Success in Bloem!

Thursday the 7th saw us taking on the long 1000km journey to Bloemfontein. The car was packed and the excitement high as the doggies knew, something was up! Our trip started off with some road trouble, when we rode over something, not even 100km from home and had to change one of the brand new tyres! It was 5:30am in the morning, and luckily an angel truck driver stopped to help us. Soon back on the road again, but without a proper spare, as the tyre was too damaged to fix, we continued to Bloem. Nowhere could we find a replacement tyre in the size we needed, so with fingers crossed that nothing else would go wrong, we continued driving. Luckily we made it to Bloem safe and sound, and immediately had the tyre replaced once we arrived.

Now the weekend filled with Agility fun could begin.

Friday saw mixed results, as Emma ran clear in Non-Contact, but missed a contact in both her contact rounds. She managed 3 second places in those first 3 rounds to current SA champ Benji. The fourth brought elation when she ran a clear Non-Contact round to win her second CC! Our fast competition, Benji and Levi, both made mistakes and the honours went to my girl! Levi worked very well, but mommy's bad handling saw us DQ in both our contact and non-contact rounds, not a very good start to the weekend for my boy, but watch this space!

BC sister Chinzi qualified in both her first two runs, Contact 1 and Non-Contact 1, beating her litter sister Ich, but not on speed! Some work to be done there girl. :)

She knocked a bar in her next Contact round and had an unfortunate DQ in the next Non-Contact round.

Saturday arrived with all of us very tired, but still enjoying all the action. We started the day off by going to the Boeremark for the Dog Jumping Interprovincial Competition. Unfortunately being only 2 handlers from our Province, we didn't have a full Mini team, and although Ansie with Tiger and me with Emma both had 2 clear rounds, our team did not feature in the results. Our stand-in teammate, Spy with Sam from PE, did very well for such a young team.

Chinzi DQ'd in her first round, but her second round was a stunning fast clear one, where she actually outran her dad, SA and World Champ, Chi, by 0.2 seconds! Mom was ecstatic, to say the least! We're on our way to big things! The Beagles obviously cheered for their BC sister! :)

Back at the Agility venue, our champ shows continued, Levi and Chinzi both qualified in Contact, Chinzi to move up to Grade 2. Emma ran clear in the Dog Jumping, but we had a slow round in the jump-off. Chinzi competed against 30 of the top dogs in the country to run her first round clear and qualify for the jump-off. No pressure when her aunt Ostara, who will also be representing SA at the FCI World Champs in Finland this year, ran a magnificant blitzing fast clear round and her dad Chi waiting in the wings for his turn. With a wicked weave-entry, Chinzi stunned me by going clear! Her dad running straight after her, beat her time by just over half a second, but she still managed to get a 3rd placing, and probably attaining the best result of her short jumping career so far. This was the sweetest result and one to be remembered and celebrated for a long time to come.

Sunday morning... two runs left each... starting off with Non-Contact 3... no pressure...
Emma ran first... clear... but with the course time set very high, probably not without time faults... Benji made a mistake and DQ'd on a tunnel... Levi to go, no pressure...
LEVI ran CLEAR to win his second CC! What a nice surprise my boy! It was a twisty, turny, really hard course and Levi took a few wide turns, barking at mom shouting at him to turn back, but eventually we managed it and oh was it sweet! :)

To top it all off, he later also ran clear in Contact grade 2, to obtain his last qualification and finally move up to grade 3. I was so proud of my boy, who had such a horrible start with 4 DQs on Friday, to end on such a high note.

Emma lost out on the overall trophy by one point to Benji. Still a good effort for my girl, well done Em! Unfortunately not much video was taken, and I was so busy that I didn't take much photos either, but will upload as soon as I get a few from other people.

One of Levi's rounds:

After prize giving, we attended another SADAA Club Trial, and with all doggies really tired, they actually did very well. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and with only about 20 dogs on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Levi worked like a dream, only JUST missing his dogwalk contact, but going clear in Jumping. Emma ran clear in Agility 3, didn't run her in Jumping as her card is already full, she couldn't really achieve anything it being a Club Trial. Chinzi also missed one contact, but qualified in Jumping 1. Nice way to end a looong and tiring weekend. Well done to my jumping kids! Woof-woof for all the Q's and CC's! :)