France!

Last year I decided I would really like to experience agility abroad and I love France so I picked a French show and had the dogs – Rum and Ember (I didn’t bother with Cas as she is 9 now and only doing jumping so I thought she could stay and keep Diz company) vaccinated.
So we set off down to Poole to catch the ferry to St Malo, found a park for the dogs to have a run in at lunchtime and stumbled across a lovely little Italian restaurant by a lake. I was a little concerned as to how the dogs would be on the ferry but they were fine and they didn’t stress out at all. The ferry crossing was fairly smooth and we arrived in St Malo early evening.

I had decided to rent a cottage in South Brittany in the hope we would get some sun, well the cottage was more in Loire Atlantique in a little village called Les Moutiers ens Retz. On our way down we stopped at a service station to feed the dogs and let them off for a run and arrived at the cottage late evening.

We were up early to go to the show in Ploermel, it was quite a big show as there were two rings rather than the usual one – makes a difference from the 14 at Thames! We had to look up what our ring number was on a list then book in, at this point the competitors hand in their licences to compete which are then handed back out at the end, because I didn’t have one of these I handed in my record books. Then the running orders are listed for all your classes. I had four classes with Ember and 3 with Rum as Rum is not KC reg so he doesn’t get to run in the level class.

Ember was running first in the Open Agility which was a qualifier. In France you have to have your dog off lead while the dog in front is competing and you then walk to the start with the dog under control (you are unable to touch your dog, well you are once but sometimes this can be interpreted as more than once by the judge and you would be E’d so it’s best not to at all!) and wait for the judge to tell you to go. I was pleased that I managed to get both the dogs to the start without them bombing off over a jump lol!

So Ember, in the first agility she had the first pole down (she was in category A which is our equivalent of small but the jumps were a bit higher), she then missed her A-frame and had another jump down but I was really pleased otherwise as the weaves are spaced further apart, the tyre was tiny and she has never seen a table in the ring. This was then followed by another Open Agility (not a qualifier), this was a disaster, she knocked that many poles down I lost count!! And she slipped at the end of the weaves (the metal bar was really thick in the middle). Unfortunately I missed her level class as I thought she was in 2-eme degree but she was actually in 3-eme degree, these level classes are the only classes that count towards progression, so you could win hundreds of opens and stay in level 1 as it’s only the level one classes that count. All dogs start in level 1. Finally the jumping class, she was fab in this, had a pole down near the start so I didn’t really work the tunnel entry as well as I should have done and she went in the wrong end but otherwise she ran really nicely.

Rum had the Open Agility (non qualifier) first and did a lovely run but I just lost him in the tunnel – grrr shame as he ran really well. Then the other agility and he missed his down contact on the dogwalk but then I struggled to get him in the tunnel and when he landed after the wall he took the wrong jump I didn’t work him into his turn. In this class the judge had said you must leave the ring when E’d. Finally jumping and grrr he went into a tunnel again when he shouldn’t have – obviously something we need to work on!!

Everybody has to wait until the end where you all sit and watch the presentations, after this you then get your licence back with a copy of your results for each dog. It was a great experience, thank you to Theresa for helping me with everything. Am so pleased with the dogs considering they learnt the table at home last week and have never done it in the ring and the weaves are a lot further apart which Rum seemed more comfortable with but Ember just looked like she was running between them ha!

Well we had a lovely week, a lot of the time it was too hot to take the dogs out during the day so they were better off stopping in the house which was kept cool with the shutters closed. It was lovely to go for a run along the promenade first thing in the morning with the dogs off lead not having to worry about traffic etc. The one day it was cool enough to take the dogs to the beach late afternoon, so we all went for a swim which was fab – Rum is such a strong swimmer!! He easily pulled me back to shore.

Here are a couple of piccies: