Playing catch-up... PART 3

Hopefully this is the last of the catch-up posts so I can start updating regularly from now onwards again. :)

We had 2 Non-Champ shows on the weekend of 18,19 April, with some mixed results. Both shows definitely marked the start of our winter show season, with the Sunday show definitely a WET one! We got drenched!

Saturday Chinzi had two 5-fault rounds, but ran good times. On Sunday she qualified in Contact, now only needing one more to move up to Top Grade! In Non-Contact we had a very tight and short distance to weave-entry so we missed it, something to train in the weeks to come! :)

The Beagles were average, each with a DQ on Saturday, Levi a clear round winning Non-Contact and Emma coming 2nd in Contact with a knocked bar. On Sunday they both ran good times in Contact, but with faults, Levi winning at 5m/s and Emma 2nd at 4.4m/s, very fast for her! In Non-Contact we had the same weave entry as Chinzi in Grade 2 and Emma took it BEAUTIFULLY, also managing a win at 4m/s, great for her! Levi missed the entry twice and came 3rd.

The weekend thereafter we went on a road-trip to Graaff-Reinet for the SADAA Regional Trials. It was so much fun with friend Rozanne and her Yorkie Rolo being our travelling partners. We arrived on the Thursday already and went for a fantastic walk in the mountains the Friday, photos to be posted later! The weather was cool & drizzly most of the time, but we and the dogs enjoyed it immensely.

Competition started on Saturday and although my boy Levi didn't win any medals he had the best performance overall he's ever had at an RT, remember, having to compete with 49cm BCs over 55cm jumps! He came 5th overall in his Midi group totalling 14 dogs of which about 11 were BCs. He ran the fastest time in Agility once (unfortunately missing a contact) and the 2nd fastest in Agility once (also missing a contact), so not getting placed, but to beat BCs, one of which is Chinzi's gradmother who was in SA team to win AWC a few years ago, that takes some doing! I was SO SO SO proud of my boy! He only had one unfortunate DQ because of being spooked by thunder & flags just before he had to run and he just couldn't listen to mommy and try to be safe at the same time. :( Still his best overall performance ever and one to be proud of.

Emma won mini overall, grateful for that, as we've come 2nd and 3rd many times before, but never managed to win it. She also won a Gold and a Silver in Jumping during the weekend. Along with two Jack-Russels, she was also in the mini team who came 1st.

Chinzi also had an awesome weekend with one Q each in Agility and Jumping 2, and mostly 5-faulter rounds for the rest, dropping a bar here and there. Along with her Boland Flyers Teammates, she won the Flyball to bring home another Gold medal. The team's best time for the weekend was 19.5sec, not their best ever, but still not a bad time.

Between Emma & Chinzi, they brought home 125kg of Montego Classic, our sponsors for the weekend. Thankfully I took a trailer!!! LOL! :)

Playing catch-up… PART 1

I guess it’s time to play catch-up! I have not been away, just extremely busy!

So since I’ve last written, so much has happened. Let’s start where I left off in Jan. after our Stilbaai trip…

The SA Champs and AWC Qualifying Rounds kicked off on 24 January, and only having done one full course the week before with my BC Chinzi after her tendon injury, I was extremely nervous!

To my delight, she performed extremely well for a young dog who had only been competing for 2 months and then were off for 4 months. Apart from knocking a few poles, 2 in the Contact round and one in Non-Contact, she ran beautifully, getting all her Contacts and making the high set course times of 4m/s for Contact and 4.5m/s for Non-Contact fairly easily with seconds to spare.

The Beagles, well, they were themselves… Levi DQ’ing in the Contact round, but having a brilliant fast clear round in Non-Contact. Emma had 2 clear rounds, but both with some time-faults.

The courses were fair, nothing too challenging though. The second round on the 31st of January was an absolute nightmare and actually great examples of extremely poor course design. There were horrible angles and handlers had to run around the dogwalk ramps and all sorts which made for very uncomfortable handling. Chinzi once again surprised me, and although she missed her dogwalk and A-frame contact due to very tight turns thereafter with traps staring her in the face straight ahead, and one knocked pole, she excelled in the Non-Contact round to win this one Nationally! :)

With the ‘running around the dogwalk downramp’… for the first time in a very long time, I managed to DQ Emma as the flip out the tunnel didn’t work so well & she went back into it. :( At least Levi responded beatifully and although he very weirdly knocked a pole, something he NEVER does, he otherwise had a good Contact round but sadly due to a bad handling error on my part, DQ’d on a serpentine in the Non-Contact round. :(

The first two rounds were over, and we had a month break before the next two, to catch our breath, train and prepare some more & then finally have our last 2 chances on qualifying.

On the 6th of Feb, I took to the road again, fetching my dear little Kooikerhondje puppy from Mosselby, yup, I got her! :) It was a rather scary experience, as the day arrived there, she didn’t want to have anything to do with me and I doubted whether I picked the right pup some weeks before, as her littermates now were the ones interested in playing with me! Well, Saturday morning, she suddenly changed around and came running up to me, from then onwards we have been inseperable! She’s a stunning little dog with loads of drive & speed, so we can only hope this will transfer to the agility ring at a later stage. For now we are doing tricks, chasing Beagles, playing tug and having all sorts of puppy fun!

So I missed a show on the 7th, coming back with my pup, but most certainly worth it! On the 8th we had an Open Show where I could relax a little and work on what had been bugging. Highlights of this day was Chinzi qualifying in Non-Contact with a beautiful 5m/s clear round and Levi winning Top Grade Non-Contact also running over 5m/s.

The week thereafter we had our club’s Open Show and sadly Chinzi had the most stunning Contact round, knocking the very last bar to just lose out on a qualification! :( She did however manage another qualification in Non-Contact, this time running at 5.7m/s! WOW girl!

Emma had two clear rounds, unfortunately only getting her a 2nd and a 4th placing, Levi DQ’ing in Contact but again having a wonderful 4.8m/s victory in Non-Contact. My boy is getting better and better and faster and faster, YAY!

Chinzi & Levi were the two fastest dogs on the day, so mom was delighted!

Neverending weekends of agility continued into 21/22 Feb when we had our SADAA Regional Trials. Levi stunned me this weekend by winning two medals in Agility, one Silver and one Bronze. Remember, in SADAA we jump different heights, IFCS categories, so my poor 42.8cm boy has to compete with 49cm Border Collies! This to me was an incredible achievement on his part!!! Not only does he very seldom go clear in Agility (Contact) rounds, he also beat quite a few of his much taller BC counterparts on time! All this jumping over 55cm jumps instead of the FCI 45cm jumps he’s more used to. My boy amazed me! Emma was her little consistent self, never featuring in the medals, but still performing well enough to come 2nd overall in the Mini category!

Chinzi did not have such a good weekend… only qualifying in Agility once with a brilliant round, having a few knocked bars in the other rounds, just keeping us out the qualifications.

Before I continue with the Champ Shows and last AWC qualifiers, let me take a break first…

Some Photos

KUSA weekend on 15, 16 November in Malmesbury...

Emma with all her rosettes

Boland Show (black & yellow) - 3rd in Contact, 2nd in Non-Contact

HHKC (blue & white) - 2nd in Contact, 2nd in DJ

BRVKC (black & pink) - 2nd in DJ, 3rd in Contact & Non-Contact

The other rosettes are 2nd places for two of the Dog Jumping National rounds and the last one a 2nd place for Overall National Dog Jumping Placing over the weekend.

She also came Second Overall in Agility (Contact & Non-Contact combined) for the 3 shows, but recieved no rosette/prize for that.

See why I call her my little miss "consistent" :)

Levi with his 3 first place rosettes, all QC's towards Championship status, which saw him become a Contact and Non-Contact champion on the same weekend!

With my boy, it's all or nothing! :) The blue rosette was his last QC needed in Contact to make him a Champion and the two pink ones he won in the same show, both disciplines, becoming a Non-Contact Champion as well.

SADAA weekend, Boland Regional Trials on 22 & 23 November in Malmesbury

My boy managed one3rd place with a bronze medal, but I am very proud of him having very fast BC's as competition over 55cm jump heights. He also ran a very fast Jumping round which saw him only a second off the best BC's times. Unfortunately he knocked a bar there, which made him move down to 10th place. Along with his team mates Dylan (Linda) and Ivan (Hannes), we won the midi/maxi team event, therefore the 1st place rosette! :)

Emma was consistant once again, running some very good times in extremely hot conditions. She managed 5 placings from 6 rounds, coming 4th with a clear round the last Jumping round of the weekend.

Her placings included her first ever Gold medal, a Silver and a Bronze, with another two 3rd placings without medals. Along with her mini team mates who both won the National Event in their size categories, she won the mini Team Event. They were Tiger (Ansie) and Garro (Marlize).

Emma with her medals and overall rosette.

Success in PE!

We had a very eventful weekend, starting off with the looong road trip on Friday, after which we were very tired. Saturday saw us competing in cloudy conditions with some wind in the afternoon. Sunday was near perfect weather.

Emma competed in the highest Grade for Jumping and Agility, Grade 3 and Levi in Agility 2 and Jumping 3. Emma started off slow-ish, but picked up speed nicely towards the end of the weekend giving her fastest performance in her last Contact run on Sunday afternoon. Levi once again had a problem with the higher SADAA tyre, running underneath it every time, but doing it the second time at least, every run.

Levi had one very good Contact run on Saturday, getting all his contacts and with wonderfull speed, but unfortunately he knocked the very first jump, so just lost out on a qualification. He managed two 3rd placings.

Emma was a SUPERSTAR with 7 out of 8 clear rounds over the entire weekend, to end tied top Mini Dog on points, but then over-all speed was looked at, she just lost out and came 2nd. Still a wonderfull achievement for my little girl! The doggie who won had 6 clear rounds, but because they drop the scores of your two worst rounds, and him being a little faster than Emma, he walked away with the tropy, still very well deserved.

I am VERY pleased to report that Levi won his first ever medal (medals only awarded in Grade 3), bronze in Jumping, missed his QC towards Champion by half a second. Still a wonderfull achievement competing against Border Collies and Aussies in the Top Grade 3 Midi category.

Emma was consistent with her precision clear rounds, unfortunately many times just losing out on a podium placing, getting fourth because of her speed. She received 2 medals, one silver and one bronze.

Here we are catching a snooze in the car on the long trip back home.

Thanks to Nadine Shortland for the action photos and Wessel for the video of Levi's round.