His last Grade 1 show was Empingham (24th-25th July) I went to Empingham knowing that as De had won out of Grade 1 at Just Dogs Live i could practice alot and relax a bit. The show was lovely, camping was brilliant for us...we'd brought the kids with us so finding out we were situated 2 secs from the loo it was bliss :) I went to Empingham knowing i wanted to do two things with Demon. a) Practice his contacts and b) see how much i could push him. The reason for the latter was because i don't want to have a dog that you have to be with in every situation, Demon is quite a strong headed boy and he has a lot of drive, at the time of writing this i already know i am holding him back which costs him time. I have practiced driving him on at training but for some reason i hesitate in the ring, this could be a number of things...not wanting to make mistakes, not wanting to loose control....who knows.
At the end of the weekend me and Demon had come away empty handed but, i was on top of the world. His times were great, he didn't miss a contact. In 1 class he ran at the weaves with such speed he went in the first weave but he couldn't physically slow himself down and popped out of the 2nd weave the rest was clear. In the combined 1-3 jumping he drove on beautifully and me being the idiot i am forgot the course and pulled him off the 3rd to last jump. The one thing i did come away realising was i needed to work on his weaves (12 not 6) i had been doing 6 with him at training at at home and not enough 12 so he was coming out at the 9/10th pole.
All in all i was very happy, note to self handler could do with more training!!!!
SCUNTHORPE SHOW
Scunthorpe was Demons 1st Grade 2 show back at the beginning of August (7th/8th)
SATURDAY:
I can only remember a few of his run's on the Saturday he had a Graded 1-3 Jumping, Demon would've gone clear except i had my stupid head on once again and stood in his way causing him to run round jump 3 instead of going over it-what made this even worse was if it wasn't for my boy having more brains than me he'd of been eliminated because after he ran round the jump i said "come" luckily he did but came round the jump rather than back jumping it- Such a clever boy!! The rest of the run was lovely.
In the Graded 1-3 agility, I for some reason clapped my hands as i turned him causing him to knock a pole....he then flew his see-saw (tut,tut Mr De)
The last jumping of the day De popped out of the 2nd weave and had a pole in the middle of the course yet worked on lovely at the end of the course.
His last run was Combined 1-3 Agility. It was a lovely run little bit bendy but all in all a nice course.Demon got his twelve weaves and contacts and went clear!!! He was very noisy going round and i found myself shouting over him at times but we came away with a respectable 8th!!! What a good lad.
SUNDAY:
The 1st class of the day was Graded 1-3 Agility. The course was quite flowing although some people lost the dogs over jump no 2 the second time they had to go through the box at the start of the course, Demon was quite responsive and towards the end of the course you had tunnel, see-saw, weaves and 3 jumps at a slight angle. The latter half of the course De got his independent head on and once he'd done the tunnel did a lovely stop on the see-saw and i realised i wasn't with him for the weaves!!! so the only thing i could do was risk it and see if he found them or hold him to get into position. I decided to risk it in that split second and my little boy did his weaves and the last 3 jumps alone and fast!!!! I was sooooo happy with him. So our 2nd clear for the weekend!!!
After lunch i was amazed to find not only had we gone clear in the Graded 1-3 Agility that morning, but that we'd also won it!!!! :)
Yay so Demon is now Grade 3 at his 1st Grade 2 show!!
The rest of the show was a blurr, no more clears although we did have some nice runs, alot to do on my part giving him commands sooner but also Demon has become more noisy when running and with him barking he's not listening as well......more to come on this!!!!
My gorgeous boy with his 8th and 1st from Scunthorpe!! xx
