NAWS January

I've never really understood it when people say they got faults, but they had a really good run. Well maybe I understand it a bit now. Spike did two really good runs in the agility, but got 5f in each. They were still really good runs though. He did even better in the jumping, and got 4th. I am still not sure that his agility runs might have been better, Oh well, welcome to the world of muddled thinking Rob.

We picked up the rosette for Spike's win last time, which was nice. We also picked up two for Willow as she had good clear rounds last time. We got a clear in agility and jumping this time, but no placings. We appear to be in the lead in the veteran league, though in this case it may be owing to my willingness to go to Harrogate in the snow last time! We'll see how well Willow goes in the next shows, she goes well over medium, and could certainly get placed again. Howard is one point behind us.

Sadly I made a mess of walking the agility course. I ran willow over the wrong course simply because on my first walk round I did not read the numbers and missed a couple of jumps. Willow fell into a trap DW (very rare for her) on our first run, so we were already eliminated when I made the error. It was only when I watching competitors from the queue whilst waiting with Spike that I noticed my error, and I ran the correct course from then. It was not the cause of him rolling poles though.

Spike has knocked a few poles recently, not huge numbers, but one or two. I will have to work out what causes it (me probably). Still can't complain he does so much else automatically that it is not too hard to run him (so long as you run fast that is). He was a bit distracted on the last jumping run, and popped out of the weaves at 10, did them fine on a repeat, but started boinging off over all the wrong jumps. Still you can't fault his enthusiasm.

Ben behaved reasonably. Not recalling every time, but OK off lead. Met lots of dogs, and was friendly with everyone. Everyone said how much he had grown. We could not spectate, which is a pity as that would be very good for him, but I suppose it can cause chaos for the show. We did sneak in for a bit (don't tell Brenda), and he was a little barky, but could be brought back to focus with his name. Just about right really, interested but under control.

I helped for about an hour despite my name not being on the list. It's probably the best way to spectate actually, and the pole picking seat was right next to an interesting section for the D class.