Short show report!

There has not been much for me to post about shows, this is partly because I have entered much fewer shows this year (I can't afford to go to as many as I would like, and my work load has increased enormously leaving me with very little time or energy), plus the monsoon style season we have had in GB this year has resulted in the cancellation of quite a number of the shows that I did enter (or I have decided not to run in them, especially if the mud/ lakes were in combination with wooden rather than rubber contacts.). It is also because I had planned the season around taking Deece to novice qualifiers, and as he won out in April (bigger ooops than I realised at the time!), that kinda left us a bit adrift (or is that up a stream without a paddle)! I ought to write about my judging experiences when I have time though, I have learnt a lot from that.
I have very much enjoyed the shows that we have gone to, as I made them into holidays, the dogs and I love our walks in the hills, as the previous blog pictures show! Zazzy and Deece have both been pretty good in the competitions that we have been to, to my amazement Deece got his four wins within a few days of going into grade 6 to get to grade 7, and he also won his first grade 7 class. Although Zazzy is not as fast as him over the ground, she has had a few wins at grade 7 too. I am pleased that Zazzy's running A-frame is getting better all the time. I am starting to think I might be able to get her to run her dog walk using the same principles and training methods, but that project should probably wait until the winter. She seems to be enjoying her training more and more, although she is still much flatter training in a group, and still feels much, much slower at shows. She will still occasionally go very flat and start missing out equipment/not doing all the weaves/not doing her contacts very well if she is not feeling on full form. I still have plenty of work to do with Deece's contacts as we have a bit of a problem with him hesitating at the moment. Never-the-less, I am really pleased with his championship debut, he got to the final at the Agility Club show and clocked a time very close to the winning one, despite coming to a complete stop on the A-frame. He has also coped extremely well with some very testing courses, for example some put up at the KC International Agility Festival, where he qualified for the British Open final. He is a brilliant boy, and more important the loviest dog to have around and my best pal. We are nearly at the end of the show season, so I am already starting to look forward to winter training .... lots of ideas and hopes!