Northern Week & Letchworth Agility Show

Northern Week 29-31 Aug

This show is definitely different to many that I have ever attended and you must be awake and prepared to walk a course that you may have thought was second or even third in the ring and is now first thing in the morning. Other than that the tanoy was pretty good, even with the announcers becoming confused with what class was actually in the rings themselves and most of all it was a very relaxed, friendly show.

Rusty was now back to running like we all know she does, brilliantly and she walked away with 2x 1st, 1x 2nd, 1x 3rd and not only that she had a great run in her Champ final and took the Reserve CC, only beaten by Sarah Stokoe who took the CC after a brilliant final run.

Ziggie seems to have gone backwards since her brilliant runs and listening at Dogs In Need and we managed on our last run of the last day we were there to have a really good run and took home a 3rd place, Yay!

Letchworth Show 4-6 Sept

We decided after the alarm went off at 4am that we would go later in the day of Friday which obviously meant not doing any of the runs on that day. We had a lazy morning and eventually left with caravan in tow to pick up little Ziggie and headed for the show. we arrived late in the afternoon after getting stuck in traffic on the m25 and the m11.

The weekend was really successful for various people and obviously that includes our own star, Rusty and Dave who got 2x 1st and a 5th. Ziggie the not so listening Collie got a 17th in the Power & Speed which was an impressive run as she was exactly 1.1sec behind Rusty's time!


A BIG congratulations must go to individuals that did fabulously over the last week and they are;
Toni & Beep, winning into Grade 4
Nancy & Naughty Niamh winning into Grade 7
Lisa & Meme winning into Grade 4
Grace & Kiah winning into Grade 5
and everyone else that got places/won into a new grade!

Dogs In Need Show

Well what can I say...

It has to be one of the best Dogs In Need Shows in a long while, with such amazing weather (and a smidge of rain) and great results for both Rusty and Ziggie.

We arrived at our campsite which is only a few minuites down the road from the actual show. After the caravan was set up we headed out for lunch at a local pup, the "Hungry Horse" which was very yummy!

The whole week was rather successful for both Ziggie and Rusty. Between them we walked away with many top 10 places over the week ranging from 1st place to 9th place. Rusty and Ziggie both got enough points to qualify them for the Dogs In Need G6/7 Final on the Sunday, and they actually qualified high up the points tables. Ziggie was surprisingly 3rd in the grade 6 table and Rusty lead the grade 7 table finishing in 1st.

The Thursday of DINAS is always the day off which we had a really nice chilled out day. We found a lovely little park that we walked around for a while just to give the mutts a bit of a run around without burning them out before the final days of competing. Resting your dogs is very important, otherwise they are all burnt out before they hit a decent age and it is possible for them to get injured if they are pushed too much. Ok lecture over...

The Finals day had eventually arrived, and in the morning we had to fill out our commentary cards which is always a laugh. This was Ziggie's first every G6/7 Dogs In Need Final, we have been in the Junior Finals here aswell though. I am a soo proud of Ziggie actually qualifying for this final and I am pleasantly surprised as this was my secret aim of the weekend. Now all I wanted was to have a lot of fun and to make sure everyone now knew how good my 9 year old doggie is. In my heart I knew that even with the best clear Zig could pull out of the bag we would be unlikely to get into the top places. The doggie that would have the most chance is of course our fantastic Rusty. She has the pace over the other dogs but as always it depends on the day!

The great photo of Ziggie was taken by a great photographer Trevor Greenslade, whose photos can be found at www.flickr.com/photos/agilityphotos

Ziggie was running 5 from the end and Rusty was running 2 from the end. My little Ziggie ran her heart our to produce a lovely clear, and to me we had already won even though her time was about 3 seconds slower than the winning time set by Nic Jones. Rusy's run was awsome and great to watch, it was just soo unfortunate that she picked up 5 faults on the A-Frame. Overall, we all had a great week away and I am proud of all of the achievements over the week. I took loads of photos of various classes over the Dogs In Need week which can be found at... www.flickr.com/photos/cleverpups

Some of my favourite photos that I took at this show (including the one of Rusty at the top of this post) are;

KC International Agility Festival

The KC Festival was held at a new venue this year, in the grounds of the beautiful Kelmarsh Hall which became the location of the companion dog show that was held on the Sunday.

It is possibly the largest agility show with 19 rings, however it didn't feel that big considering. Some of the people in the helpers camping were even as far away as the non-helpers camping. Luckily we managed to get camping in this kinda seperate area almost like the overflow camping, but we were not too faw away from the rings and it was cool as we were right on the edge of the exersize area.

Rusty and Ziggie managed to get a couple of places over the 3 days of the show but really it was a great start to the begining of our Sunny Agility Holiday.

On the saturday there was a jumping training ring so we took advantage of this to give Tia a little bit of ring experience which she seemed to really enjoy and she is really starting to show a lot of potential. Tia was hilarious whilst we were relaxing at the caravan when a gust of wind blew a roll of kitchen towel out of the door. Tia jumped but then started running around the garden with this roll, luckily it was almost finished but she had a great time playing with this new toy of hers.

On the Saturday afternoon where nearly all the classes had finished we were asked by a judge to run Rusty around it to see how it runs. It was great fun and I got to run Rusty around which was awsome! We actually stayed on the KC Festival Site until the Monday so that we could travel to the next camp site in preparation for our next show, Dogs In Need!

Agility Club Show

This show was not necessarily the most successful one in terms of results, however it was a very good weekend.

Rusty was brilliant as per usual and picked up a 3rd in Grade 7 Agility, which was a lovely run and a great note to end the weekend on. I was really pleased with some of the runs that Ziggie did. Yeah, I know that she didn't get any places but she had 3 clears over the weekend and they were all really good runs.

We are all looking forward to our next show which is going to be KC International Festival, until then we are having a break from shows.

University Results

I have finally recieved my year 1 university results through the post and the great news is that I have PASSED year 1! So now I wait in anticipation to commence year 2 at Uni.

I have to admit though that some of the results are a lot better than some of the other ones, but hey it doesn't really matter I still PASSED the year and that is what really matters.

So here are my resutls;

Computer Programming = 77%
System Building = 71%
Communication Systems = 91%
Computer Systems Architecture = 57%
PDP = Pass
Logical Foundations = 65%
Analytical Methods for Computing = 58%

Birthday Wishes!

I just wanted to send some Birthday wishes to three very special individuals...

The first individual is my mum, so a late Happy Birthday to my wonderful mum. Don't think that I can put what Birthday was actually celebrated, so happy 25 again!

The Second individual's birthday is one who is being treated to some yummy sardines and of course lots of cuddles & walkies to celebrate. Happy Birthday to the star Rusty aka Bonvivant Kallisto who is 5 years old today!

The Third individual's birthday is Tia, who has also been treated to yummy sardines, cuddles and walkies. Happy 2nd Birthday Tia!

I really love the piccy below showing difference of Rusty being a puppy and then becoming a beautiful and clever adult dog, which has acheived soo much in only 5 years!

Newton Heath Show

We are now all fully recovered from the fun-filled and busy show, that was Newton Heath. It is a great venue, the only downfall was being camped under a runway.

The picture to the right was taken just before we left the beautiful venue of Tatton Park.

Dave and Rusty did very well in the Champ Jumping and Agility getting a 4th in both. Such consistency! Unfortunately it wasn't their week to take their 3rd CC as Rusty took a pole in the Final, which allowed another great Handler to take the CC and actually making their dog Agility Champion. A very big Well Done must go to Lee and Bold on a very well deserved win!

Ziggie did very well this weekend, She managed to get a 10th in G6 Jumping in what I have to admit was really nice run and good considering I hadn't walked the course before I ran it.

The ABC Semi Finals were held during saturday evening and luckily it was the only part of the day where the weather actually held all the way through. I took photos of all the dogs in this final which can be found at;

www.flickr.com/photos/cleverpups

Congratulations to the 10 handler & dogs that qualified to compete in the ABC competitions at Discover Dogs, Olympia and Crufts.

Great Results Already!

The agility season is now finally in full swing and we are off, all over the country most weekends and have been getting some superb results.

At Nottingham agility show, Dave and Rusty pulled it out of the bag to win the Champ final, giving them their first CC. It was an awsome run and I was so privaliged to watch this poetry in motion. It is a great acheivement for them both and we had not been waiting in anticipation when...

Dave and Rusty pulled it out of the bag once again to win the champ final at Thames agility show after a totally stunning and totally flawless run, it was a real show of the teamwork between Dave and Rusty. It was such an unbelieveable achievement for them both, especially as Rusty is the first ever Belgian Shepherd to take a CC a real star, I am so proud of them for these great results!
Check out the video of Dave & Rusty's CC win at Thames below...

Ziggie has done well so far this year and i am so pleased of these achievements. Zig is currently lying 19th in the Agility Club large G6 league table. Since the beginning of the agility season at Kernow till Thames Zig has got...
1x 3rd, 2x 4th and 1x 6th at Kernow she then got 2x 4th at Nottingham and her latest result was from Thames which was an 8th in G6 Agility.