The show at the end of the runway
2 Comments Published by Gussie on Friday, May 23, 2008 at 5/23/2008 11:11:00 PM.
The Scottish Kennel Club May show runs for several days, only one of which includes agility. But what a treat having a show in Edinburgh! A mere 20 minute drive! That meant we only had to get up at our usual weekday time and fitted in our usual morning walk and then (luxury) had bacon rolls for breakfast. (Jake says - can't all the shows be in Edinburgh?)
We filed into the Royal Highland Showground (no pressure) at 0800 with many, many other dogs. For us, it was weird and wonderful to be rolling up at the same time as the gundog and utility breeds. We saw Clumber spaniels, Munsterlanders, English pointers, poodles parcelled in protective plastic and chow chows wearing bibs. The conformation classes were held in a range of upmarket marquees - and there we found aisles of posh catering and doggy shopping. Not the usual burger van and one or two stalls selling training gear and treats! No, here we had paw plungers, extreme crating options, doggy pushchairs, our old friends Dorwest Herbs, professional grooming equipment and organic food supplies - and for the humans, steak baguettes. "Are you here for the agility?" asked one vendor. When I (only slightly sarcastically) asked how he knew, he said "Well, you're dressed more like agility people." Humph.
The SKC won't allow any dogs to be left in cars so that meant a hike to the agility area with chairs, bags of provisions, crates and anything else we could carry. There were a couple of tents where people could leave their dogs in crates, but we preferred to keep Jake with us. He spent a lot of time snoozing ringside. Our trainer had two of her dogs with her, and one ripped his way out of his fabric crate in the marquee while she was running her other dog. Whoops ...
The other weird thing was that the showground is on the perimeter of Edinburgh airport, so when facing in one direction, you'd look up from Champ Agility and see a Boeing 737 trundling past on its way to Malaga.
Anyway! Jake was very chilled on this occasion. We entered three classes, and as usual, it was the last class where we did best - Rod reckons it's a conspiracy to delay leaving the show.
Graded Jumping 1-2 - we arrived, I walked the course, we ran it - blimey! On reflection, I don't think I like being drawn to run 9th in our first class of the day. Jake popped out of the weave - and watching the video I see it's because I took my attention off him for a second to take in the next obstacle. I can trust him with that when we're practising, but it's a different story in the ring! Apart from that it was a nice run.
Graded Agility 1-4 - I loved this course. It was a pleasure to run - flowing, with enough little catches to keep us on our toes. We did lots right. We got faults because I should have taken a couple of my turns more tightly (so Jake found himself in the wrong place, or ambiguously signalled) and then we completely lost it in the final stretch. But I learn so much from these not-so-great runs - what we need to work on, and ways to (try to) recover when the best laid plans fail. If only we could have run it again, we'd have nailed it. :-)
Combined Agility 1-2 - we went clear - even though Jake nearly started sniffing the ground halfway through the weave! He was tired, and hot - it was 1400 and he hadn't had his usual mid-morning nap. Still, a clear run! If it had been a graded class we would have placed, but that's life. It's all points for Jake's record book - we're progressing slowly towards grade 2, and maybe one day Jake's bronze agility warrant. S l o w l y.
We filed into the Royal Highland Showground (no pressure) at 0800 with many, many other dogs. For us, it was weird and wonderful to be rolling up at the same time as the gundog and utility breeds. We saw Clumber spaniels, Munsterlanders, English pointers, poodles parcelled in protective plastic and chow chows wearing bibs. The conformation classes were held in a range of upmarket marquees - and there we found aisles of posh catering and doggy shopping. Not the usual burger van and one or two stalls selling training gear and treats! No, here we had paw plungers, extreme crating options, doggy pushchairs, our old friends Dorwest Herbs, professional grooming equipment and organic food supplies - and for the humans, steak baguettes. "Are you here for the agility?" asked one vendor. When I (only slightly sarcastically) asked how he knew, he said "Well, you're dressed more like agility people." Humph.
The SKC won't allow any dogs to be left in cars so that meant a hike to the agility area with chairs, bags of provisions, crates and anything else we could carry. There were a couple of tents where people could leave their dogs in crates, but we preferred to keep Jake with us. He spent a lot of time snoozing ringside. Our trainer had two of her dogs with her, and one ripped his way out of his fabric crate in the marquee while she was running her other dog. Whoops ...
The other weird thing was that the showground is on the perimeter of Edinburgh airport, so when facing in one direction, you'd look up from Champ Agility and see a Boeing 737 trundling past on its way to Malaga.
Anyway! Jake was very chilled on this occasion. We entered three classes, and as usual, it was the last class where we did best - Rod reckons it's a conspiracy to delay leaving the show.
Graded Jumping 1-2 - we arrived, I walked the course, we ran it - blimey! On reflection, I don't think I like being drawn to run 9th in our first class of the day. Jake popped out of the weave - and watching the video I see it's because I took my attention off him for a second to take in the next obstacle. I can trust him with that when we're practising, but it's a different story in the ring! Apart from that it was a nice run.
Graded Agility 1-4 - I loved this course. It was a pleasure to run - flowing, with enough little catches to keep us on our toes. We did lots right. We got faults because I should have taken a couple of my turns more tightly (so Jake found himself in the wrong place, or ambiguously signalled) and then we completely lost it in the final stretch. But I learn so much from these not-so-great runs - what we need to work on, and ways to (try to) recover when the best laid plans fail. If only we could have run it again, we'd have nailed it. :-)
Combined Agility 1-2 - we went clear - even though Jake nearly started sniffing the ground halfway through the weave! He was tired, and hot - it was 1400 and he hadn't had his usual mid-morning nap. Still, a clear run! If it had been a graded class we would have placed, but that's life. It's all points for Jake's record book - we're progressing slowly towards grade 2, and maybe one day Jake's bronze agility warrant. S l o w l y.
Labels: Agility, Agility shows
i think is quite a norm that the last run would be the best..
100% of the time, my first run are full of bloopers... i think i'm too nervous and overshoot every obstacles..
I think last run = best is an unwritten agility law. :-)
I wish we had practice areas at our shows so we could warm up on equipment and get some of the blundering out of the way ... but the show organisers would probably choose to have another ring and finish earlier.