G4 Merlie Girlie!

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny, the weather was to hold all weekend this way and Linxy made good use of his doggy paddling pool that we take along!

No runs for Hoax today but Boo worked well. We navigated our way round an intesting G6- 7 Olympia Qualifier. Personally I quite liked it from the moment I walked it. I changed my mind about how to handle 13-17 quite a few times but went with the plan of working the whole combination with Boo on my left side, pulling him off the wrong tunnel entrance, flicking him into the correct side then getting ahead to recall 15 and push round the back of 17. I hardly saw anyone else walk it this way but ah well. I usually know my Mr Boo. He ran this course almost foot perfect until we got to the push round at the end of the DW. He got to the end SO much faster than me, by the time I reached him I lost my balance and tripped over my own feet. I managed to stay upright by which time Boo had come off his contact and looked to me for a cue, I finished my ungainly piroette and twiddled him round the back of the jump for a clear round! I assumed I would be way out with this as Olympia qualifiers are so strongly fought for. I was lucky- only a second off the eventual winner put Boo in 8th! As the top ten qualify this put him firmly in! Sooo, the semis are the 2nd July... how am I going to stay upright for that one??? Boo also went clear in the G7 Jumping- very twisty yuck course and clear in the Power and Speed, we were only a second off the winner but this still put him out the places!

Sunday and my handling wasn't so great, Boo still worked well but lady luck wasn't smiling on us today. Hoaxey was called up in a reserve for a Crufts Team qualifier, as the other three dogs/ handlers were the Crufts Team Winners of 2008 (Toni & Minx, Jo & Jinny and Steve & Billy) I was just a little nervous! There were only five teams in the medium qualifier so you never know what will be good enough to qualify. Hoaxey went first and we managed to get round with just 5 on the seesaw! Yay! Poor Billy set off and crashed through the second jump, he injured himself so had to be pulled out. We do hope he is ok. Hoax then ran 1-7 Med Agility. It all went badly wrong here, I think she was hot and bothered and wasnt at all focused. I have learnt from this that I cannot run her back to back on such a hot day yet, she just isnt ready. Finally, and after a nice rest, Hoax ran her G1-3 Jumping, it was a really nice, simple course. She got her weaves again and finished the rest of the course neatly and clear. She wasn't anywhere near her usual speed as I think was still lacking confidence after her last run but she still wasn't a plod. It was good enough anyway to give her first place taking her out of G3 and into the dizzy heights of G4!

So all in all not a bad weekend. We have BATS next which we are going to for Nics sake as there is a Novice Olympia Qualifier there.