I competed one day and judged the next. My dogs were brilliant, but I felt a bit rusty, and some sloppy late cues got both dogs eliminated in the Olympia qualifier which was a shame as I loved the course set up by Leslie Osborne. Deece was excited to be competing but unfortunately had one or two poles down in every run. Zazzy was around two seconds slower than Deece around each course, but was clear! She came 10th in her jumping and 3rd in her agility.
On Sunday I judged jumping classes, grade 7 large, grade 6 large, grade 6 and 7 medium, and a helter-skelter of jumps and tunnels for large grades 1 and 2. When judging I really will everyone on to do well. It was thought provoking when someone said perhaps I should just put up a circle of jumps then, so everyone can do well. To me agility is a test of control and speed, and I love to see a harmonious partnership attack a course with a good display of both. A circle is a test of who has the fastest dog, but the joy I got from watching the good runs around the courses I put up showed what fantastic trainers and handlers there are around right now. Brilliant displays of control and speed were exactly what I saw in a large number of runs around my courses at the weekend. I saw lots of different ways to handle the courses too, which was great. There really was some spine-tingling brilliance. I hate to single out one run, but Toni Dawkins guided Cute round the grade 6 course to win with about three seconds to spare, which is a massive margin, especially when it is more common for the top ten rounds to all be within the same second of each other in competitions here in south east England. I was very pleased for her as it was Cute’s final win to take him up to grade 7.
Here is the G7 jumping course:
This is the G6 large and G6/7 medium jumping course:
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