The Summer Show and Prestbury Park

I'm actually not coping as well as I thought as since last week I've done nothing but cry but I'm hoping that it could be just hormones.

After talking to people I decided to go to the Summer Show at Ely with just Tom and was lucky that someone saved me a really nice camping spot as I couldn't get there until the Friday night. Tom loves camping and was very excited when we got there and took a while to settle down to sleep but by Saturday morning he was back to as normal as he ever is :)

We were there for three days and I'd entered him in two runs a day and going from three dogs to one, Suzi stayed at home, was weird and quite relaxing. Tom worked his little socks off all weekend and although we had 4 Es and 1 5 faults he got a 2nd in his grade 3 agility. The Es were mainly problems with him powering away from obstacles and missing the next thing which to me is something we can work on as I don't want to stop him going on I just need to get my timing better in getting a call him.

Prestbury Park is a lovely venue with the only problem being that the people going to the polo didn't think speed limits were meant for them and huge horse lorries thundering through the camping was a bit of a shock but to be fair it was only for one day and only in the afternoon. It was so quiet in the evenings, you couldn't hear any traffic at all shame it wasn't a bit warmer so we could sit outside and take advantage of the peace.

Suzi stayed at home again as camping is not her thing so it was just me and Tom again, we had 3 runs a day with one agility and two jumping on Saturday and two agility and one jumping on Sunday. On both days Tom got a clear in his 1-4 jumping but not quick enough for a place, I think on Sunday he might have been if he hadn't gone for a quick sniff. His contacts and weaves were really good except for one class when the weaves were the 2nd thing and he just wouldn't go in to them but I think this may have been because I raced him to them rather than sending him ahead of me.

I've decided that while I will get another dog it wont be until late next year so Tom will be an only dog for a while and I'm hoping this is going to be a good thing for him as he wont be competing for my attention, although he always got as much if not more than Dudley but I think he thought he didn't.

We are back at training after the summer break and I have some plans on how to get Tom and Suzi's contacts more consistent and I'm planning on getting some video to put on here.

Dudley's stone

A very kind friend sent me this touching present as a permanent reminder of Dudley, I was overwhelmed when I received it as we've only ever met over the internet which just goes to show you can have a proper virtual friendship.