Its all about my gorgeous Olli Ob Knob.

This weekend was all about Olli.........although Lily Cove & Twiggy were also awesome!!!!
Saturday we set off to Roseland show in sunny Wadebridge. Most of our friends had gone to Caerphilly but I had entered Roseland to give Olli a chance at the ABC qualifier. Little did I know when I entered that he would've already qualified at a much bigger show. It was a beautiful sunny day, and as we arrived I saw a friend of mine I don't see often enough as she lives at the very bottom of Cornwall!! I got George out the van and strolled across to see her and obviously for her to have Georgie cuddles. Disaster, as from out of nowhere a terrier had slipped his collar and pitched straight into Georgie. I managed to lift Georgie up amongst the screams and mayhem, and thankfully the terrier was removed, but only after he had punctured Georges ear and removed a large chunk of fur from his back end. I was gutted. Poor George was very shaken and didn't stop crying for a minute, but thankfully he was soon back to his normal cheerful self. It is just one of those things that happen, and unfortunately we cant wrap them in cotton wool, but it was horrible. :-(
Shaken a bit, I went to walk Ollis ABC course, and it was a lovely course. A few tricky bits but nice and flowing. We ran it and Olli was a star and did a beautiful clear round. I was thrilled with the start to the day, but even more so when they announced him as the winner!!!! What a star he is. Never lets me down, but recently he has started to go up a gear and to win was a total blast!!
Twiggy is also getting a bit more consistent as her confidence is growing, and she had another clear round! Last week clear, then again this week I was over the moon, and although she wasn't placed she did me proud.
Lily and I started well with a lovely jumping round and had yet another 2nd place in Grade 6!! 3 2nd places in as many weeks, where was the 1st going to come from?? After that tho we fell out of sync again and didn't complete the other 2 courses. I was not 100% sure if Lily was actually showing signs of a problem and felt a bit deflated that she may have to miss some shows if she did have an injury, yet she seemed full of beans and very hyper so just decided to see how she was the next day.
Fern & Cove had a lovely 6th place in a grade 1-3 jumping, but just to keep up the standard won the Agility!! Every show since Cove won into Grade 3, he has won the Grade 2 agility, so there is no doubts now that he is ready for the harder courses. Lovely show, lovely atmosphere and all 4 dogs winners.
Sunday it was South Devon, and a beautiful venue with stunning views. Unfortunately not good weather as the Saturday had been, but lots of interesting courses to run. Lily started the day with a pretty good clear round in G6/7 jumping. It wasn't a particularly hard course, and lots of fast bits so she went wide as Lily does, and ended up 7th. They placed to 4th. Cove had a few nearly runs, but the nearest he came to a clear was a pole in a very fast jumping round. He would've won it by seconds, but his inexperience showed as he tried 2 very large bounce gaps, and just couldn't quite stretch far enough. He is looking great though. Twiggy had 2 very near misses, and then a clear round!! 2 days running, this is becoming a habit!!! There were 180 dogs in the class, and imagine my grin when they announced Feroda Irish Secret in 16th place!!!! Her first rosette with a number on.  Ollis agility course was lovely. A worky start followed by a nice fast line around, across a box to seesaw, then a push around the outside of the box to the A frame, into curved tunnel and then missing a jump into weaves across the middle. A few bits to think about, and luckily Fern walked it with me and pointed out 1 mistake in my plans. I set him up and promised Fern I would try her handling suggestion. He was off like a rocket, and didn't put a foot wrong. Clear in agility!!! I felt great as we came out, as I knew it was an almost perfect round, and we could do no more. An hour later they did the prize giving. As they read out the dogs in 3rd & 2nd I knew we must have been out the placings, and couldn't believe he had missed out again with such a stunning run. WRONG!!!!!! In first place, winning Grade 5 Agility Feroda Olli Ob Knob!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I screamed! I think I jumped up and down a bit then flung my arms around the judge and cried!! He had done it. My amazing spanner was going to Grade 6, among all those kelpies and collies in large. Nothing that happened after that would matter. I kept looking at him and smiling with such pride.
Eventually it was Lilys combined 6/7 course, and again a clever course with some good traps, but being combined and seeing some of the Grade 7 handlers walking the course, I knew we would struggle. 3 grade 7 dogs in the queue in front of me, and I was actually nervous. All 3 had faults and I thought I had no chance, but as I set Lily on the start line I went into the "zone" As she sailed over the last jump clear I nearly passed out!! Don't think I breathed all the way round! I heard the scrime say "that was fast" and it started me thinking, could she have won it??? I went back to the van, hugged Lily a lot and waited. "And the winner is Feroda Lily Fudge Cake".............Both my dogs pulled out all the stops, and to win with both dogs on the same day is just the best feeling in the world.

We had other good runs, and some funny ones, and the most hilarious moment of the weekend was when Fern ran Olli in the jumping to end the day. Started off ok, then Fern said "tunnel" but moved away straight away, so Olli ran up to her and head butted her leg!!!! Barked and then went in the tunnel!! Olli was not impressed that she hadn't waited for him to pick up the right end of the tunnel!! Fern was giggling and afterwards said how she found it so different to running Cove. 220 miles added for the weekend.
Yep, they are all so different, and god help me next year when Georgie comes out!!! He is proving to be a challenge, not in a bad way but he is strong willed and has a great work ethic with a lot of cheekiness thrown in. Mmmmm it will be interesting, but so rewarding. Mind you he is going to have to be special to keep up with Olli.

Carlsberg don't breed Spaniels but if they did they would have bred Olli. Probably the best spaniel in the world.