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Monday 19 April 2010

Grade 4 Spaniel now!!!


We had a fantastic weekend at Wallingford show Newbury this weekend. The sun shone non stop, not a cloud in the sky and we had a lovely relaxing weekend, even if we are slightly sunburnt!

Lily was a bit off colour on Saturday. Nothing bad but I think with her thick winter coat and being so hot she was struggling a bit, and although she had 2 lovely runs, she didn't have a clear round which is almost unheard of. Olli however, went clear in his jumping and placed 6th, and then amazed us all with a blinding clear round in Agility to get 3rd place and his 2nd KC trophy in 2 shows!! I wasn't sure about progressing on points but he is becoming so consistent and tries so hard I think he should move up a grade. It could take a year or more for him to finally beat all the collies, if ever in grade 3, but he is tight and accurate so as the courses get harder I think he will beat them on accuracy if not speed. So Olli boy is going into Grade 4, and he endorsed my decision with one of his best ever jumping rounds on Sunday. Only 13th out of 200 dogs, but he didn't put a foot wrong, and I was over the moon.

Lily had a fantastic 4th in Agility on Sunday, and if I hadn't made a ridiculous handling error before the last we almost definitely would've won it. Real stupid mistake, which Lily somehow got me out of to finish clear, but we lost at least a second. There was less than that between Lilys time and the winner. All down to experience I guess.

Dave was also very well behaved around the rings, not losing his rag at all, and Cove was a very excitable but controllable star too. All in all a great weekend, great company, great weather and the best dogs in the world!

3 comments:

yettontop said...

Welcome to Grade 4 Olli! I made the same decision with the same reasons for my BC and have never regretted it. He does far better in 4+ classes than in 1 to 4 type classes with their simpler courses. Have fun!!

Dani said...

Thanks Bren! Its only fair for him really. Lily was always more than capable of the win up, but although Olli had a couple of trophies recently, I just think his win would be hard to get. :-)

Kirsty said...

Way to go that spaniel!!!! x