As my alarm went off at 6am I had to wonder if it would be better to stay in bed today. It was stormy outside as the wind rattled through the house. It was a dark, cold and miserable January morning. Holly did not want to leave the house as she hid in the living room, peering around the door as I put bits and pieces in the car. We finally got on the road 45mins later, with the wind battering my little corsa down the m1. An hour later I turned down a single muddy lane in some place I hadn't heard of. Alarm bells start ringing in the dogs heads, as they see people walking their dogs near by. The whining gets louder and the tails wagging faster as we pull in to the the "car park". I step out in to sludgy mud, definitely at an agility show!
I was in Coventry at a Bitz and Bobz winter show. Some of my friends from one of the clubs I go too suggested I come along as it was a nice little show. I have no idea where I am going or where anything is. So I leave the car to investigate and "survey the land" as I call it. I was greeted by the friendly car park attendants who already looked frozen and in need of a cup of tea, they did a great job getting everyone in. I ignored the trade stand as I wandered by as I knew I would spend far too much money if I stopped! Aha! a door! Both rings were just about ready to to be walked and I was running a dog in each as I had entered holly in the "grade 0" classes. If anyone has a baby/new dog I would highly recommend these. Darkley has taken Holly up through the grades now and I want to build her confidence up before putting her in with the other grade 3 dogs. Grade 0 classes have no weaves, you can run at whatever height you want and can use a toy. This did wonders for Holly.
So I walked Darkley's agility course, it was an interesting one. Lots of wing wraps, a good few traps and lots of timing needed in places. It was a graded 1-7 course so I am never quite sure what difficulty level them type of classes will be, it was very nicely done. After running a very bouncy holly around her jumping course (faults for zoomies! but no elimination, yay!) I collected an excited darkley!
As many of you know when I first started agility my poor mum was the one who would drive me to training, sit in the car at shows and was our "biggest fan". If it wasnt for her I doubt we would have even done a show. After losing her, shows felt strange. Lonely. I was used to running back to the car with Darkley in tow and telling her about my run..the good, the bad and the ugly. If we got a rosette I was run back and we would celebrate. The week before I lost her she watched me at a David munnings training day..she was sat in the car with her cup of tea and biscuits laughing at me and darkley standing in the rain looking unimpressed! I find shows hard, especially the time between the runs which would have been spent chatting with mum. For some reason I was really really missing her today.
I could feel nerves creeping up on me in the queue! I really struggle with them at times so I focused on Darkley and warmed him up. I could hear the rain battering the roof and wind slamming the doors. Mum would have liked this show. She could have easily found a spot to sit and watch the rings, there is a lovely little food and drinks kitchen and most importantly...proper warm toilets! haha! Darkley starts his routine of barking away like mad when its nearly his go as I mentally rehearse the course one last time. The sun suddenly comes pouring in to the building as its our go, a quick hello nod to my mum and we get ready to run. Apart from being a tad wide on a few turns, due to my late commands we did a lovely run. Darkley responded so well to me and we were really running as a team. No idea why I was nervous, that was so much fun!
His next run was the Jumping. A lovely flowing course with some interesting jump to tunnel angles that needed some careful timing. Also gave me a chance to work on darkleys drive. It was so much fun and Darkley was paw perfect bless him..again late timing on one command.which I think helped us in the long run as alot of dogs were struggling with striding with the tunnel to jump at that part..darkley slowed to see what I wanted which helped with judging the jump. Darkley's face when the crowd cheered him though!! He bounced out the ring along the crowd to say hello to everyone with me scrambling about behind him trying to grab him!
I finally found time to help on a ring at this point and then get some naughty cheesy chips and pee! haha!
Darkley's second agility run was on another flowing course. I planned to hold back at one point and push myself to do a rear cross (both dogs can do them, its me that cant!) Darkley waited nicely at the start but was off like a firework, I got him to slow enough to get his dogwalk contact but he did a quick self release and was gone! He must have got faulted on the Aframe as he was over that like a shot and was off! I reclaimed our contacts on the seesaw where I made him wait a good while before releasing him!! we also managed that rear cross to the finish...he was like a child hyped up on smarties as he bounced out the ring back to the car. I blame the new treats I accidentally bought at the trade stand...I tried so hard not to spend money!
Next for D-dog was steeplechase. A proper twirly swirly one that would test our "out" commands and pulling off jumps. Again Darkley was a star and flew round, I however took a sharp breath in half way round and the cold air ripped through my chest. ouch!! Luckily Darkley drove on with out me needing to be near as I was trying to recover from that. thankfully his moment of madness from the agility run was gone haha!
Overall Darkley won his agility, jumping and steeplechase. The agility being a KC run which put us up a grade! amazing! I didn't think we were fast enough. The steeplechase had some super fast dogs in it too, Darkley only won by a 100th of a second! I can't even explain how proud I am. Holly also went clear in two of her runs with only getting a refusal in her other two...big steps for the baby dog.
As I said goodbye to my friends I trudged back through the mud in the darkness to find my car (i bought a torch today!) And spent the hour driving back home in the roadworks reflecting on the day, on mum and on my wonderful mutleys. I pulled in to the drive at 7pm and dragged myself indoors. It took me hours to warm up but it was worth it. The driving, the cold, the mud, the waiting, the money...all worth it as darkley and holly bounced about the kitchen excitedly and full of life. We had so much fun. Darkley becomes extra snuggly after a show and as I collapsed in to bed he flopped down next to me with he head on me. Holly snuggles down with us and I feel ever so lucky.
