I booked all of Dashin’ initially, but seeing as we have Drax flyball the weekend after I figured 6days of agility followed by a weekend away flyballing might be a bit much for Jet – and a bit harsh on my poor Dad left at home. So we just did Friday to Tuesday, with Monday being the day off. Anyway, I was very excited about Jet’s second show at Grade2!

Friday

Graded 1-3 jumping, a nice course, however a tight turn onto a tunnel. In true Jet (and me) style we had a wide turn as I didn’t get my cross in early enough.There was a long diagonal, and after watching quite a few dogs miss one of the jumps in it, I handled it a bit more than usual. It meant that we had a safe clear but I think I should have had more faith in her and let her blast it. Anyway, she came 2nd . I think around 0.9s or something behind the winner.

Combined 1-2 jumping was a lovely course which I really liked. There was a 90degree weave entry that I pull off too sharply for and she went in second pole – she did get it next attempt though and flew around the rest of it really nicely.

Saturday

Combined 1-2 jumping she flew around, maybe a slight hesitation when I changed my mind and didn’t cross but she came a fantastic 2nd, beaten by 0.03s. Argh!

Grade 2 agility was nice, there was a push over a push right and then you needed them to go immediately left. She did it in a fashion but with a bit of a spin and a loop. To my amazement she still placed 4th, and although quite a way off the winner (who was an incredibly fast dog! ), she was very close to second place.

Graded 1-3 agility. A nice course, not really a Jet course but she did a lovely run – shame she got shamefully beaten by her handler as we collided not once but twice, poor girl. Note to self: my dog has a HUGE jump. Anyway, she came 2nd, 0.9s off the winner and she’d have placed 6th in the G3 too I believe.

Combined 1-4 helter skelter. I heard this call to close just as I was going to do G2 agility, and there was nobody on the line. I had kind of forgotten where the course was. Anyway we made a HUGE mess of it, allbeit she was listening to me telling her the wrong obstacles. Bless her.

Sunday

Grade 2 jumping I pulled off way too soon to do a front cross and I pulled her into the wrong end of the tunnel – I could have kicked myself really as I watched dogs in front of me do the same and didn’t think it through.

Graded 1-3 jumping. She flew around, but I bravely tried to front cross before the weaves, turned my shoulders to look back at her which sent her off at an angle and she completely missed the weaves. A nice run otherwise though!

Combined 1-2 agility. The same judge who gave us the wishing well at JDA lol! Her aframe was on the slow side, but her dogwalk was nice, she did the difficult bits nicely but we had a spin at the end when she was meant to go left. To my amazement she ended up 3rd with that!

Monday

A day off classes, so we went to the Delamere Forest for a good few hours on a walk – the dogs loved it. Jet found a HUGE muddy puddle to lie in, resulting in me spending an hour at the caravan brushing and cleaning her before she could go back in. Normally I would get her out straight away but she couldn’t get any muddier so left her to it, and got the photographic evidence…

Tuesday

In some ways this was the day she worked best, even if we didn’t get the same results as previous days.

Grade 2 agility. She was fantastic, flew around it, dead pleased with all of it. I think her time was 27.95s, but then she got the dreade POLE. I think I shouted left too soon to her. Very gutted as the winner did it in 36.43s, so she’d have had it by a mile. She did place 6th though, even with her faults!

Graded 1-3 agility. A nice course apart from one part, which was the killer. A curved tunnel with the entrances right next to each other, one sunk about 3ft further out and pointing straight at the jump the dog had just come over. You had to make them do the sunken back entrance. Anyway, after a discussion with Orienne, she gave me an idea of what to do – I was stumped and had nothing to lose. After watching E after E after E on the course, it was Jet’s go. She did the tunnel bit really nicely, the best out of any of them I saw. As she flew towards the end I thought OMG we could have this. She flew out of the flat tunnel and straight into the next tunnel. She didn’t even see the weaves – arghhhh. I was really mad at myself for not slowing her down, and for having worried so much about the rest of the course that I neglected the end of the course.

Combined 1-2 jumping was a nice course, very fast running and nearly everyone going clear. Jet put in a nice round – I could have really pushed her more but I just wanted to end the day on a high rather than the disappointment of the previous round. She came 6th in the end – 0.3s off 2nd. The dog that won was a gorgeous Belgian Shepherd that was like lightning with a little girl – they were over a second ahead of everyone else, so they really deserved the win.

Although there were a few disappointments this weekend, I was really pleased with Jet, in fact REALLY pleased. She was getting lots of clears, we were working together really well and when we went wrong it was only little things. In fact I think she only had 3Es all “week”. She is also very close to her bronze agility warrant too. Yey Roll on High Peak. Yey!

A few WELL DONEs:

Itty and Robbie for winning Grade 1 Agility at last (hopefully she might reinstate her blog now she “has something to write about”!)
Leanne and Kim for their numerous 3rd places and some sparks of the Kim we know!
Orienne and Woody for winning Small Grade 6 Jumping – halfway to Grade 7 now
Shaun and Ribena for their Grade 3 Jumping win – go the lurchers!

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