Sunday, July 04, 2010

we have joy, we have fun, we have season in the sun ...

I decided not to go camping at Wellingborough on Friday, Colin has to work late and my running orders were kinda upside down. I have all my classes first thing in the morning (I finished all my runs by 10:15am!) on Saturday, then on Sunday, all my classes are in the afternoon. Doesn't sound like a good plan to run two days, so I voted for a day off and enjoy some quality fun time with the dogs and Colin.

We had to wake up very early on Saturday morning, we left home at 5:30am and got to the showground at 7:40am. Just enough time for me to walk three courses. First, I walk the Small Agility Challenge, it look pretty straight forward but there were a couple of traps that I have to watch out for; then I walked my Medium Tunnel Vision for Saturn. There were six tunnels (5 pipe tunnels and 1 cloth tunnel), it was a nice run for a tunnel crazy dog; then I walked the Small/Mixi pairs. Well, the pairs course is definitely not a fast course, all the jumps were so tight together, I find it difficult to run Saturn, he has a long stride, so to jump clear, I have to control him all the time. 

All my running orders were very early, basically I was hopping one ring to another, this is why I finished by 10:15am!! I like it that way though, no hanging about.

I ran Sizzle & Smo pairs first, both boys ran well, this pair were on the lead for a long time, they ended up in 3rd place! Saturn & Brax pairs also ran well, they were just behind Sizzle & Smo pairs, we ended up 4th place! After the pairs, I ran over to the Small Agility Challenge ring. The course is spread out, so there is a lot of running to do and get into the right position with the dog. Luckily Sizzle is quite good in working ahead of me. His see-saw is getting better each time, eventhough I like him to run all the way to the end to tip the see-saw, he didn't do it this time but he knew he has to wait for the tip before releasing himself, such a good boy. The only thing that worried me is he hesitate on the up plank on the DW. This is the first time he has done that, he has never done that before at training or competition. People who stood outside the ring watching told me, 9 out of 10 dogs does that, why?

Then, I ran over to the Tunnel Vision to run Saturn. He wasn't running well to start with, he was flat, so I thought I will do a run start with him and blimey, I still be able to catch up with him, so he is definitely is slow! He also not running well in the C4-7 Jumping. I guess he was busy chasing foxes in the garden on Friday night. We were sleeping in the lounge for the last week, we have the french window/patio window open wide to get the breeze in, so all the shelties were on guard. They dash into the garden every half an hour! I now learn that is a bad idea to sleep in the lounge with the window open the night before our competition! We now move back to our bedroom! 

We didn't get home till late last evening. Eventhough we finished early but we sat there watching the Knockout for a little while.

Today, we took the dogs out for a good long walk and relax in the garden, what a wonderful life!


our runs at Wellingborough:

 
Sizzle & Smo pairs

a very tired Sizzle after his run yesterday


some photos taken today:
nothing makes Sing very happy than throwing him his tennis ball
 ... and the swim of course!

 here is Sizzle and his fetching action!

 he loves his swim too

 Seagull just wanted to look pretty

 Saturn is busy rabbit hunting
Sizzle and Sing joined in for an investigation






4 comments:

Sara said...

Great runs you had! You are all so fast, and it was fun to see the different handling styles.

Looks like a wonderful outing in the park.

Chris and Ricky said...

Good job in all your runs! I just can't get over how much different your courses are compared to ours!

Fun photos from the park - love the
Sizzle's fetching action shots! Glad you decided to take the day off and enjoy the dogs and Colin!

Diana said...

Very nice runs. Congrats! We must all be thinking the same thing because I was thinking too how different your courses are from ours. And how do people from the USA go to international courses. It would be difficult I would think.
Love the picture of Sizzle sleeping in the car. Diana

Vonnie said...

Well done! Great pairs in action! Love the action pics of the "fetching" Seagull is just such a poser LOL! Phew Saturn didn't get stuck in the hole!