Welcome to The OBay Shelties blog! Our blog is an honest diary of our life with our dogs along with news from Obay shelties around the world.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Agility shows, ranting and puppies

Last weekend I took Zen and Hex to a KC agility show. At the last minute the club put out a desperate request for helpers. So I offered my help even though I do not know anyone in this club. I don't mind helping if I can as long as my dogs don't get left alone too long. I enjoy meeting people at different rings and placing names to faces.

Anyway I got to the Wallingford show and was directed where to park in a special helpers area. I put the car along the edge of a fence right next to a row of parked workers cars. I got out started to set up my reflective sheets ( it was going to be a hot day) and was ready to go walk my first course which happened to be team. By the way, please remind me not to organize teams again! haha Way too stressful!

So being slightly occupied the next thing I know, one of the club members come running at me and starts yelling at me from across the way "ARE YOU BLIND?!!" I had no idea what she was talking about, like... WTF ....(see I have been hanging around Lisa too much and now type in funny text speak)... how is that a way to speak to someone you do not even know? She then tells me in an really patronizing tone that I SHOULD have seen the words painted in the grass along the road. It was written "Zoe". Well, excuse me, I was parking next to other people and didn't feel the need to look in the grass for names! Either way, all it required was a polite "Sorry you cannot park there it is reserved for so and so". At that point I really just wanted to get back in my car and leave. Added to the stress of trying to organize a team it was not a good start to the day!

I think I handled it all right. I didn't get too pissy with her although I was "thundering wild" as Sue likes to say. I think I asked her for her name hahaha. Like what was that going to do? It was all I could think of at that point other than saying to her that I was really glad I offered to help her club! I moved the car and ran off to walk the team event. Very confusing event when you have to try and replace team members. Next time I will know that we need to fill in reserve members on the entry form. I must admit I did rant and rave for about 1 hour afterwards about this lady as anyone that was in my vicinity will testify to! hehehe And I still remember her name!

My two teams did not place but it was fun running anyway once the organizing bit was over with. The medium team was an awesome team and could have definitely smoked the competition if we had all clears! But that is the fun of running with fast dogs, anything can happen! The small team was pretty darn good too but 2 mistakes (one by me and Hex!) put us out of contention.

The rest of the show was good. The weather was darn near perfect, sunny yet breezy. I worked on one of the rings for the entire morning and enjoyed it. My favorite dog's name for the day was a little yorkie called "Dinky Doughnut". Is that too cute? This little yorkie was super fast with a good handler. It will be a team to watch out for. Hex and Zen both did well. Hex came home with two 1sts and one 2nd place. Zen came home with a 2nd and a 3rd. The 2nd place was on an agility course that I was not sure we could run clear in. I liked the course as it had some handling in it and I was able to try out some moves that I have been working on. Zen was out of 1st place by 7/100 of a second behind a super fast border collie, so I was well chuffed!

I went for a lesson with Lesley O on friday and did some good work with Hex. I also got to see Beanie's (4th in the world agility championships 2006!) NINE puppies. They looked really good and healthy at only 3 days old. She had 7 bitch puppies and 2 boys. Some were red/whites and some black/whites. I love watching puppies grow up and see how they develop even when they are not mine. I am going over to Lesleys tonight to watch the pups while Lesley is away in Ireland for the day. It will be a good chance to get some cute puppy photos! I will bring Zen and Hex and have a chance to train some tomorrow on Lesleys equipment.

I had to show you all this photo I took today. Hex actually sits at the window in the living room and looks adoringly out at the agility equipment. She can sit there for quite a long time!



2 comments:

Karen said...

mmm wonder who the other small team member was that didnt go clear wouldnt have been a naughty litte poodle would it !!!!

Sarah and Leslie said...

Oohh i hope you have taken your camera to the Nedlo Nursery!