Crufts 2011 Part 3 Championship

Well here I am sitting at home on another beautiful day. I am grateful that this flu seems to have past the worst and I am on the mend. As much as I would have loved to do the UKA show today, I am playing it safe and staying home to keep recovering. I think I would have been OK running (well maybe sauntering or ambling) around the ring but not sure I would have had the energy to drive the 2 hours back and forth to Newbury.

It would have a been a good show to do as it had a Masters Class and I could use the ring practice right now with Zaz. Also they were going to have the rubber contact equipment and I need to get practice that with Zaz. But there are worse things than missing an agility show; so I stayed home and tortured the shelties with baths and grooming.

So now I will finish writing about my Crufts 2011!

Saturday was our day off and I had thought I might go back to the NEC to watch the International agility. I thought about it but decided to stay back at the B&B, have a full breakfast and take the dog for a long walk instead. I really didn't need to watch any more agility.

I love having a full English breakfast at the B&B yet most of the time we have to leave so early we miss breakfast. So it was a treat to get up late and have a leisurely full breakfast. Afterwards I took Zaz and Zen for a long walk and we all cleared our heads and stretched our legs.

I have always known that Zaz is so similar to Zen but it really hit me this weekend: Zaz is definitely Zen's mini-me! This photo was taken with my mobile while sitting and reading on my bed in the room. I just happened to look down and see these two lying identically at my feet. They even turned their heads the same way when I spoke to them. How cute are they?


Sunday was the Championship day. I am not being melodramatic when I say this; it is actually what I believe. This will probably be Zen's last championship at Crufts. This year I am hoping to have one last litter from Zen and so it is unlikely we will do any championships classes with her. The following year she will be getting up there in age and I will be busy focusing on the pups; Zen will slowly be retiring. (sob) Yet strangely I do not feel bad about this. Zen has done so much in her career and I enjoyed every minute with her.

I was looking forward to some challenging Crufts Championship courses.....but unfortunately the courses we ran were not "Zen" courses. Zen is a little sheltie girl running against much bigger faster border collies; so we need courses that are difficult in order to get anywhere. The courses were fun to run, no doubt Zen enjoyed herself! But a challenging course is what we needed in order to place any higher in the class. These courses had no opportunity for the other dogs to go wrong or for Zen to shave off anytime on turns. They were all straight fast lines. As usual, different courses suit different dogs and handlers and these were not the courses for us.

Even so Zen looked good and still made the Final in the evening. She ran her little socks off and came 5th in the final.And gosh-darn they only showed the top 4 (AND the handlers with mistakes!) on TV that night. Booo-hiss!

Crufts Champ Jumping.


Crufts Champ Agility


Championship Final


So another Crufts over for Zen. Zen-star did pretty good; she was 7/7 clear runs, Winner of the British Open and made it to the finals in both team and champ. Not too shabby for the two old girls! LOL

Our focus now for the next 2 months is the WAO. I have lots of plans for the summer but it will all depend on Zen's timings. AND I may have another new addition to our doggie family; watch this space!