BCC of GB

I missed the BFA AGM this year as it was the Border Collie Club of Great Britain Championship breed and agility show this weekend, they tend to hold the club show the weekend after Crufts so that visitors from abroad can combine both shows in their visit over to the UK which is a great idea and also ensures a good healthy entry. The class sizes here are not far of those at Crufts and it’s a good show for catching up with folk, more relaxed and less hectic than Crufts (well, usually anyway!). This is only the second year that the club have also held an agility show at the same event and I didn’t go last year but this year thought I’d be brave and attempt to do both. I entered Mouse, Faith, Mercy and Spark in the breed show (although I’d forgotten I’d entered Mercy and didn’t take her!! Doh!) and Faith and Teal in the agility; just two classes each Graded 1-4 jumping and agility for Faith and Combined 1-4 jumping and agility for Teal. Of course, the heavens opened on Saturday so I had to bath dogs and try to keep them clean amongst all the mud…typical! We travelled over Sat evening and stayed with my friend Julie at Trevellis Border Collies so we only had a short journey to the venue in the morning.

Agility

We got there shortly after 8am and I went and walked both of Faiths courses, this was her first time competing outdoors and I was hoping she would be less overwhelmed and more focused with the more open spaces…I was wrong! I decided to run her courses early and get them out the way, the jumping was first, started tyre and 6 weaves, I knew she could do this so wasn’t too worried but she ran staright past the weaves (as I saw a lot of other dogs do too) so I had to bring her back…she was just hyper and not at all focused so she made a very pathetic attempt at the weaves and I made her come back and do them again…it took 4 attempts but by this point she was just off her head, we did jump – tunnel – jump and retired from the ring.

Here’s Veronica running Ice (Bryning Osprey) on the same course…

To quote Veronica…Still 'mad as a box of frogs' but great fun to run lol

My heart also sank when I saw the jump-dogwalk start in the agility…such a common start to a course and one I know will guarantee Faith will go under the first jump. She is so focused on the contact equipment and she’s only a small dog, you sit or stand her in front of a large jump and her natural gaze will be right underneath it…I wish we double poled as standard here like they do in the US…anyway, she did exactly as I predicted and went straight under the first jump, did a nice dogwalk did jump 3 but went under 4 and then over 5 , you were then supposed to repeat 3 and 5 but instead she ran up the A-frame (also very predictable) and at that point completely lost the plot and was just looking around all eagle eyed to see what else she could do…we retired from the ring (again!). I have decided that there is no point trying to compete with her until we do more regular training; then hopefully the novelty will wear off and she will realise that agility is a serious business. We don’t have this problem at flyball but she’s done much more training for that; when we’re going to find time to do more agility training I really don’t know??

I didn’t get to run Teal’s courses ‘til right at the end of the day and she’d spent the day sat in Julie’s van at the agility end of the showground. Oh yes, I forget to mention that, unlike last year, this year they decided to have the breed rings and agility rings at opposite ends of the showground! I spent the whole day running back and forth and nearly missing everything…I was exhausted! This is not conducive to a happy confident cocker! That said I was pleased with her, unfortunately both her classes had 12 weaves in them and I know she’s not 100% on 12 weaves because we haven’t done nearly enough training on them (about 3 x 5 min sessions actually)…what was funny is that at home she’s been going in fine and coming out at 10…in competition she kept going in at 3? Bless her, she really didn’t think she’d done anything wrong and she wouldn’t knowingly anyway, she is a very biddable little dog and always tries her best. We did her agility run first and I totally mishandled the start (idiot!) but was caught by surprise when she broke her wait…we got going and she did a nice running A-frame but…missed the weaves, then went in at 3 so I took her back for a couple more goes then eventually moved on. I wish I hadn’t done that because it made her very hesitant on the rest of the course, she likes to make sure she’s doing things right and that knocked her confidence and she was really slow. The rest ran ok apart from her missed dogwalk contact, I was too close to the equipment and in front of her and that makes her rush to catch me up; she’s much better if I hang back or stay wide (I know this so I don’t know why I didn’t do it?!).

Teal’s agility run (kindly filmed by David Wilson)


Her jumping run felt better, much faster and more flowing and I just ignored the weaves so she went in at 3 and completed the remaining 9; she was better for not realizing she’d done it wrong. Considering the tiny amount of training this little dog has had she’s a little cracker…I think that once we crack those weaves and build her confidence she’ll be super. We have entered a couple more shows at the end of May so I have 8 weeks to work on those things.

Breed Show

We’d dropped off my grooming table and fabric crates in the hall and I’d left my van parked up there and took just Faith and Teal down to the agility in Julie’s van so once Faith had finished her runs (thankfully without getting too dirty!) we walked back over to the hall and I started prepping them all for the ring. Bitches were being judged by Bruce Kilsby (WHenway). Mouse was in first in Junior Bitch, I had ummed and arrhed about whether to bring her, she’s only just turned 12 months and is still quite ‘puppy’ compared to a lot of the older bitches in that class, she’s just had her first season and is out of coat and also quite skinny; she’s at that age that’s hard to keep weight on. I’ve not had her out in the ring since October when she was a pain in the arse and wouldn’t move (too busy with nose on the ground sniffing!) so I was interested to see how she went. She’s quite a willing little dog so not so difficult to handle…I know she still has faults that I hope will improve with age but she also has a lot of things to like, she has a lovely reach of neck and turn of stifle and is very balanced and free moving in profile and she has a beautiful pretty head with lovely soft alert expression (there you go, that’s my critique on my own dog lol). There were 21 entered in junior bitch, it was a HUGE class with some really lovely young bitches, Mouse had her sniffy head on in the move out and back (as did a lot of others so maybe there was something very smelly on that patch of grass?) but she moved nicely on the circuit…she has a lovely long easy stride, especially for such a little dog so I was pleased when she was shortlisted and placed 5th (VHC).

The judging broke for lunch and during this break they had the special classes judged by Veronica Avory and what a thorough job she did too, this judging over-ran the lunchbreak so was moved inside to allow the main judging to resume in the outdoor rings. The first special class was Special Open (Agility) Dog stakes for dogs that were entered in both the breed and agility show; this was a well supported class with 13 entries which included a number of dogs that have done a lot of winning in the showring (including a champion) so I was over the moon when Vicki and Diesel (Bryning Don’t Stop Me Now at Ruffs) won it! Next up was the Special Open (Agility) Bitch stakes which I had entered with Faith; this also had a good entry of 12; Faith went really nicely…moved out well and we managed to control that rather exuberant tail! She is looking really well at the moment, having the litter has brought her on nicely, she’s broadened up, filled out but still very muscular rather than fat and her coat is in lovely condition at the moment too. I was pleased as punch when we ‘did the double’ and Faith also won this class. Sadly the main judge did not seem to like Faith at all and she was unplaced in Limit Bitch or AOC class.

Lastly I had Spark entered only in the Any Other Colour class which had a good entry of 10 and included some dogs that have done a lot of winning. The dog judge was Doug Collier (Collherd). It had been a long day for the boy and he was tormented by the number of bitches in season around the show so was making his ‘best ears’ and gay tail at anything that so much as looked his way! He decided he was madly in love with the Bitch CC winner (and eventual Best In Show winner) Caleykiz Rhythm in Black and was whining when she was in the ring during the bitch challenge…funny boy! (although she is a lovely little bitch so he has good taste at least lol). Thankfully Spark knows when he’s ‘working’ and behaved himself in the ring, he went nicely and won the class (good boy) making it once again into the dog challenge, he went nicely in the challenge but the Dog CC went to Aust Ch Sh CH Danari De Beers IMP (Aus) handled by Gary Clarke and the Reserve CC went to the lovely Oliver, Etherial Up in Lights IMP (Aus) handled by Sam Goulding. Really pleased for Sam and Heather, he looked an absolute picture of power and elegance on the move, lovely boy.

Am afraid I have no piccies of any of the dogs because everything was just so hectic and everyone seemed to be really busy the whole day. Will maybe pinch one of Vicki’s with Diesel when she gets them uploaded somewhere.

I had all the dogs out for a blast of a run on the showground before heading home, they are just wild when confronted with a big open space and were doing enormous speedway circuits of the van! Lol I left for home just before 6pm and expected to be home around 8 but…as I was heading over Saddleworth Moor on the M62 the van engine started making the most horrendous sound and I had to stop on the hard shoulder, I couldn’t see anything obvious and as I set off again it seemed fine until I put it in 5th gear and the banging started again….oh no…gearbox!! I came off the M62 at junction 22 and limped home cross country in 4th gear arriving home about 9.15pm, totally knackered and extremely pee’d off! Poor old van is currently in the garage waiting to have a new gearbox fitted and poor old me is skint!