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What a month! It started off with the European Opens in Sweden. A couple of days of travelling to get there, then a couple of days of pre-competition training and vet checks and finally the competition itself. I was delighted with how well Hayly and I ran in our first international competition. Hayly took all the travelling, the new environment and the heat completely in her stride. I was really pleased that we had a clear round and two rounds with just little faults too. I hugely enjoyed the courses, which although very demanding for the handler gave the dogs the opportunity to drive forwards on lots of sections (without requiring repetitive deceleration as you sometimes see on UK courses.) Just the kind of courses I enjoy.

The competition was incredibly well organised by the host nation, Sweden, but it was also well managed from the British team side. We travelled with a manager, vet, coach and chiropractor (and Zoe, who organised just about everything) and thanks to all of them the whole experience was smooth from start to finish. Well, thanks to all of them apart from a certain person who took my prawn hostage on the coach trip back... huhum, Graham! 

A big thank you to every single one of my fellow EO competitors who I had a brilliant laugh with... and at too when some of them fell over mid-course... I would never fall over while running my dog... 

Some photos of Hayly running at the EOs:  
 


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A week or so after I got back from Sweden, and although my car tried to persuade me not to go, I eventually made it to the KC International Agility Festival, and I'm glad I did. Unfortunately, I couldn't run Ivy which I was massively disappointed about as she had a small cut. However, Hayly won one of the classes which is always nice at such a large show, and also represented Scotland in the Nations Cup, beside Donna Kerse and Ace and Peter Elms and Jaff. Our little trio managed to finish in a podium place - 2nd overall. In 1st place was Finland, and 3rd was England. 

From KCI, Kirsty and I travelled on to DINAS which is a fantastic, huge show held completely for charity. Got a couple of places there and then we left to do the Sunday of Dundee show on our journey home. Fitness and performance wise, Hayly is on absolutely top-form at the moment. This was reflected in how well she did at Dundee, where she managed to get through to the champ final and then ran a beautiful clear 0.1 behind the winner, gaining her the Reserve CC.

Little Ivy was finally able to run again at the end of the week but having done very little for 4 weeks to allow her cut to heal, I was expecting her lack of fitness to be reflected in her performance. However, she was delighted to be able to do agility again and decided to win a grade 5 jumping class and a combined 4,5 agility class, taking her to grade 6. Can't believe my little girl is in seniors.      

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Bit of a mammoth update for me, but lastly I just want to say... to Hayly and Ivy for always putting 100% into every run they do... and and to everyone who has supported and cheered us on over the last month or so... Thank You.