Agility competition tomorrow

**MadPip** · 5th March 2011, 09:15 PM

I think (not too sure) it's in an indoor equestrian centre, as is usual for this time of year.

So, these are my predictions - Maddie will do a clear round (if I can get my postioning right for a good weave entry

), but may not be fast enough to be placed.
Pippin will do the first two or three jumps / obstacles beautifully, then get his nose down and go on the search for horse poo.

after which he'll come back to me and let us continue the course.

I'll let you know how we get on. It's not a KC show, but is a BAA show. This means the jumps are only 9" for my two "micro" dogs, as opposed to 13.75" at KC for "small" dogs. It wont make too much difference to Pippin because he could jump heigher that 13.75" easily I think, but I think Maddie will find it a lot easier.

**renate** · 5th March 2011, 10:56 PM

good luck, and have fun!

please let us know, how you were doing

**Desrae** · 5th March 2011, 10:58 PM

Good Luck! We'll keep our paws crossed for you!

**Sabby** · 6th March 2011, 03:36 PM

How did you get on? Hope you had fun.

**ByFloSin** · 6th March 2011, 03:47 PM

Was it as you expected?

?

**MadPip** · 6th March 2011, 09:04 PM

Originally Posted by ByFloSin

Was it as you expected?

?

Pretty much in some ways.

Dealing with my little star Maddie first

she got 4 clear rounds, didn't put a paw wrong. And, in the agility class this morning she was placed 15th out of 87 dogs. That may not sound too special, but that was all sizes of dogs, they didn't place the heights separately.

Pippin did some good work this morning on the agility and jumping rounds, unfortunately we were eliminated on both when he went off on a giant sniff and then jumped a jump the wrong way.

However, at lunchtime I was in the food queue with one of the judges, and we were talking about dogs, spaniels and their sniffing in particular. He said I needed to "be on his case" at every obstacle - not in any harsh way, but just to keep his focus on me. Always willing to learn I tried that on the two classes this afternoon, and we got two clear rounds.

Now, I'm not the fittest person

so you can imagine my dismay after Pippin's first clear round of the day this afternoon on an agility course when they told me the timing had failed, so they said I could run him again. Ok so far? Not when you consider he was the last dog to run so I had to take him straight back in and run him again. Luckily we still went clear, though not as fast to my mind. Then on the last jumping course Maddie was the last to run, when they told me the timing had failed to stop, so again I had to run her again. That worked in our favour though, because she remembered the course and ran it beautifully. She's such a clever girl.

I've just about got my breath back.

We saw lots of lovely Cavaliers there, all colours and all fit and healthy. Some in veteran classes and some younger than Pippin (he's 4). They all ran beautifully, tails wagging, so friendly to all people and other dogs. Had a few chats about MVD and SM, and I was so impressed that all the owners I spoke to knew about them, and had bought from health conscious breeders.

All in all a good day.