Role Reversal

Only just the other day, L and I were trashing the concept of ‘runner’s nipple’ and what have I been suffering with since Friday? Yep, you guessed it. Or ‘fissure of the nipple’ to give it its correct title. How embarrassing. I’ve never had any such problems before and I always wear the correct type of ‘technical’ shirts and not cotton ones, just like you’re supposed to. I also have a bruise on my upper arm, which I’ve no idea how I got.

However all my wounds are trivial stuff compared with Miss Black ‘n’ Blue herself, who is struggling to even roll over in bed unaided. L always has to try and go one better and has outdone me in style. She’s bruised all over from the Survival Of The Fittest experience. Daughter even has to slice the bread for her so that she can have toast for breakfast. Despite that she’s off today to run, or maybe hobble, around the Merrill 10k.

Meanwhile I’m at the East Of England Showground, for a spot of dogging. Things don’t start well. Doggo skips his dog walk contact. So as soon as we leave the competition ring I drag him off to the practice one. Which is an ‘honour’ I’ve not bestowed on him in over three years. He looks gutted but is immediately better, although not perfect like he is in training. Hopefully that has given him the hint that I want him to be just as good in competition as he is in training.

MD makes a decent effort on a grade 1-7 course, which is above his usual level. He has only one jump down, although I do mean down, as in flattened. Both wings down as well as the pole.

Next up is his G3 course, his usual level. He’s perfect to jump 10 out of 20, then if all goes spectacularly wrong as he hurtles off down what I assume he thinks is the finishing straight, eventually hurdling the last jump with the timing gear on it. Only problem was, it was the start jump not the finish. An easy mistake to make I suppose, both have the timing gear on them. All the same though he should be taking instructions from me and not adlibbing.

Doggo redeems himself, temporarily. He is clear on his jumping course but then tries to take a chunk out of a Weimaraner, for which he gets booted. As in sentenced to a stint back in the car boot, which is where they usually travel. Whilst ‘he who usually get booted’, MD, is curled up quietly by my feet. Role reversal. L will never believe this.

So that’s all my runs done by 11am, bar one. I’ve got just one more to do with MD, in about four hours time... I pour a coffee from my flask and start reading the paper, slowly.

Bugger. A four hour wait and then MD does a near perfect clear round. So we’ve got to wait for the results now. I drain my flask and sip the last of the coffee, slowly.

We get 15th, not bad out of 185 entrants. Almost worth waiting four hours for. We’d have done even better if the judge hadn’t got in my way on the course. We took a revolutionary route and he clearly wasn’t expecting such innovation. Now I’ve just got to wait a little bit longer for the presentation and our rosette. Yet I’m all out of coffee.

Home for roast lamb, a take-out tub of ‘Brush’ from Fox and Crown and a romantic night with L. Who was a bit slower in her 10k than she had hoped for but after her exploits yesterday, it’s not surprising. So I won’t call her in for extra training.

Only thing is we’re both knackered, L protests that she got about as much stamina as a collie, and we both promptly fall asleep. Although not as promptly as the collies.

(Sunday 10th October)

We Needn’t Have Bothered

I’m at the East Of England Showground today, near Peterborough. Yes, it's another dog show. L joins me for the day out and I even manage to blag her a free ticket. It’s a full country show type thing, so there’s an admission charge for non-competitors.

On the competition front, things start well and Doggo seems up for it on a difficult course until he goes over a jump that he wasn’t supposed to, he should have been doing the A Frame. It may have been more my fault than his, he was going for it and I just didn’t have tight enough control of him. On his next course we get our combined acts together and we get a rosette for 10th.

MD in the typical fashion he has now adopted, follows a good first run with a bad second one and then rounds the day off with another good one. Although none of them are clear rounds, he does seem to be making progress and he’s undoubtedly getting quicker.

In their final runs of the day and for the first time ever the two dogs compete over the same course. This is because it’s an open class, that means open to all grades, you don’t get many of these. Doggo is clear in 27.4, MD has just five faults (a pole down) in 28.7. So not much between them time wise but MD at the moment is a bit wayward and hardly takes the shortest route. So I expect him to be going faster than Doggo fairly soon, though we still need to cut the faults out.

We head home mid-afternoon, all runs complete and as it starts to rain. Well first I give MD a quick run out in the practice ring. He’s a dedicated dog, training in the rain, not that I gave him any say in the matter.

We are back in ample time to head in to town to watch the England match, we needn’t have bothered...

At least we rescue the evening by having a good meal in Scruffy’s, including an awesome cheeseboard.