Sunshiney Weekend!!

We had a week off from shows near the end of June, to relax and spend time at home, and to just catch up on house things.  As it was a beautiful sunny blue-sky-day from the dawn, we decided with the help of Alex's mum to get our garden in a bit of order.  It was actually quite rewarding, tidying, weeding, grass cutting and strimming, hacking back the bushes, really pleased with the end result. So no pictures of dogs this time even though they were enjoying the garden too (thankfully, say Davy and Yahoo as they hate having their pictures taken!!), just a few pictures that I took, of some beautiful flowers that we are lucky enough to have in our garden.  Just wish I could work out some better formatting for the pictures instead of having them in a big list!!

Axstane

Another weekend show, this time at a different showground - slightly nearer to home, just under an hour away - so no problem with daytripping in fact quite nice (and a shorter journey than I do to work on a daily basis so really just a mere stroll!), I don't think I need to mention the reason why we weren't camping for yet another time.  It could have been worse - that I keep forcing to remind myself, as there was a little bit of sun, along with the rain and quite a lot of gusty wind!!

It always concerns me a bit when I end up walking a course differently to others, I suppose more wonder than concern, but there must be a reason why everyone is going the same way!! So one course in question, I hadn't seen more than about nine or ten people go the way I picked, but I stuck to my original plan, and when I came to queue to run - and watch others, I realised that my way would provide a far better line for Kiah, and not pull her off course - which was exactly what it did, so I was pleased with my choice.  There can be so much or so little to agility, one of many things I enjoy about the sport, it can be as big, small, or as 'anything' as you want it to be.

I think we were a little bit unlucky with some of our runs at this show, I was super pleased with how Kiah was working on both days, though by Sunday we did have a couple of those 'looney' moments that we do see every now and again!!  Generally a nice selection of courses, but some silly errors - one great fast jumping course with loads of tunnels, really fun - where we had a pole, there was another when we messed up the weave (but got the entry!) on a course that would have been great, and another pole in a fast fun jumping course, then the second pole in an agility course as I 'snatched' at a turn, arrgh!!  Oh well, a learning curve - onwards and upwards, Kiah didn't realise or mind that we didn't get any clears this week, this was a picture of her in one of the blasty courses, having a fantastic time!!

Thames

I haven't updated in ages again, unfortunately boring things like work have been getting in the way, anyway the next show we went to (in order!) was the weekend show Thames up at the Newbury showground - and unfortunately YET again we had decided not to camp due to the probably not surprising, but disappointing weather forecast for the weekend... Thankfully (but rarely) it was for once quite incorrect, as the weather on both days was reasonable and even a little bit of sun - but I didn't mind as its nice to get home to my own bed, and without fail, Kiah sleeps better too.

I was pleased with the way Kiah had been working in training at the time, she was still as looney as ever (and highly unlikely to ever change!) but listening to me and actually thinking about things rather than just belting around as fast as she possibly can. I find at shows too we are a better team if we just spend a few minutes before our run, playing and messing around (as well as our warm up) and stopping for a few photos in this case, smiley pretty girl.  There does seem to be quite a fine line between us working well and not so much, silly little things such as timing, and delivery of my commands really does make a difference.  As much as she is a loon she does always listen to me, but sometimes almost 'too much' which gets me in more trouble!!

Anyway there weren't many courses over the weekend that I was particularly impressed by, though in our very first run we had a fairly impressive clear round - I say impressive because it was the messiest clear in time, that I think we have ever done!!  I didn't want to push Kiah hard around it, due to a couple of what were almost dangerous angles for fast/silly dogs, so we took it easy, very easy. I waited until she was long committed to contacts before crossing behind and catching her up, I even forgot to do any kind of cross at one point, so had to do a weird spin to ensure she could get a proper take off for the long jump!  So I think it was slightly representative of the type of course, when I just by complete chance I thought I would have a look at the times - and what had won - and saw Kiah's name in a very respectable 10th place, bless her my clever girl its a good job we checked!!  So, a nice show as the sun shone a little, a lovely purple rosette for Kiah, a pretty good weekend :)))