Wow today was amazing! I’d organised an Open Day at Dig It Dog Training Club, completely done by me, my ideas, my planning, my mess! We had no idea how it would go or how popular it would be, but it went beautifully with a great turn out! The weather certainly made the day, no one likes to come out in the rain.

There was Have a go Agility, Flyball and Rally, all completely free. Mike Crawford from Cheshire Canine Services came and ran a Gundog Scurry and he allowed people to have a go for free and then there was the chance to enter the Scurry Competition.

We also hosted a number of workshops and I ran one about Clicker Training. The tricks workshop was hugely popular!

Many people commented on how much they had enjoyed themselves and how good it had been. The whole purpose of the day was to generate interest in Dig It but also to let people experience and learn about different activities that they can do with their dogs. A lot of people had not seen Rally before so it was a great opportunity for them to have a try for free.

The gundog scurry ended up turning into a flyball competition and there was some great banter occurring between friends. It’s so lovely to get together with people who all enjoy training their dogs and have a laugh, plus meet some new people.

A highlight for me was speaking to two people who had come all the way from Wales after seeing the event advertised online! I really hope it was worth it and they seemed to be enjoying their day. I suppose a bigger highlight was a lady who trains in my obedience class making a point of telling me about them and that they had travelled so far; I was touched that she wanted me to know.

Also I had the pleasant surprise of seeing two very old friends who I have not seen for years! They had wanted to come but weren’t going to make it so I was so chuffed that they were able to pop along for a few hours with their new dogs. They went home proudly with two rosettes.

Soppy moment done with, all in all it has been such a great day. I had a huge amount of help and support from Lydia and I couldn’t have done it without her. The Instructors that helped out worked really hard running their stations and unfortunately we didn’t have many people who could swap to allow them a break. I’m so appreciative of their help.

I hope it was worth it for everyone and it was a huge high for me to stand back and see that the vague idea and scribbles that I’d started with had developed into this fun day!