Blogger sever is playing up, so have managed to upload some photos, but the rest will follow later today!!
Well Crufts 2008 is over. For us it was a trip filled with great highs :-) , but also quite a few lows :-( Settle down for a long post!!!
Our trip started off really well, with a great trip over to the UK and a nice drive up there. Feeling positive! When we arrived at our hotel we had quite a shock - it was awful!! and I mean REALLY awful!! It was so dirty that we actually had to go out and buy our own bed linen! Still, it was cheap (which is needed when you have had to travel over on the ferry!). After the initial shock we decided that we just had to make the best of it, so we cleaned our room up a bit and once we had unloaded the car it felt much better, after all it was only somewhere to get our heads down. Luckily we were right next door to a much nicer establishment, so we could have breakfast in there! Thank god!
Thursday was our day to compete. The whole thing was an amazing and extremely exciting experience. When I looked at the course I was actually quite pleased as it was a course that really needed some handling and this suits Maisie best. She isn't the quickest dog, but she is certainly accurate if I handle her right, so I was feeling positive. BUT.........I was so nervous! Unfortunately I think I let this get to me and our run was pretty awful to be honest. We placed in third, but I was so disappointed that we had come all that way and I had not shown Maisie to be her best. She really is capable of being a fantastic little dog and I am afraid that I let her and myself down badly. What an idiot!! I am still so proud that she got their in the first place though. It was a priviledge to be there. It did make me even more determined to train Smudge differently though. Maisie is extremely handler reliant the whole way round a course. If I move on contacts too soon, she misses them etc. And this was the problem with this run, the handler went to pieces!! I am now even more determined for Smudge not to be as handler reliant. I want him to be able to complete the equipment confidently, safely and most importantly independant of me!!! Then I can concentrate on being in the right places at the right times, and not worrying about moving off too soon on contacts!!!
Maisie also had a bit of a 'panic' on the dog walk. This has been going on for a while now, and I keep hoping it is just a faze. The vet does not think she is relapsing with her condition, but he did say she could be feeling dizzy occasionally as a result. If that is the case then I may pull her from agility classes altogether and carry on in jumping alone. She loves it so much that I would hate to stop her, but I don't feel that making her go over the dog walk when it so clearly makes her nervous is fair. Maybe I will re evaluate next season, and its not a definite decision yet, but it is something for me to think about unfortunatley. We will see over the next few weeks if it improves :-(
Now I am not sure if it is a good thing or not, but the video of our run won't upload to the computer! Maybe it is trying to tell me something! I do know that someone else videoed it for me though, so it will be on here asap! Even though it is awful!
The rest of the time was spent shopping, eating with friends, shopping and more shopping.......oh yes and doing agility displays on the Kennel Club Dog Activities stand. This was much better than our competitive run - typical!!! We also had the pleasure of watching lots of agility, but particularly the ESSC team who came 2nd and of course Lisa and Chi winning the singles. Lisas run was just fantastic to watch, and to be honest I found the whole thing quite emotional! At one point they actually had a round of applause for their weaves. Wow! I am so pleased for them, they deserve it so much. First Crufts....now the world!!!!!! Hahaha!
We also really enjoyed the pastoral day, and met Smudges breeder. She very kindly introduced us to some of the dogs in Smudges pedigree. We also got to see the stud dog that was used for our next puppy.........yes you heard it right we are getting another sheltie! Shhhhhhh - don't tell anybody! This boy is going to be Pauls (he has caught sheltie-itis from me!). He hadn't quite decided, so wanted to talk to the breeder at Crufts, but after seeing the stud dog and chatting to her he was certain!
The ending of our trip was fairly stressful. Due to this awful storm, our boat which should have come back today at 7am was cancelled. Luckily they did let us know on Saturday, so we were able to be prepared. I had to be back in time for work tomorrow, so we decided that I could not wait it out and booked a flight for me. Luckily I was able to get out yestersay afternoon and was home just before the storm hit. Unfortunately Paul and the people we were travelling with are not so lucky. He has been transferred on to the 11 hour ferry, which was meant to leave at 9am this morning but has been delayed until tonight. So he is currently in Portsmouth with Maisie waiting to get home. I do not envy them being on that boat tonight. I am just praying that Maisie is ok on it and that they get home safely.
I have to mention our travelling companions Terina, Angela and another Maisie (this one is a Sheltie!!) They were an absolute pleasure to be away with, and we had many laughs along the way. Thanks for making the trip really enjoyable. Who could ever forget room 310!?!?! They are currently still with Paul, crossing their fingers that they get back safely tomorrow morning. Also thanks to Sue and Phil for putting up with us gate crashing their hotel (it was much nicer than ours!) and for helping us to sort out the travel arrangements back home!
Maisie just seconds before she rolled in something disgusting! Terriers - don't ya just love em!!
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