Saturday 11th April 2009 – Easter Celebration

Well no rest for the wicked! Today I was judging at the Easter Celebration Show at the South of England Showground in Ardingly and guess what…IT RAINED! Whenever I judge at that showground…it rains! I had some really good classes to judge today and was really looking forward to seeing the standard of dogs. My first class was Small Graded 1-5 Agility which was a course that I was really pleased with. It was straight forward but with a little bit of angle work and handler positioning. There are some absolutely fabulous dogs around at the moment and I was very impressed with what I saw, I need to keep my eye out for them! I was very pleased with the results too and 1st – 3rd placed competitors even got Easter Eggs. Next class was Small 1-3 Jumping, I had done some of the combinations at training the week before so I knew how they would run. I like courses that can be worked all sorts of different ways, it also keeps me alert and entertained. I’ll try and work out how to upload my courses on here for you to have a look at.

My last classes of the day were Small and Medium Combined 4-7 Jumping, I really enjoyed this class as was very interesting to watch! It all came down to silly mistakes on the handlers part. All it took was one step too far and the dog was sent the wrong way over the jump! It did make me giggle as the handlers knew what they’d done the minute they stepped foot in the wrong position!

I had a really nice and enjoyable day despite the rain and it wouldn’t have been made possible without the brilliant help of Sue Culmer’s Ring Party and the Easter Celebration Organising Committee. Mum (my scribe) and I were really well looked after and I even got an Easter Egg! I had 4 people come up to me and say how much they enjoyed working their dogs in my ring and how they thought the course was really good to watch! I now can’t wait for my next judging appointment!

Here’s a photo of me judging, this must have been the one time it wasn’t pouring with rain!