A-roo roo roo!

Here we are on a beautiful warm Sunday morning taking a well earned rest out in the yard. What a couple of weeks it has been for us. Lots of agility, and lots of travelling. We started off by going to a place called Kelmarsh last weekend for the Kennel Club's International Agility Festival. It was such great fun, with lots to see and do.

Both Tallulah and I had qualified for the Starters Cup this year, and here I am in one of the two classes which lead up to the finals. I went clear in both of my rounds, but I was a bit unsure of the place as I had never been there before, so I took my time as I went around. This meant I was too slow to qualify for the finals, but mum says there is always next year. Tallulah had just struck top form in time for the festival, having had a very patchy year with problems with her tummy and also a grass seed which embedded itself under her armpit. She was quite wild when she returned to the ring and went a bit crazy. Mum didn't mind at all, because she was so pleased to see Tallulah enjoying herself racing around the ring, instead of lumbering and looking very unhappy, which had been the story of the year for her.

As for lumbering. Yes I did too - initially. However, a month or so ago, I went to the Empingham show and it was there I ran the race of my life. I went very fast, negotiated all the obstacles and came out with a clear round. Mum heard somebody say "I wish I could get my dog to run ahead of me and take directions like that". Mum was so very pleased with my performance that she gave me an extra big hug. Mum's friend Tracy then went to check my time and came back looking shocked! "49.853 seconds is what they said"!!!! WHAT???? I KNOW I went faster than that. Much much faster. Mum was very annoyed and complained, but the person who was watching the timer had made a big mistake and had misread the machine. Mum said it was more like a 29 second round, or perhaps even faster. The timers can go wrong at shows, or even be misread on a very bright day - which it was. Mum could have insisted upon a re-run but the disappointing thing for her was that this was the first really confident and polished performance I had ever put up in the ring, and mum wanted to use this time as a benchmark as to what I am capable of achieving, as well as to see how this could have been built upon....... but the moment had been lost. A re-run may not have produced the same enthusiasm as I had the first time around.



Then came the Kennel Club international..... once I had settled into the venue, off I went again. I was racing round the ring, really enjoying myself. There were some very difficult sequences on one of the courses, and after walking it mum said that she wished it had been for Tallulah, as it was definitely set for a more experienced dog than I. Huh, well, I had other ideas. I sprung into action and off I went. I was really enjoying myself. Difficult sequences???? who said? I breezed my way through them like a true athlete...... then "gaaaaaaaaaasp" went the spectators...."ooooooh noooo" they cried.

I found myself in the collapsible tunnel and I was unable to get out. I pushed and pushed with my nose and head. I pushed really hard, but the tunnel wouldn't open up enough for my shoulders to come through. "Push" shouted mum "I am - I am pushing - very hard" I replied. The tunnel then got knotted up all around me and I started panicking. Mum and the judge were just about to pull it off me when I managed to find a gap to reverse myself out. I shook myself down and mum said "go through Barkley". As I am bold, I ran back in. Once more I pushed and pushed. This time it gave way and out I came. I finished the remainder of the course clear.

Despite getting stuck, I finished the course in 44.123 seconds, so much for the near 50 second time on the Empingham course eh? - where nothing untowards happened! Mum was really disappointed for me, and so was the judge. He came and said to mum "how unlucky was that?". He gave me a big pat. However, once mum had thought about it, she believed there were grounds for a re-run, because it was obvious that the tunnel was pegged at an angle which made it difficult for a large dog like myself to get out of. Mum later discovered that other large dogs had got into trouble there too. Never mind. I really really enjoyed the show, and even though there were 19 rings in operation, we thought it was exceptionally well run. We are really looking forward to competing there again next year. There were great exercise areas for us to run, socialise and play in too, when we weren't in the ring or resting. Well done to all the organisers of the festival. What a superb venue and organisation.

"It was very well run wasn't it Barkley, but what about the next place we went to. It was the exact opposite, why don't you say something about that?".

"Oh yes Tallulah. I really think I ought to say something".

The next journey was very long. We had been in the car for something like 5 hours, with a brief stop to relieve ourselves. It smelt very nice when we got there, but Aunt Tracy seemed extremely upset about something, and then so was mum.

Mum said the place was Wales. It was extremely beautiful. The agility show was part of a very large country fair, indeed, it was said to be the largest in Wales. After the long journey, all mum and Aunt Tracy wanted to do was relax and get themselves sorted out. When we arrived at the showground, nobody seemed to know where we should go. Mum handed people the directions which the agility show organisers had given her, but nobody took any real notice of them, so we were sent here, there and everywhere, apart from where the agility section was. We reached dead ends, a dog breed show (which wasn't where we should have been), and eventually we had to travel through hoards of people, like you would only see at Crufts. Eventually we saw the agility equipment and breathed a sigh of relief. Aunt Tracy went to check where we were to camp...... the next thing was Aunt Tracy almost launched into orbit. Our camping place had gone!!! The area had been re-organised and there was no space for us. They told us to drive out through all the crowds again to go to another area which was quite some way away. If this wasn't bad enough, poor Aunt Tracy was seriously suffering with the arthritis in her wrists, therefore she really could not tolerate another 30-40 minutes of edging her way through vast crowds and then back through heavy traffic in order to make our way back into the opposide side of the showground.

Mum and Aunt Tracy were very upset indeed, especially as all of us dogs were quite hot, stressed, and desperately needed to get out to stretch our legs. After a real scene, a place was found for us to stay, but then we discovered there was no proper exercise area for us to stretch our legs and for us to toilet. The only area which was provided, was so so tiny, and so close to the cars making their way too and from the car-parks, that allowing us off the leash was fraught with danger. There were no washing facilities for mum and Aunt Tracy, and with all the crowds which were there, it was going to be impossible for us to drive out of the venue to a nice area until 7.00pm in the evening! How awful, not only from our point of view, but for mum and Aunt Tracy who had planned a relaxing few days, visiting the beach, meeting up with old friends, and meeting up with some new friends we had made online.

Eventually, mum's friend who lives in the area came along, parked her car right at the opposite end of the show ground, and then came and collected us, so that we could go to the beach:

It was great fun, but we only spent a very short time there, as the gates to the show ground closed again at 8.00pm, and that was it. We were stuck back up in the corner once more. Then to add to the misery, the rains came down. Poor Alfie, one of Aunt Tracy's little dogs, refused to relieve himself the whole time we were there, as he was very unhappy. He eventually waited until we returned home, which we did after two days. We had planned to be there 5 days in total had it all gone according to plan. Mum says we wont ever go back to that show again, although we will go back to beautiful Pembrokeshire.

You see, I am in l-e-r-v-e.

I eventually managed to meet up with my internet sweetheart. She was attending the breed show, so I went to look for her. Here she is with some of her family.



Gways ("Grace - Barkley!!!"). She has her own blog too. She is the one at the front pulling very hard to get to me.



Gways is madly in lerve with me too, and she wants us to get married when she grows up. Mum is busy planning our proper holiday, so that we can all meet up and go running and playing together. I like bashing Gways around the head and making her run.

Another good thing which came out of our visit to that awful show, was little Alfie. Despite being very upset about the lack of exercise areas, he ran very well on a very damp, cloudy and windy morning and won the grade 1 small dog agility. Alfie now joins us in grade 2, which means that Aunt Tracy can run us if mum is unable to do so.

Well done to Aunt Tracy and Alfie. We always knew that you are a winner!