I'm so proud of my two boys' achievements over the last couple of months. Epic has been getting some nice placings in G5 and I felt he was teetering on the brink but the three wins needed to take us to Grade 6 (Senior) have actually still taken me a bit by surprise. All have been at quite poignant moments so have been quite emotional for reasons other than getting the award. The last win came the weekend three days after Revel died. I wasn't really feeling like doing agility and struggled to remember the courses. Both dogs picked up on my mood and we had some poor runs. I had a break until the final run of the day and spent a couple of hours helping on the ring and having a lovely cuddle of my friend's gorgeous new sheltie pup. It was just what I needed and I realised that it was unfair to Epic not to give 100% on the course. It was a lovely course, nice and flowing so I resolved to just give him a fun and enjoyable run. He was much better than earlier and happily this put us into the lead and gave Epic his final G5 win! 
We remain in the Grade for 25 days before progressing up so I had a couple more shows in G5, where Epic picked up a couple of thirds and a lovely 2nd in a HUGE combined class of more than 100 dogs 
! I'm particularly proud of this one as the course was quite challenging too. Now we move into G6 and I'm just planning on enjoying it and learning as much as possible. I still feel that we are not competent in many areas but as my maxim is 'Agility is not a destination but a journey' I'm happy about this. I don't anticipate any rosettes for a while now we are at this level but it will be fun to see what new challenges are presented and build a training plan for the winter (winter!!!- ). I'm also focussing on building Epic's confidence in the ring as he does get anxious on occasion which is fallout from his experience of being attacked and general fear issues.
Angus made his agility debut at the beginning of May and it was awful as he ran out of the ring on the first run and peed on a tunnel!
However he has been running Anysize Jumping classes (jumps and tunnels only) for a couple of months with moderate success. I'm really pleased with his speed and ability, he's got all the obstacles in hand. What he is lacking is focus and he is easily distracted by other dogs (he is the total opposite of Epic!)
So for both boys Control Unleased is being revisited.
Anyway, here are Epic's wins
And some of Angus' runs. He started competing in 'proper' agility classes (Standard and Jumpers) at the beginning of July and at the first fun show won 1st in the Steeplechase (no weaves) which was lovely as this was the day after Epic last win.
We remain in the Grade for 25 days before progressing up so I had a couple more shows in G5, where Epic picked up a couple of thirds and a lovely 2nd in a HUGE combined class of more than 100 dogs ! I'm particularly proud of this one as the course was quite challenging too. Now we move into G6 and I'm just planning on enjoying it and learning as much as possible. I still feel that we are not competent in many areas but as my maxim is 'Agility is not a destination but a journey' I'm happy about this. I don't anticipate any rosettes for a while now we are at this level but it will be fun to see what new challenges are presented and build a training plan for the winter (winter!!!- ). I'm also focussing on building Epic's confidence in the ring as he does get anxious on occasion which is fallout from his experience of being attacked and general fear issues.Angus made his agility debut at the beginning of May and it was awful as he ran out of the ring on the first run and peed on a tunnel!
However he has been running Anysize Jumping classes (jumps and tunnels only) for a couple of months with moderate success. I'm really pleased with his speed and ability, he's got all the obstacles in hand. What he is lacking is focus and he is easily distracted by other dogs (he is the total opposite of Epic!)
So for both boys Control Unleased is being revisited.
Anyway, here are Epic's wins
And some of Angus' runs. He started competing in 'proper' agility classes (Standard and Jumpers) at the beginning of July and at the first fun show won 1st in the Steeplechase (no weaves) which was lovely as this was the day after Epic last win.
)
Really enjoyed watching Jess run Angus too.
