Easy as ABC....maybe.

Wow, Im back home and exhausted after a great weekend of agility.

Back in Aus I was under the impression (as Im sure many others are) that British agility trials are divided exclusively into Border Collie classes and ABC (anything but) classes. When in actual fact the ABC classes are just an extra, special, class that a couple of shows hold in addition to the regular (all breeds) classes, and a very few shows hold qualifying heats for an ABC final.
...That is unless you include this weekend. This weekend was the very first exclusive ABC show, organised by the Weimaraner association.

We were lucky that for the most part the rain held off, and despite the cold weather and Im still coming down off a high. To look at our results you'd think were nothing special, but I am just so proud of how my dogs ran especially after the problems Ive been having with mister feral Tooh at training.

Saturday we started the day with Hollies veterans run. With the jumps on small height she had an absolute blast flying around the course. she is definately enjoying it ten fold now that she doesnt get to do any agility often, and the look of pure joy on her face is worth it even though Im scared she would injure herself if the jumps were any higher. I think she ended up with 3rd place but rosettes (and hence placings) were only awarded for the first 2 places, and to be honest placings just dont matter with her any more, she has proven herself long ago.

Onto Tooheys runs - firstly we had G1-3 jumping where he put in a nice clear (and most importantly focused!) round. Because this was a special show (ie wins dont count towards grade progression) dogs could run the agility and jumping courses twice and the results based off the dogs fastest round. So onto our second round and he put in a super speedy run..until his hopeless handler pulled him off the second last jump. We ended up in 18th place based off our first run, 1 spot out of the placements.
Next was combined G1-7 steeplechase (jumping with no weaves). The course was a super fast flowing course targetted at those with fast ground speed. Well my boy went out there and ran with the best of them. In other words, he flew! Im still in awe as to his ground speed, I just cant explain. And to prove it he finished in 3rd place, behind 2 very impressive dogs. Ok, time to stop blabbering.
Our final class was G1-3 agility. Slightly different story to our other runs but not enough to put a dampner on it..First run I hadnt woken him up and got disracted so I pulled him out at the 3rd obstacle and second time round it was me that hadnt woken up. (I have an excuse - no sleep the night before due to work)

Today continued in much the same fashion. Hollie blitzed (well Blitzed for Hollie anyway) round the veterans course for a 2nd place rosette. I chose not to run Tooheys in agility course and instead focus on the jumping where I could concentrate on running flat out and driving him round the course..its proving to be so much fun!
Our first run in jumping was oh-so-nearly perfect. One of those runs where you come out feeling truly fantastic...almost. He was flying around the course at top speed (fast enough to quite possibly win the class) until his useless handler has the finish line in her sights and pulls him out of the last weavepole. We had alot of very positive feedback on that run though which was enough to stop me critising myself. Second time round he knocked the first pole so I decided to try something different, only problem is I forgot to tell my dog what I was doing and had a major off course.,,he did exactly what he was told.
Good dog.