Zaz and Itz Stour Valley 2010

We competed this past weekend at Stour Valley. It is a nice small (6 rings) relaxing show. Just park me close to the rings and I am a very happy bunny! Add in beautiful weather and nice people and that is the perfect agility show for me. As a bonus Dennis actually came with us on the first day!

I was expecially looking forward to competing with Zaz. Zaz and I have not competed since July except for the Olympia Semi so I knew we would be a little rusty. This was her first show at Grade 6 and luckily there were two Graded 6 classes (rather than grade 6/7 combined) so I was hoping we could get a win towards Grade 7.

We started out the day with our jumping class which just went WRONG. It was like we just could not get ourselves together. So the best thing to do was to sit around and drink coffee, eat breakfast and chill while waiting until our agility classes were ready to run. In the afternoon we got our mojo back and thank goodness the agility classes went much better. Zaz ended up winning 2 agility classes on the Saturday and one on the sunday. 3 wins towards Grade 7 and only one to go! She came close on Sunday to winning the fourth class but ended up 2nd in a tough jumping class.

Itzy had a really good weekend also. We made silly errors in our Graded 5 classes so unfortunately she did not move up to Grade 6 this weekend as I had hoped. But Itz was running like a little Itzy Bitzy bullet! She is the type of dog that is rather steady in training but speeds up in competitions. This makes each run quite a suprise for me! She did get one jumping win and came 2nd to Zaz in a combined 4-7 class which was pretty awesome for my little Itz. What made that 2nd place even more impressive was that she had to run the course twice. The electronic timing did not stop in her first run. This meant that although she ran clear she had to run again from scratch. Running from scratch when timing fails is probably the fairest way to handle the situation. Of course it does not feel fair to the handler (me!)at the time but the alternative (running for time only) is not really fair on the rest of the competitors. This is the 2nd time Itzy has failed to stop the time in her short little career to date! I think the electronic timing is just dazzled by her cuteness and forgets to stop. LOL

Here are Itzy's two runs over the same course. I am not sure if the first or second run is actually quicker. Either way she was so darn cute!



Here is Itzy running the second time. I was worried that she would be slower from being tired as we only had a few dogs in between for her and I to get our breath back. Her startline is getting as naughty as her sister Zaz which means I am consistant in teaching naughty startlines. GGG



Zaz running the same course but just once!



Another agility course from Saturday.



Zen had a good weekend also. I only ran her in one agility class per day just to proof her contacts. On Sunday she did the most perfect contacts and won her class. This was a great way to end her last show before the World Championships.

I still have so much to teach the Zitzy twins. It is hard to believe that they will be 2 years old in December yet I have only been competing with them since June. They still seem so much like babies to me. With past dogs I have felt that they were grown up and mature by two years old. Zen was in her first world championships at just over 2 years old. But not these two! Maybe it is because they turned 18 months (age they can compete) during the middle of the season and so they did not have as many compeitions? Or maybe it is because I am training two of them at the same time? Either way it is so exciting because I feel as if we all can keep improving!