Lune @ Myerscough

We got a sunny day - sandwiched between the two very soggy days of Friday and today. Maisie, true to form, got swampy within about 30 seconds. She's really getting her winter Polar Bear coat on now so she looked a right state, lol! First up was the 1-2 Agility. Tim was in first and I got him there right at the start so he didn't have to queue for long, but the poor lad didn't cope well with the noisy big arena. He set off and ducked under the first jump, onto the dogwalk, which he almost crept over - normally his dogwalk is excellently rapid!.. & it didn't get any better. He was just freaked and I felt sad for him so brought him out and cuddled him. Maisie went in shortly after. The course should've been great for her - it was a bit weird! - sharp turns off both the A-frame and seesaw - she can do stuff like that, but she, also, was really not happy. She got uncomfortable on the startline - barky dogs, tannoy, no space - and she wasn't right. I hate hate hate how they corral the queue between barriers. She missed an easy weave entry even though I was close to support her, and then pulled in past a jump, so I just brought her out and gave her a big cuddle too. All this by about 8.45 - not the best start :o( Took them all out for a bit of a relaxing run. Then Maisie had her 1-4 gr Agility - luckily, this time it was in the far end of the smaller arena - it feels different again in there, though it's still busy, the acoustics are much softer. There was a queue a mile long (terrible calling in!) so I sat with her in the gallery for a while in the hope that it might go down - it didn't, so once she seemed a bit more settled anyway I took her ticket and joined the queue for a while, then asked the person behind us (with a stunning Flattie) to hold our place and I took her outside for a few mins before popping back in near the front of the queue. She ran OK, not outstanding but business-like. She did do a beautiful send on to a tunnel which took me by surprise! Anyway, she finished 3rd in the class which was lovely :) Then we had another course to walk - 1-4 gr Jumping. It was a twisty-turny one with v tight spacing in bits - a very Mousey course! She set off a bit distracted and the first pull-through bit was clonky, but then we got it together a bit more. On the tight bit at the far end I did about 17 front crosses (OK, maybe not quite 17, haha) and she liked that. Unfortunately, between us we had a pole down ... I'm not sure but I think it was a pole that's I'd half backed into going a bit deep into the box so I may well had dislodged it with my bum before Maisie rolled it?!!... Oh well, we are a team, we'll take joint responsibility ;o) Shame really coz the last bit of the course was ace - I did a sudden sprint past the cloth tunnel to a blind pick-up - love doing those, I think it's the danger!!! hehe. In the end she got 5th anyway on 5F - her time something like 0.05 behind the winner - and she did stutter a fraction after the pole rolled, so if it hadn't ...... Oh well, it would've been a fluke win anyway, we weren't that fast but could've just got ridiculously lucky :) So that was Maisie done! Debated whether to stay for Tim's 1-2 Jumping class much later in the aft but had to wait for results/presentations anyway so did. 
Helen & I took our big lad passengers Jock & Billy ' the pathfinder' Woof for a really pleasant walk - partly along a canal and stream. Never ventured much forther than the exercise field there before so it was a great find and lovely for the boys to have their special bit of day too. During the aft I took Tim into the arena to try to chill him out a bit. It's not an easy place to work with them though coz you can't really find a space to sit out of the way. Eventually our course went up and it was a nice, simple flowing one - very Tim really, and it was in the smaller arena. He was much better than in the morning though still quite distracted. One bit of it went well - sent him out over 3 jumps to a tunnel and then out straight on to another jump then weaves with me wide on his left - he made a fair attempt at the weaves though unusually entered on the wrong side.
I really don't know what to do about future indoor shows with him. He clearly took a step backwards yesterday from how well he's started to do at the outdoor shows. I don't want to stress him too much when he's been coming so good and am half thinking of just giving him a rest from shows over the winter and focusing on more training. It's so much about confidence with that boy - he is a very delicate little flower. He did wander round there a lot last winter and through the day yesterday and became quite relaxed outside the ring, but once you get in there and ask them to work it is different? Also I saw several loose dogs run into rings - two with bovver on their minds and I think a dog that was running was actually hurt. If something like that happened to Tim it really would upset him lots - well it would any dog :o( On that last run when it went awry I brought him into me and gave him a quick stroke and then carried on and calmly did a little sequence and praised him. so he did come out of the ring on a positive. I'm quite scared of being told off for blatantly "training in the ring" but sometimes it's what's needed. Will see how he does at the next one and then decide what to do.
We called in at my parents' on the way home and were stroked and fed, respectively, so that was a nice finish to our long day out.