Today we went along to the Dig It Dogs Club Competition. Entries limited to 50 keeping the show nice and small and especially designed for beginners. I’m Show Manager for next month so I thought I best go along.

Well before we even get into my runs I’ve got to say how amazing Dig It Dogs is! I know I say this a fair bit but today really reminded me what a lovely place and group of people are involved in it. There were so many people coming for their first ever show today and everyone was cheering and clapping each run, no matter what the results, and encouraging each other on.

I saw one of the instructors walking the courses with two ladies in her class that had never done a show before and they took home 2 rosettes each! Absolutely awesome.

Well on to us… this was our first competition since Adams in May and following on from our workshop last weekend we were going in with a competitive head on… which clearly showed as our first wait went to pot!

Also the wing-wrap was crap! We’ve done them so much but apparently it all got forgotten today, however the contacts were lovely.

Onto Jumping! I walked the course and decided how to handle it and then saw a better way to try and push to, if Guinness would send out far enough. Of course he would and it worked much better than my originally plan. However I was going to try and cross before the tunnel but didn’t run fast enough (c’mon Ruth you gotta start trusting him and getting a sprint on). A few small errors got us eliminated in both runs but I can’t say how pleased I am with his drive and flow and our handling manoeuvres during these runs!

Last up was Steeplechase, a really fun tunnel challenge! I was chatting to Jo Pelvin the Judge and she said the exercises I used to do with her in my class inspired some of this course! Awww how awesome! Of course Guinness being the a tunnel monster loved it. I was struggling to remember the course and after the dog in front of me went the wrong way I had to remind myself with a little dance on the start line!

We had a great run but I completely missed seeing the jump straight after the tunnel as a trap, plus I was still catching up with him so wasn’t in the best place to drive him away from it. Damn. The rest was awesome though! I pushed for a front cross and nearly had my legs taken out (partly due to the jump being down) but I made it by the skin of my teeth. Winner!

All in all it’s been a fantastic day with some great company. I’m pleased to say I attacked each course with a competitive attitude and was really happy with how it all went. We’re heading in the right direction!