud with his Saturday rosettes

Zazu wasn't too keen on parts of the agility ring as there were a lot of thistles on the ground. He was hoping around at times, which was funny to watch if ineffective. He had two agility rounds and a jumping round His contact on all of his rounds were really good. We still need a little more drive but he was running all the way down. The weaves were all a little slow but again we need more practice. He got distracted in the jumping round and ran off in the other direction but he was still enjoying him self. He was eliminated in the jumping, got a 2nd in the 1-3 agility and a 1st in the 1-5 agility. We were really pleased as this was his first win. It also means he qualified fr the Embroidery Shop medium 1-5 final in August. Shadow won this event in 2012, so he has a lot to live up to.

On the Sunday, his contacts were still good in the agility round and I decided to hold him a little longer on them. He decided to sit at the top of the A-frame once though, I guess the view was good! He was starting to tire a little, more mentally than physically. We still managed a clear round in the steeplechase and a 3rd place in the agility.

Shadow started the weekend in the steeplechase, and it took her a while to wake up. She just sort of wandered around the first ten jump, then realised what we were doing and sped up! She ran much better in the jumping class and finished 2nd, a few seconds off the winner. The agility was going well until the contact equipment when she just flew off everything.

Sunday started much better as she won the steeplechase this time. The class ended with a full poodle podium! She also did really well in the jumping class where she finished 2nd. The agility run is probably best forgotten, she missed all her contacts again and also wandered off half way through to find Susi. Still it was a fun weekend with her.

Doople has started losing a lot of her drive at shows, particularly when it's warm. It's still there sometimes, particularly when Susi runs her, but I had the privilege for most of the weekend. She started really well in the jumping class and finished 3rd with Shadow only a few seconds faster. We got faults on the dog walk in the first agility class and eliminated in the second. She wasn't running as well for these as they were later in the day.

She was lagging a bit in the jumping on Sunday, we missed a jump and got eliminated. +Susi Cooper ran her in the first agility run and she went much better. She's more used to running with Susi. They went round really well and finished in 3rd place.

Winnie was entered in the anysize jumping at small height (350mm), one on each day. On Saturday she ran quite well and looked like she enjoyed it. She always enjoys herself when she comes out round the rings at least. Sunday was a bit different as it took a bit of effort to get her out of the caravan! She started slowly but picked when she got to the tunnels.

The weekend was mainly about training Zazu and we accomplished quite a lot. Zazu got his first win and qualified for a final in August. It was a good, relaxing weekend, even with all the thistles!

Relaxing after a hard day