Helpful Like That

I have Friday afternoon off work to help set up my club’s Winter Dog Show ahead of the event itself on Saturday. We have the venue just for a strict two hours from 5pm until 7pm, then I rush back home because we have guests.

Daughter and her +1 are coming around for dinner and in my absence L has cooked cottage pie. The main concern is whether we have enough wine after what happened last time...

We manage to not run out of wine but no one has room for Christmas Pudding. We really must stop doing all those races where they give these away to all the runners because we're not big Christmas Pudding eaters ourselves and clearly we can't give them away either.

I attend the show on Saturday without the dogs as it’s a more of a specialist type event with nothing for oldies like MD and not much for youngsters like the Lad. There was one event that the Lad could have had a go at but it seemed a bit unfair to drag him over for just the one run.

Not that they’re happy about me going without them and L gets barked up nice and early. They’re helpful like that. Then they get dumped again as L, Daughter and her +1 all go to Parkrun to run off their hangovers.

I don’t know why L has a hangover as I’m sure we only had one bottle between the two of us. Our guests must have accounted for the other four empty bottles. Then L and the boys spend the afternoon asleep, so perhaps it was only me who was restrained...

Meanwhile the Dog Show runs late due to a rather fastidious judge.

With no race again on Sunday, we reprise our run from Elvaston Castle with a few revisions to last weekend’s route to avoid traipsing through all the puddles that we encountered down the river path last time. We again do an extra lap with MD and then go visit my folks. 

(Sunday 26^th January)

First And Last

I return to Locko Park on Thursday for more dog show preparation and I even have sun cream on. Although this doesn’t seem to stop the insect bites. Bizarrely after two days of setting up in the heat, it then rains for most of the weekend when the event is actually on.

L arrives late on Thursday and complains she can’t find our motor home. She’s such a card. I have three kegs of beer and plenty of bottles of wine to take her mind off the camping.

Foodwise the club are laying on meals for Friday (steak and salad) and Saturday (Thai buffet). We manage to get a local Indian Restaurant to deliver us a curry on the Thursday.

The show goes very well from the club’s point of view and also very well for the Lad. It was his first proper show and I was worried he would be too distracted by all the other dogs there. I had my doubts about whether he would stay in his competition ring but he was brilliant. He had six runs in the 'baby' class and in one of them he set the fastest time but had a pole down so came 11th. Then in another he got a trophy for 3rd place. If we hadn’t done a massively wide turn on the last jump I think he would have won it.

Conversely it was MD’s last show before moving into the Veteran class. He was running at a height lower than what he should be jumping at, a practice which will be outlawed from next year, and he got a rosette for 2^nd place.

(Sunday 28^th July)

Nobody Votes For Us Again

We have a dog show today purely because the club are fund raising for a wall. Yes, it’s not just Trump who wants a wall. This though will be somewhat smaller than his 2,000 mile long pipe dream.

L is worried it might be too hot for the boys if I’m working all day but it’s not too bad, it’s practically snowing in fact. Not that L believes me.

MD and I have five largely unsuccessful runs between helping on the ring. They are not bad runs but nothing sensational. I ask L how her parkrun was? Not bad but nothing sensational apparently. The Lad however has a sensational day. He barks at everything, bites through another halti and then falls asleep in his box ready to come home.

In the evening, it’s Eurovision where nobody votes for us again. Yet there doesn’t appear to be much wrong with our song, just our country. 

(Saturday 12^th May)

A Small Hollow Victory Of Sorts

I have booked another dog show today but my schedule permits me a late start and a lie in of sorts.

The event is over in Solihull and when I arrive I get to walk two courses but don’t get to do a run before lunch. When we do run them our run of bad form, Crufts qualification aside, continues. Neither of them are clear then it rains, hard. Our final course takes place in a paddy field and because everyone else bottles out of running it we come 3^rd. A small hollow victory of sorts, then we head home to dry out.

(Monday 29^th May)

Class Sizes

Back to trusty Catton Park for a dog show today where, lo and behold, MD and I remain on speaking terms. We have an excellent clear first run despite me nearly falling over on the damp ground. Then we follow that up with another clear round, so most definitely, still speaking. Sadly, he came out of his weaves on his third and final run but we leave with two fourth places but just one rosette due to the different class sizes. We are even all finished by lunchtime.

L is at Forest Rec parkrun where she is actually running and avoiding all pushchairs, just in case she ends up doing the honours again. Apparently, there are plenty of volunteers to help today, they are probably all saving themselves so that they can beat me at the Lichfield Half tomorrow.

As am I. So, it’s a night in with an early night although not necessarily a sleeping one and no alcohol. 

(Saturday 6^th May)

Like Buses

It’s our final dog show of the year today indoors at Collingham. We make a decent start, in fact a very decent start, as we win our first class and it’s an elusive agility win. Personally I thought he’d missed his A Frame contact but apparently he got a toe nail on it.

This leaves him one win, any win, from promotion to Grade 6.

We have a weave problem in our second run but then, like buses, you wait forever for a win and then two come along one after the other. We win another agility and go Grade 6. We might have to widen the door at home to get his head through.

We have a third place as well but that hardly seems worth mentioning.

While all this is going on L is parkrunning at Forest Rec and then heads off to the library for a sit-in protest about it being closed. Although as far as I can see it’s being closed to be modernised and reopened, albeit maybe not on the same site.

AF tonight, I’m Turkey Trotting tomorrow.

(Saturday 10^th December)

Still A Word?

The first day of three days competing at our own dog agility show and MD does incredibly well recording 6^th and 9^th in his two jumping classes together with a 10^th in an agility one. It would have been a fourth clear round out of four runs had his handler been up to the task.

His handler, who may or may not have been struggling with a slight hangover, got him eliminated in his final run.

In the evening we visit the local pub in Walton on Trent. The White Swan appears to have had a complete overhaul and is no longer a Marston’s identikit foodie joint. The Pedigree is still on the bar but so are a couple of local beers too and the food menu has changed immeasurably. The menu now consists of some interesting oblong (is that still a word?) pizzas, the dreaded ‘posh’ burgers (of course) and some ‘stick’ dishes. These are massive vertical skewers that come in various flavours. This is what we order and they're not bad but we certainly didn’t need the soup starter. At least the dogs got supper.

(Friday 29^th July)