Is Saturn's weekend

We had a crazy agility weekend. We had to wake up extra early on both Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday is the Downlands show, the venue is about 1hr 30min from home, judging starts at 8am and we have the first class, so we were up at 5am to get the dogs out for toilet and their morning routine. Samber came into season on Friday, this mean, extra work to separate her from the boys! We left home just before 6am and got to Golden Cross around 7:30, so that give me some time to walk the course and Colin can take the boys for a walk.

Our first class is the Small Olympia Stake. There is a wall in the course (after the DW). My fear was Sizzle might not jump over the wall as he has never seen one before. Sizzle can be a sensitive dog but who knows, so I knew I have to work hard on that. I quite like the course, it was flowy but I found it a bit too crowded after the A Frame. I knew from the beginning I have always stay from a distance while training Sizzle, so he doesn't really like me running close to him and especially on top of him while he is weaving. The finishing is Weave, jump, jump, but the jumps are too close to the weave. I can't be sure how I am going to handle him. Also to have him weaving on my left then flick him into the jumps or cross behind and let him weave on my right?

Anyway, we ran quite early eventhough our running order was much later but there is no dogs in the queue. Sizzle started off well and he jump over the wall no problem. I somehow decided to cross behind the weave as the jump after the blue tunnel is kinda off angle. My worried is if he comes out fast and he will miss the jump but if he is not that fast, then he will take the jump, so I go behind the jump before the blue tunnel to catch him and send. Apparently he had a little tumble in the blue tunnel so he came out slower than I expect but it was too late for me to change my handling, so off we go by me crossing behind the weave. I do not know why he pop out the weave though? I wonder is it me trying to catch him up that he saw me and pop out or something else, I really don't know. He usually ok with me crossing behind him. 

Then, we have the jumping. He wasn't power on but went clear and got 6th. Later in the Helter Skelter, it was a real disaster. He jumps and stop, jumps and stop. I am sure is my handling. It was a big course. I knew I was lazy and hoping he will go ahead but he didn't, he hang back for me, so we got eliminated!

That's the three classes we were entered, so he finished all his runs before 11:00. Then, they set up a course for Pay On The Day. I don't normally do POD class but they set the course exactly the same as the Olympia, so I determined to get it right this time and wanted to see what kind of time he would finish. He ran very well and I decided this time I will pick him up from the jump after the blue tunnel and send him into the weave. He went clear in a very good time, 27.127!

I only entered Saturn in the Jumping and Helter Skelter. He got a 3rd in the Jumping which made me very happy, I managed the pull through, a bit messy but I did it! Also the wrong end of the tunnel caught many dogs an elimination. Then, in the Helter Skelter, I forgot the course! Arrrggghhh ...

this is our Downlands run:

On Sunday, we went to UKA Waverunners. The clock put forward one hour at midnight, this mean we lost an hour in bed! Colin and I were so confused about the new time, we weren't sure if our mobile phones will jump forward automatically or not, so we both stupidly set the alarm to ring an hour earlier, so we were up at 4am! You can see how tired we are!

Waverunners is also 1hr 30min from home, judging starts at 8:30 but I have 2 classes to walk before the judging start, so we got there about 7:45 with me non stop yawning! Not a good sign! I sometimes found UKA show a little bit stressful for me as you have to walk the course at the same time with all heights. It is ok if my classes spread out but if I have to walk 3 or 4 classes together and didn't get to run til much later, I normally just forgot the course especially when I ran one class and waiting to run the others. That really confused me.

Sizzle started off the morning badly. It was my handling. When I walked the Agility course, I was supposed to start him on my right. I was worried about the split jump. It looks a big gap to me and I haven't got much room to set him up further back, so I decided not to lead out too far ahead but just before I went in, Colin passed me my mobile to answer a call and after I finished the call off quickly, I was lost. I started him on my left instead of my right and my body was facing the wrong end of the tunnel so clever Sizzle follow my body and went into the wrong end of the tunnel. Arrrrggghhhh ... who wants a bl**dy mobile phone? Other than that, I think he works beautifully. I decided to put in a lot of switches to see if that works as my plan to run him is exactly how I ran with Saturn later.

Since, our Agility went wrong, our Jumping also went wrong. He missed the weave entry. I wanted to do crossing behind the weave but I don't know why I ran all the way up into the tunnel with him? I guess my brain isn't working at all.

Saturn for a change ran very well, he got placings for all 5 classes he entered. No faults, No eliminations! WooHoo! This is the first time I did a Snooker class. I don't play snooker so I really have no clue what to do in the Snooker class. Luckily I've got my Snooker Guru M to walk the course for me. Thanks M! I know Saturn's contacts are not perfect. He did very well at training for the last 2 weeks, really fast and go into the position but I was very disappointed he didn't perform that at the show. I paid  the practice ring to train his contacts and he was perfect. Go all the way down in speed and stop in position. I praised him like crazy. We did that for 90 seconds. I thought we were ready but I was wrong. He hesitate in the Agility. I have noticed I have my stupid finger pointing the position again when he comes down slow. I must cut off this bad habit!

I didn't realised our Agility and Jumping round are adding up together to enter the Tuff e Nuff performance, Saturn got 1st in the Jumping and 2nd in the Agility and he became an Overall Winner for the Tuff e Nuff. This mean he qualified for the Final in July. Oh dear! We must sort his contacts out before then!

I thought Saturn to "smile" and he looks really funny smiling with his winning from the weekend

he always like to do his "target" position when posing for photos!

a very tired Saturn after this weekend

this is our runs from Sunday:

Sizzle and all his birthday pressies

and this lots from aunty Yvonne, sis Ellie and Khandi