Thames Champ Show

I was glad that I decided not to Camp at Thames this weekend but missed the good dry weather on Saturday. We woke up early Sunday and it was dry and warm, so I packed the car and load the dogs ... off we go. We were 10 miles away from the showground, it started to shower. I thought it will stop but sadly, it has been non-stop raining the whole day! Just imagine me standing in the rain watching and running the dogs ...

I was lucky that most of my classes were in the morning. I only have half an hour to walk 4 courses including the Champ Jumping. They weren't the easy courses but I knew which one I want to concentrate on. It is so handy to have Colin around, after a few weekends of no Colin, I really missed him. He is so good in taking the dogs to toilet/exercise for me; then bring the dogs to the ring for me so that I can watch and not being stress running back and forth the car and the rings.

 

I decided to run Sizzle in the KC Olympia first as his running order was quite early, so that Sipzie can watch, that will surely whine her up. Colin didn't managed to video this run because the video camera went all blurry again :( I don't think we did terribly well in this run as we got there and there were no dogs on the line and I have to rush in to run my dog. I have to learn in future that I SHOULD NOT rush to run, that didn't help me and my dog. Sizzle was a good boy. I was worried how he copes in the rain but it didn't seems to bother him but I do worry me slipping in the wet and him slipping off the contacts. He ran clear and ended up 8th place out of 242 dogs, so that is good for me. I knew where we lost all the time, the See-Saw. It is still our weakest piece of equipment at the moment. We had a bad angle to turn into the pipe tunnel, instead of crossing behind the See-Saw, I chose to front cross and send him in the tunnel; he stop short on the See-Saw and it took ages for it to tip, otherwise it was a good round.

Soon after I ran Sizzle, I ran Sipzie in her Graded 3-5 Agility. She was all whine up by watching me running Sizzle. She was too excited and cannot content herself anymore. I thought it was good that she is so excited and wanted to do agility. Unfortunately, the winding up is a bit too much for her. She tried to break her startline wait a few times and after that, she just went bonkers, she barked all the way and missed most jumps and cannot weave! I have to stop her and made her lie down til she stops barking before we can continue. After that, she did a beautiful round!!! Duh!

After Sipzie's Graded 3-5 Agility, I had to run over to the other ring with Sizzle to do his Grade 6-7 Agility. He was one good little boy, I was so pleased with him. It was a handling course and I only have one wish, I want to be able to run clear with him as we haven't have a clear round for so long and Colin was joking that I should start collecting a clear round rosette for him! My little man ended up on 2nd place, I am so proud of him!

Thank goodness the video camera behaves this time, sorry about Sipzie whining on the background. Colin was worried that she will distract Sizzle, so he tried to shut her up but no worries, none of my boys care about what happened outside the ring when they are working with me:

Soon after this run, it was the Champ Jumping. The start sequence is quite challenging. I was having two minds whether to go the long way or the shortest way. I find some of the obstacles are very close together. To be honest, I don't know what Sizzle will give me, so I have to work harder. I determined to go clear. When I walked in, I decided I will turn left on the wall, the short way but my worried is he will back jump #3 if I didn't catch his attention. Anyway, all went well and he even picked up the weave entry after the pipe tunnel. The distance from the exit was so short that some dogs missed the weave entry. There is another trap after the weave. There is a U shape pipe tunnel but you have to take the wrong end of the tunnel. I have seen handlers that front cross after the weave or handlers cross behind the weave; and some dogs got eliminated because they ran into the exit end of the tunnel ... when I walked the course, I wanted to pull Sizzle and flip him into the tunnel but there is also the jump on the right that worries me, if I pulled too much, he will probably take the jump instead of the tunnel but I am so glad he was very responsive and we both trust each other. He did exactly what I asked him for and he did well too. We ran clear but not in a fast time.

Sizzle's Champ Jumping:

After Sizzle's Champ Jumping, There is Sipzie's Combined 3-5 Jumping. This time, I will tried the normal way, not letting her watch me running Sizzle. She was much better and focus on me. She didn't break her startline wait and we ran well. One thing I didn't realised was that she popped out on the last weave until I watch the video but I am very happy with the run. I thought she ran rather well apart from the last weave pole.

Sipzie's Combined 3-5 Jumping:

Soon after I ran Sipzie, I have to rush over to Champ Agility with Sizzle. Again, this is a handling course but not great for running contacts. There is a long jump in front of the Dog Walk but the dog should take the jump slightly to the left. The gap between the long jump and the jump is also very small. I've watched those super running contact dogs ran before me and they all got caught after the DW, they either took the long jump or jump the wrong way of the jump they should take. I was getting very nervous about it and yet there is nothing I can do. I can only tried harder. If I can beat Sizzle to the end of the DW, I probably can do something but with the start sequence like that, what can I do? I have to say, I did try to run very fast to beat Sizzle to the end of the DW, eventhough I didn't quite get there but he was such a wonderful boy yesterday, he listened and responded so well and I guess my timing was spot on as well. He didn't even look at the long jump and turned so tight on the jump into the weave. I was very happy we pull through this bit but I know another trap coming up. I cannot leave him on the See-Saw to get into the position to do a front cross, so I was left behind and my handling started to go wrong and he nearly took the A Frame instead of the jump because I turned my shoulder too early, we got a refusal but managed to get him back on track again. The three staggering jumps that bother me got me this time. Ideally I wanted to be able to turn Sizzle to the left but I was too late doing all my front crosses and I put myself in a bad position, so I turn him right which will be a big risk of him back the last jump and he did and I saw a few dogs did the same! Sadly, we got eliminated again! The dream of going through to Final once again demolished!

here is Sizzle's Champ Agility, once again sorry about Sipzie whining at the background:

BTW, we got home by 3pm. We were all soaked to the skin and shivering at home! The leakage still not sorted and the heating and hot water not working! JOY!