My Beagles...

Emma and Levi......are 5 months apart. Emma was born 3 November 2004 and I soon realised she needed a playmate. I was very lucky to find Levi within a few months of getting Emma, as I waited nearly two years for Emma!Levi was born 28 March 2005 and was the naughtiest puppy alive! Him and Emma immediately hit it off and became the best of Beagle Buddies.I desperately needed to find an outlet for my Beagle kids' energy, and ventured into the world of agility. It soon became one of my biggest passions, apart from the Beagle breed, and today Emma and Levi are both competing in the top grades. I made a friend in Slovenia, running her Beagle Xsara in agility, and she inspired me to start teaching them tricks. I'm enjoying it very much and hopefully this blog will be as entertaining and inspiring to others, as Xsara's is to me.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Playing catch-up… PART 2

KA & Liesbeek Championship shows, Top-Grades only, took place on 28 Feb and 1 March in Constantia. Levi having achieved his dual-championship in November last year, I decided to focus on Emma who needs the QCs. At KA, she unfortunately knocked a pole in the Contact round, still coming first, but unfortunately just missing out on that so needed QC! Levi ran brilliantly to win the Non-Contact QC, his 4th in this discipline, also being the fastest dog on the day. Chinzi did some flyball and enjoyed herself thoroughly, screaming at everyone from sheer excitement!

Liesbeek saw little Emma run a stunning Contact round, winning once again, BUT with very steep course times set, she had 3 time faults, having her miss out on the QC once more. :-( Levi again the fastest on the day, had a dreaded refusal due to a horrible handling error from his mom, having him come 2nd in the Non-Contact this time, but still no QC as the 1st dog going clear also had time faults.

Next up was the 3rd AWC qualifier… and the nerves were shot! Contact up first… Emma missed one! Running faster than normally, that’s probably why. Levi, my all-or-nothing boy again DQ’d and shock horror, Chinzi too! She got stuck in the chute tunnel and when she came out was so rattled that she popped out the rigid tunnel a few obstacles later too and me not at all expecting that ran to layer a straight and she came over the long jump before I could send her back into the tunnel, OOPS! Non-Contact went MUCH better, with all clears from my crowd, only Emma incurring a few time faults.

Chinzi definitely seemed to be back on track with a much better jumping style than end of January and taking less poles, prospects were looking good! We had a fun demo in Dog Jumping on the Sunday, and Chinzi won the Top Grade round there as well. Photo of her with her Cup! Mom’s proud girl!




I have NO idea what got into Emma, but she ran like lighting that day, 4 fast rounds without once slowing down & also starting them fast! Very unlike my girl, but boy was I proud! Just SO wish she would perform like that always & mostly when it counts, as the potential is there! But the feminine mood swings just seems to be our biggest obstacle to overcome. Any ideas???

We had our Yearly Dog Jumping Prize Giving that Friday, and Emma won the Mini Top Grade League for the year, see her with her Cup:



14th February arrived, Valetine’s day, but most importantly, the FINAL AWC qualifier…

In Non-Contact Emma ran the course clear, but had a few time faults, mom messed up Levi’s weave entry to have us end with 5 faults and well Chinzi… mom made a horrible error, as she was AT HER BEST, but we unfortunately have a DQ recorded.

My boy proved to be like a red wine, getting better with time… he ran a STUNNING Contact round, to win his closest competitor normally by 3 seconds! He also won this round in Medium Nationally, being a second faster than the next competitor. SO SO SO proud of my boy! For the first time Emma also ran clear WITHOUT any time faults. Chinzi was also brilliant on a rather easy flowing course with one or 2 tricky parts, but if that bar just didn’t fall!

Final Results came out and for SA Champs (less steep course times and open to ALL dogs, without pedigree)… Levi is 4th, Emma 5th in Medium of 25 dogs and Chinzi 17th in Large from 100 dogs. For AWC (breed registered dogs only) Emma is lying 1st in Medium and Chinzi 10th in Large.

So we will be driving up to Pietermaritzburg (1600km away) for the FINALS end of May. Now it’s train train train, until then.

A LOAD off my shoulders when those qualifying rounds were over… whew, a little bit of relaxing, finally… after 9 weekends of competion in a row, getting up at 5am in the mornings, I finally could sleep in for a change, and it was so enjoyable!

So after a weekend’s rest, we had the GSD Open Show on the 22nd of March and perhaps we were a little too relaxed, as this was one of our ‘not-so-good’ shows. Chinzi had a horrible Contact round, missing Contacts and knocking poles to tally her faults at 25! She still won the round, shocking! Emma ran well in Contact, but jumped to the side of the dogwalk, getting a missed contact… of which I’m not completely convinced, but nevertheless would not have made any difference to her 2nd place. Levi decided to play 1 year old Beagle and ran around like a lunatic on the course not listening to one command from me whatsoever. I ended up carrying him off after his 3rd off-course, deciding he provided enough entertainment for the crowds for one day. LOL!

Non-Contact went much better with Chinzi just losing out on a Q by knocing the 2nd last pole! :-( Mom not wanting to push her already 5m/s speed, stopped running too soon and she knocked as she slightly turned her head back to look where I was. So my fault! Levi redeemed himself with a stunning Non-Contact round, 2seconds faster than his biggest rival. :-) Little Emma had had enough of the hot day in the sun and in her leisurely jog, knocked a pole.

We then had a Championship Show boy did we have good results.

Chinzi won her first QC (Qualifying Certificate) in Dog Jumping, after running a 19.22 seconds with her team in Flyball to come 1st there as well. Levi beat another big rival by 1 second to win his 5th Non-Contact QC. Chinzi had a magnificant day also qualifying in Non-Contact with a beautiful 5m/s round.


Time for another break...

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Photos in slideshow courtesy of Gary Killian.

Levi pulling out front in Drag Hunt

Photos in slideshow courtesy of Nico Nel.