first champ show of the year

We woke up 4am on Saturday early morning to drive to Monmouthshie to compete at our first Champ show of the year at Wye Valley. This is my first time competing at Wye Valley; although the weather was a bit too cold, brrr ... a very long drive, didn't get home until 10pm. I really enjoyed the show. 

I've entered Sizzle in the Champ and the Grade 6/7 Agility; Sipzie in all her 3 classes. I managed to run Sipzie in the Jumping class but it was a disaster ending. She was starting very well but pop out at 10th pole. I've make sure I shut my mouth (instead of telling her to weaveeeeeee ...), but I don't know why she pop out? I've also make sure I don't look at the next obstacle but she just can't weave. After the 3rd attempt, she gave up and start sniffing air :((( I've picked her up and walked off. She recently got the habit of sniffing the air if she got asked to redo the weave a couple of times in the competition. Look like we have a new thing to fix now :)

Sizzle ran the Grade 6/7 Agility first. It was a real challenging course. I wasn't confidence about getting clear running the course but I thought that would be a good warm up for me before our Champ run. I drafted this course map for my own record, not according to the judge's scale.

To be honest, not many handlers and dog get around this course. I was having two mind how to do the #2 and  #3. If I want to play safe, I will pivot left, taking the longer way up to the A Frame but that give my dog a bad line so I decided to take the risk of turning his the way facing the A Frame, like a fake pull through. Knowing how bad my pull through is, I wasn't sure if Sizzle will respond to me calling "in in in ..."? That was such a tiny gap as well and Sizzle was a good little boy. He turn so tight and didn't even look at the other jump. Then, I was in a bad position after the A Frame, I should have trust him more to take the tunnel but I baby him and I was left behind and can't get to a better position to do the layering for #6 to #7. I was in the box and rushed too much before he go into the weave. That fraction cost us a 5 faults on the weave. He took the entry and I move and he missed 2nd pole! Arrrggghhh ... that's me! Of course, after I went wrong on the weave, things got bad :(  from #12 to #13, Sizzle took #12 and wanted to do the weave again :( Such a bad handling :(((

the video camera didn't work first thing in the morning, luckily a friend Bev video us and kindly sent it to me:

Soon, we were running in the Champ Jumping. Again, this is an interesting course. It didn't look complicated or tough but that course put a lot of people out of Final. You really need a good wait dog to recall from #1 to #2 to give yourself a good position but I saw many dogs that have no wait still do it ok, although hairy but clear is what you need. Sizzle ran well and got his weave entry which I was really happy about after my failure in Grade 6/7 Agility course earlier.

Now that I ran clear in Champ Jumping, I want another clear in Champ Agility to give myself a chance to get into the Final. What can I say? It wasn't a beautiful clean run, a bit hairy but we were clear and we made it to the Final. 

Having have 2 clear rounds, we ran at 10th position. I didn't like the start, it is a flat start and I knew Sizzle will be slow and have no speed up the DW. We always struggled with a flat start like that and thank God I got to talk to Steve who owns Fly (Sing x Sunny's puppy) before I ran. He gave me a good tip and it works! Sizzle was starting well and that gave me the confidence and I really want to do my best to get the ticket. I know there are a few very good fast strong dogs after Sizzle and all I can do is to push the limit. Again, I was moving a fraction too early that Sizzle missed the weave entry! He went into the 2nd pole! Oh well! I was very disappointed of myself! I know Sizzle is a brilliant little dog, he tried so hard for me everytime and I know I have the BEST dog!

We didn't ran clear in the Final, so this is my own draft, not according to Judge's scale:

And who is this pretty little sheltie I met at Wye Valley? More about her in my next post ...