Well this is going to have to be rather a potted account as it's been longer than I thought since my last update!

So, yes - Paignton - Elton & Solei. Solei I was actually pleasantly surprised with - he worked first and he started off really nicely, but it was already quite hot, the ground wasn't the best and the heelwork pattern was very long - so it went downhill rapidly! He really seemed to struggle, you could see him seem to find it more and more of an effort. But it was still an improvement on the previous year!

Elton showed sooo well :-) He wasn't moving quite as well as he should because he was too enthusiastic :lol: but I had the dog I showed in junior back :-D which was just amazing (he is coming back, slowly...and we were off grass too, which helped). He got a 5th in Limit Dog, which I was a bit disappointed with, but in Limit it's still a decent result.

The next day I finally managed to get the tunnel out in the garden! Had a short session with the boys (one at a time) and a couple with Ria - except that fun thing she did at 15 weeks, the first time she's seen a tunnel! It went really well, very, very pleased with her :-)

Then came National Gundog. Umm...what can I say :-P Ria didn't go quite as well as at Paignton, but only in a bouncy puppy sort of way - only the occasional moment! She had a 2nd in Puppy Bitch, and was beaten by a (much older) puppy that was so terrified it refused to be gone over! It was really, really bad - she shouldn't even have been placed, much less won the class. So that was...umm...interesting.

The next day we had another open show, toys were inside and gundogs outside. The weather was awful, it poured most of the morning, then stopped and it was actually very pleasant - but unfortunately just as Ria's class (AVNSC Puppy) went into the ring it started raining again. So the judge didn't really go over them, and I think wanted to get it done asap! Ria went well until he moved us again at the end, when she just wasn't as settled. He pulled us out "as we were" which given Ria was on the end was not good - should've had her first lol

Elton, on the other hand, had Best of Breed out of a Papillon entry of 11 :-) So very pleased with him!

Monday evening was my obedience club's fun night. They had an agility course set up, so having been practising at home, Ria got to try a new tunnel! Only the tunnel - wasn't time for anything else. Elton did the tunnel too, but with a jump. I was going to put Solei round the course, but he decided it was more fun to do jump, jump, tunnel, bugger off :-P

10th was another open show. Elton wasn't very settled, had a 3rd. Went really well in the Junior Warrant heat at the end of the day, he was so tired he actually curled up and went to sleep on my lap whilst we were waiting! (big class) But it did mean he was lovely and settled on the move and really moved out, rather than messing about. Was still thrown out though! Maybe we can find an in between state? haha

Ria went really well, I was so proud of her. She was in AVNSC Puppy again, there were 5 in the class and she was the baby. She had 2nd! Beaten by an English Springer Spaniel who turned a year old the next day (and the ESS also had Puppy Group 3).

Sunday popped up to a fun day/companion show. Ria had a 4th in AV Puppy and Solei did the obedience and I thought was appalling but the judge disagreed and he got 2nd haha. Was going to do it with Ria and Elton too but decided to skip it. They had a little area set up with have a go agility - just three jumps in a straight line, round to a tunnel and then six weave poles. Having done quite a lot with Ria in the garden over the last couple of weeks I wanted to see what she'd done, so we put the jumps on the ground and I left her in a wait at the first jump....walked on to the third jump, called her and she came flying over the jumps! Had to show her a couple of times that I wanted her to go into the tunnel, but she did it eventually - and then I sent her round again in the same way but this time she did the tunnel no problem. Very impressed!

Then yesterday we've been to Bournemouth Champ Show. Toys and Gundogs on different days with a day between them and it's too far to go twice, so I'd only entered Ria. She had yet another 2nd (that's three champ shows done and three 2nds - I'd like 1sts but I'm not complaining, better than 3rd or lower!) but I was very pleased that the judge came out of the ring to find me and said was a lovely puppy she was :-) and to keep showing her, that it was very close between 1st & 2nd but the other puppy was just more mature (I'd hope so, she was nearly 11 months!)

Another show tomorrow! Then on Friday, and then after that it calms down - I've never done so many in such a short space of time before.