Thames, Axstane and the bit in between!!

Thames

We left Jersey on the Thursday before Thames on the overnight ferry. We arrived in Portsmouth at 6am and as it was nice and early, stopped and gave the dogs a nice long walk in Manor Farm Country Park. We were still quite a bit ahead of schedule so decided that we would stop at Gunwharf Quays to pick up a few things that we needed. Thinking we weren't going to be long, we left the dogs in an outside car park. Turned out that it was taking quite a bit longer than we thought, so I decided to head back to the car as I wanted to check it wasn’t too hot for the dogs. Whilst we waited for Paul to return I thought it would be a good idea to switch the air con on to make sure they really were chilled. Big mistake!! I didn’t even notice that the sat nav was plugged in, and of course the radio was on. This meant that by the time Paul got back to the car and tried to start the engine - it had a flat battery!! Oh god did I feel like a total idiot. We don't have AA membership (that situation will now be reviewed!) and so our only option was to go to the nearest Halfords and buy a new battery. Needless to say I was not a popular woman!! Minor crisis averted, we were finally on our way.

I really enjoy Thames every year, for the atmosphere alone if nothing else. Saturday was hot! No placings for Smudge, but some really fabulous courses and aspects of every run that I was really very pleased with. Our main problem, and the reason for most of our runs not being clear was the dog walk contact, which seems to be a Smudge repellant area at the moment! We are still battling with this after the issues previously blogged about. And now he has developed a habit of bunny hopping off the end! Still, a dog walk contact is fixable, and the rest of each of our runs was lovely so I was generally quite happy. Maisie had two runs today and got an 11th in her G3-5 Jumping. There is life in the old dog yet! She thoroughly enjoyed herself and seemed to be on fine form - long may it continue!

Saturday night is always great at Thames, and the band they have is just fab! We danced and danced, with some crazy agility people! Who would have thought we had it in us? :)

On to Sunday and a better day. In his Olympia qualifier Smudge suddenly produced a perfect A Frame contact. Clearly the correct behaviour is hidden in there somewhere. Now I just need to make sure it stays at the forefront of his (and my) brain! But isn't it just typical, we had a pole! I dropped my arm too quickly after a turn and off it popped. Isn’t it always the way? We made up for it with a lovely clear in his G3-5 jumping and came 1st. Aren’t the trophies stunning?

I only did one run with Maisie as it was just so hot, and she had a nice clear. Then we were called for a run off for the last place in G1-3 Jumping. By that time the temp had dropped significantly and it was only jumping, so I decided to do it as she was looking keen. Typically I got eliminated! Haha! So the placing went to the other dog, and I was actually really pleased. The lady was over the moon as it was her dogs first ever numbered rosette and she was thrilled. It was lovely to see how happy she was. I don’t run Maisie for the placings anymore, just the sheer fun of running her and for her enjoyment. That rosette mattered a lot to the other lady and Maisie had got an extra run in the cooler part of the day, so everyone was happy!

I haven't mentioned Scooby much in this posting. He and Paul had some nice runs, with only one pole or a missed contact, but also some total disaster runs too!! He is just so hit and miss that I really feel for Paul sometimes. I would get very frustrated running a dog like Scooby who just doesn't care, but Pauls whole attitude is that as long as Scooby is having fun he is happy. Hmmm wish I could be like that. I like my dogs to have fun, and that comes first, but I am not ashamed to admit that I do have a competitive side as well (don't we all?)

The 'bit in between'

We spent the week in between at a lovely campsite in West Sussex. Our time was spent walking, shopping, relaxing in the sun, more shopping (I never shop in Jersey, so take the opportunity when I can :)), some agility training and visiting friends who live nearby.

These photos were taken at Cissbury Rings.

Wednesday evening Andy and Nancy were at Bernadettes to help set up a European style course, in preparation for Bernadette and Zens trip to the European Open and their own trip to Denmark. The video of Smudge running the course is below. Generally I was pleased with this, and it was a good opportunity to make sure I didn't relax my criteria on those contacts in the midst of running a full course (hence the faffing around the A Frame you see in the video). I have left the tunnel/A Frame blooper in at the end too, it was tricky!

Paul didn’t escape lightly as he also had to run Scooby around the same course. I did wonder if Bernadette really wanted to unleash the beast that is Scooby in her back garden, but funnily enough he ran like a bit of a girl!! Not the Scooby that comes out in the ring anyway! It was still not particularly pretty, and we were taking bets on how many poles he would take down each time he ran. We didn't anticipate him taking out the upright long jump poles though and had a bit of a discussion about whether they counted or not :)

Smudge relaxing in the caravan after some hard work.

Axstane

First thing to note about Axstane was that we had downsized our accomodation and this was our humble abode for the weekend, a marquee sized tent!

I'll be honest and say that I was dreading it, but tenting turned out to be far better than I had imagined. We decided to 'road test' the tent as I will be using it on my own at a few shows this year, so made sense for its first outing to be with assistance. I was offered the loan of a few tents by various kind people, but we decided that we would buy our own. Partly because it was on special offer and also we decided that we were going to need one at quite a few shows as time contraints mean collecting the caravan would just be ridiculous. We might even use it in Jersey a few times! So all in all we felt it best to have our own.

Agility wise Axstane was much better. Two wins for Smudge and a win into Grade 4. Yay! My goal for this trip had been achieved. Now I can head off to Wellingborough knowing that I don’t need to push for a win in the agility - instead perfection will be my goal! I just find the competion head takes over and all my good intentions go out of the window. So having the pressure off in that I know he has already won out is great as it will hopefully allow me to chill. Maisie was a total star at this show and came third in the G3 Jumping. She never fails to surprise me with her sheer determination. Just when you think she is winding down, she comes back with a bang and shocks me again with what she can do.

Back to Smudge and his contacts, I know exactly what my problem is. When he was a puppy they were good. Then during last season when he first started competing in the ring, I was very bad and started to release them too early. This has made the whole thing such a gray area for him that it just gets worse and worse. After talking to Bernadette we had a plan. And on the whole at Axstane I did stick to it. If he even slightly 'bounced' over that contact, or didn’t have the perfect position I picked him up and we left the ring. One judge was quite surprised and said 'but he got it!' - yes I knew he had got it, but he hadn't performed the criteria he has been taught exactly as I wanted him to. And I have confused the little guy so much that I owe it to him to try and be consistent so he can figure out what on earth I want!! And I do believe it will work, if I am disciplined enough. And that is the part that is the problem! Its all very well knowing what the issue is, and how to fix it, but its having the self discipline to see the process through no matter what that does not come naturally to me. As we only do a few KC shows each year, every run feels important if you see what I mean. I'm hoping that doing more, as we are this year, will help. It’s a big thinking point and I am going to stick with it for now, but if I can't do it then I may have to go to plan B………more to come on that if I go down that route!

The End

So on to the final installment of this epic post! After a minor episode of 'tent rage' on Pauls behalf (it goes up easier than it comes down :)) we set off for our 5.10 ferry from Poole. Or so we thought. Turns out the time on the confirmation was wrong and the ferry had actually gone at 2pm! Oh just great! 'Tent rage' paled in comparison to 'ferry rage'!! Haha! After speaking to the ferry company they changed us to the next available sailing, which didn't happen to be until 6am the following morning. At this point Paul was having kittens as he had to be back for work on the Monday morning urgently. So we decided that we would try to fly him from Southampton and I would wait for the ferry. Good plan, if you have the photo ID required by the airline, which we didn’t. What followed can only be described as a military style operation involving my brothers wonderful girlfriend Ashley going to our house to collect Paul's passport and then locating a fax machine to be able to fax it to the airport. Phew! Thanks Ashley!! Eventually Paul jetted off into the sunset leaving little old me and the dogs to wait for the ferry. I am very grateful to Sara and Steve who were absolutely wonderful and came to my rescue by offering me a bed for the night, some company and the most delicious home cooked roast. Thank you so much to both of them, they just do not understand how much it was appreciated!! A bed and a meal was just what I needed, even if I did have to leave at a ridiculously early hour to get back to the ferry! In the end I left at around 2.40, after having three hours sleep (yes three as I just couldn't get to sleep as I knew I had to be up at a silly time). I made it to Weymouth at 4.30 and was so relieved to finally be on the boat!! I walked in the door at home at 10.00am, then had to go to work for six hours. Believe me, you did not want to see the state of me! It was not a pretty sight!

So a very tiring ending, to what was otherwise a great trip! Looking forward to the next one already :)