Well, we made it to the show on 25th April. Solei did his obedience, and I also put all 3 boys in the pedigree classes for a bit of fun…Elton (who behaved horrendously! It was only the 2nd time he’d ever shown on grass, which was also rather long for his little legs – so movement was barely assessable!) was 3rd in Any Variety Puppy, Solei 3rd in Any Variety Open and Darwin won Any Variety Non-Sporting.

Solei did two obedience classes. The easier class he did very well, the harder class was fine except the retrieve! As I mentioned last time, retrieve and Solei aren’t a match made in heaven at the best of times. On this occasion he wasn’t paying attention to where I threw it, so I sent him out to fetch it, he sniffed about for a while looking for it and then decided he’d give up and run in very fast enormous circles round the field(!!!) When he gets like that there’s no calling him back, so I waited for him to do a few laps and get it out of his system and then called him back – he came and the judge asked if I’d like to do that again! We did, and actually he did it very nicely the second time – shame it didn’t count!

I also did the bottom class with Darwin, for a bit of fun. He wasn’t very good but he did it! His major failing was the down stay – I haven’t done any practice on grass (I never thought I'd have him this long, so he was never intended for obedience - just conformation) and he broke it because the smells were too much and he felt the need to get up and sniff them properly. Needless to say he didn’t place, neither did Solei in the harder class – but my little star won the easier class! Really pleased with him, especially given that was his first obedience in show environment since last September.