Dodgy Referee

We're getting a bit laid back with the dog shows. I'm supposed to be there to 'walk' a course at 8.30 but with our first run not scheduled until around 10.30. I opt for an extra hour in bed. Doggo seems totally fine with this and even may have coped with a further hour or two.

When we get there, we needn't have bothered. Doggo is faulted for the first time ever in his agility career for missing an 'up' contact. I give the judge my best glare, trying to convey to him that I think he's clearly mad. My Dad has videoed the run and on first viewing it looks like yes, the judge is mad, we certainly got the contact. I will need to view it back home, full size on the PC, to be sure but at the moment, I'm pretty annoyed, and the judge is off my Christmas card list. I suppose we all get the odd dodgy referee sometime.

Our second run is a grade 1-7 combined set ridiculously at grade 1 level but then all 1-7's are ridiculous, you just can't set a course for such a wide range of abilities. This course is so easy I expect a grade 7 to fly round it in around 10 seconds, in the end someone does it in 21. We take 24 which is closer than I though we'd get. We get a rosette for 16th out of 205. So we're pretty pleased.

I try and keep Doggo fresh by putting him in the car a bit and keeping him away from the other competing dogs that he's always so keen to bark at. This is because our final event is Grade 5 jumping and is what we really came here for. Driving 70 miles each way for one run, that's agility for you. It looks quite testing but doesn't cause people as many problems as I thought it would. The fastest time so far is 20 seconds. I reckon we're going to need to be in the 21's to get a rosette. We go for it big style and of the three tricky turns on the course we deal with two of them in style. Good tight turns. On the third however, I try and turn Doggo a touch too early and he just stops. Don't know how he managed to stop so quickly but he does. We get five faults but apart from that is was an encouraging run.

Head home and for the first time in decades both kids are at their fathers. L's been alone in the house for most of the day with another man, Harry. I feel I should show Harry who's boss and as the kids aren't here, I could have my way with her in any part of the house I fancied but in the end I opt for the good old bedroom.

Then we head out to the Johnson Arms again, in the vane hope that Old Peculiar might still be on. It isn't. The Loxley ale is very cloudy but oddly nice. The Adnams and Tiger are, well, just Adnams and Tiger.