Christmas Show and Party

Our Christmas Show signals the end of the year and a time to be merry and high!

It was a quiet start with the jumping ring inside whizzing through Intermediate and Advanced classes. Onto the Beginners and we were pleased to see a lot of first timers. Lesley with Buster from Bex's agility class was one of these newbies and they only went and got placed in every class! Bex was really excited.

The Obedience Hall was transformed into a Fun Games Arena - Temptation Alley, Fastest Retrieve, Fastest Recall and sausages galore were enjoyed by over 50 dogs and owners alike.

Sue's spaniel Rosie had us all amazed as she ate (more like inhaled) a bonio in 4 seconds to be crowned the winner of Fastest Bonio. Even the labradors' couldn't keep up with that!

Diane's collie, Jess, won Fastest Recall in an amazing 1.99 seconds and Amy's Jess won Fastest Retrieve at 5.26 seconds. Arthur, Tess and Bella all tied at the Tennis Ball Catching with a huge 17 each.

There was punch, food and stalls for dogs and humans alike and we hear Judge Sally was on the mulled wine in the afternoon! Good job that wall was there to keep her propped up!  ;)

The traditional Fancy Dress competition was well-attended with angels, elves and a burnt Christmas Pudding! Diane and Jess returned to fight to retain their Championship and won it for a second year running!

Although consolation places were given to Woody and the Elf-Dogs for also having fantastic costumes.

The agility stayed very relaxed throughout the day with everyone in good spirit. Jenny's Poppet decided to aim for the "wrong" end of the tunnel each time during her run and I found myself running over a jump by accident, leaving Guinness wondering if we had switched job roles!

The day finished nice and early and we presented Lydia with her Christmas present, a canvas picture of her dogs (taken by Cat's Dog Photography) which she was very impressed with. 

Merry Christmas everyone and all the best for 2014!

Buddy's Beginning At Dig It Agility Shows

A note to anyone that hasn't yet competed but are thinking of doing so:

A year ago Buddy and I went to the Dig It Halloween show. It was our first competition and some of it was outdoors, whereas all of our training had been indoors.

In his first agility run he did a nice wait, he jumped the first fence, rounded the second fence and legged it towards the trees where he had picked up a scent when he was near there 2 hours earlier. I managed to coax him back to do a few more jumps and onto the dog walk where he stopped and stuck his nose in the air to see if he could find that scent again.

On his second run on the same course he jumped fences 1 & 2 then stopped and looked at me before making another run for the trees.

On the indoor course that day I backed up and briefly fell onto the tunnel, giving some amusement for the other waiting competitors. We eventually got around that course on our second attempt, with a stop for a lot of barking at me from Buddy, and we got a 4th place.

My thoughts on the day were that I would have a hard job getting this little black nutty, sniffy dog consistently around any course and I would have my work really cut out at any outdoor competition.

We entered the Dig It Winter series as a beginner which has courses with no weaves and no seesaw . It was initially a struggle but we managed get around a few courses, got some clear rounds and by the end of the winter series we even got a first place.

The relaxed atmosphere at the Dig It shows and the help from both fellow tailwaggers and other competitors helped me a lot. I'd gained enough confidence by the end of the winter series that with a little encouragement from Louise and Dave I entered a few outdoor KC shows.

In our first few shows we had quite a few mishaps (to list just three misdemeanours: Buddy went off sniffing sheep poo; I knocked a pole off with my hand spoiling what would've been our first clear jumping win; Buddy ran out of the ring to check on barky dogs or random people).

Then it seemed to click for both us, I got to feel that I had a better idea of what I was doing and Buddy became more focussed in the ring. We won 3 jumping in one weekend and went to grade 2. The little bugger has hardly stopped winning since.

Today, one year on after our Dig It debut, he's won his 2nd jumping at Grade 4 and we've both had a hell of a lot of fun getting there. I'd like to think that I'd have enjoyed just as much had he not won anything as I can see how much he really enjoys doing it.

If you've not competed yet and are thinking of doing so then the Dig It winter series is a good place to start. There will be failures to begin with and there may be times when you look like a fool but the rest of the competitors have already been in that position and you will get nothing but support. If you find that you've had half the fun that I've had then you'll have still had a lot of fun.

- Rob Archbold. Agility Competitior. Tailwaggers Member.