Young Kennel Club Autumn Weekend

Yesterday, we attend the annual Young Kennel Club Autumn Training Weekend where Earl and I competed in two Crufts 2016 qualifiers; Agility Dog Of The Year and Starters Obedience. Although we weren't quite high up enough to qualify this year (we were SO close!) Earl did me incredibly proud by performing as he did, and we did end up coming home with some awesome prizes!

In the Agility run, he ran amazingly. For him, this was a brilliant speed. He went clear, and I do believe we came 5th out of SO many other competitors! And we also came 5th in 2014 as well, meaning this is our second year of being consistent enough with 5th places and coming so high up! We were only out of qualifying places by a couple of places, which is really good. There were many amazingly quick dogs competing, and the course wasn't hard. I am so proud of how well he performed in such a prestigious competition; people were obviously anxious, and he remaining happy all day long!

In the Obedience, he was amazing during the time in which we practiced around the ring. He couldn't have been more focussed on me! In the real ring, he was really good considering we had never competed in this discipline in this environment before, and I had no real idea of what was expected of us! We didn't do badly whatsoever. He wasn't quite as focussed in the real thing, but he did what I asked of him all the same. He waited in his sit during the sit stays, however, unfortunately smelt something near him during the downs, easing up near the end! It was brilliant day regardless, with amazing experiences and learning opportunities. We will go back in 2016 with a better idea of the ways of competitive Obedience.

We then entered some of the fun shows being held there, and reined in many of them! Earl came 2nd in Brightest Eyes, 2nd in Best Mover, 3rd in Best Trick, 4th in Best Six Legs and we also received an amazing 2nd place for our Heelwork To Music 'routine'! The judge said we were the BEST out of the entire weekend's handlers and dogs having a go! Considering we didn't even have a proper routine, and simply went into the ring and ran through some exercises with a random piece of music playing alongside, I am SO proud! We were even 'commanded' to enter some real shows in the discipline! We are now resuming our proper HTM training, where we'll improve our Freestyle for some future shows!

Ethel also did a class in the fun show, and came 3rd in the Waggiest Tail! It is always wagging when you're Ethel, and although she was incredibly interested in the smelly ground, it carried on going throughout the entire class!

We all had a brilliant day, and simply cannot wait for 2016's weekend! We've learnt so much and gained so much new knowledge in many disciplines. 2016 will also be Ethel's time in the ADoY qualifier alongside Earl! We had an amazing time.

We're joining our hosts Snoopy's Dogblog, Alfie's Blog and My Brown Newfies in the Monday Mischief Blog Hop. We send many thanks their way, and you can join in below.