A Useful Trick, Sometimes

Another early start, another dog show, in Wellingborough this time but there’s an even earlier start for L who picks Daughter up at 5am. There’s a strategy here, Daughter and Son both need to be on coach to Milton Keynes by 11am for the Foo Fighters gig they’re going to.

L comes to Wellingborough with me and has to organise the kids getting out the house and to the coach from a hundred miles away, which proves stressful. Yeah I know they’re both adults now and should be able to catch a coach unaided but it’s good to make sure, particularly when expensive coach and concert tickets are riding on it.

My schedule for the dog show is about as inconvenient as it gets. MD has drawn numbers 1 and 8 in two classes that both start at 8.30am, which isn’t feasible, so I make my apologies to the class he is due to run at 8 in and promise to get there as soon as possible.

His 'number 1' class is against dogs in grade 4, one level above him, so predictably he goes clear in that, where he's unlikely to get anything, but not in the second one for his grade only, where he may well have done.

As expected, against the dogs of grade 4 we get pushed out of the placings but by only half a second and we wasted far more than that when MD turned left off one jump when he should have turned right. This was my fault really, we’ve been practising like mad getting him to turn away from me rather than towards me which is the natural way, but it's a useful trick to have in your armoury. It’s just that he’s only supposed to do it when I tell him too and on this occasion I swear I didn’t.

His third and final run comes up soon after but doesn’t go well. Meanwhile poor old Doggo has to wait and wait in the increasing heat for his runs, finally running his first at 4pm and then his second straight after that. Not ideal for an old timer. As I said, possibly the most inconvenient schedule ever. He’s clear in the first, although just outside the placings, but looked a bit tired and wasn’t in the second.

We’re not the only ones hanging around. The kids are in MK for around 1.30, the first band doesn’t hit the stage until 4.30. So we get home and have the house to ourselves, which is always nice.

The day ends pretty much as it started with another late night/early morning Daughter (and Son) collection. We pick them up at 2am from the bus station.

(Sunday 3rd July)