Well we finally went and did it, after a couple of years of well on and off training, Poppy and ella (and obviously myself) have competed at
KC licenced Heelwork to music competitions,
our first show was held at West Glen, the venue was exceptionally small with dogs and people jostling for room, despite Ella being very on edge with unknown people/dogs/environment we both managed to present a nice routine in the starters HTM class dancing to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
, ok some of the freestyle parts at the beginning did not go to plan and because the ring size was very small she occasionally returned to her prop where we had started the routine, we were placed a very credible 7th in a class of 18
Poppy and I then competed in the Starters freestyle class and danced to Come follow the band from Barnum, poppy is quite the opposite to ella and loves crowds (people and dogs) so I was very surprised when poppy never put a foot wrong throughout the whole routine and responded to the move cues as soon as asked, we were placed 10th in a class of 14 I think but i was told I had slightly too much heelwork in a freestyle routine and i know the ending was a little messy (I was asking poppy to roll a musical drum with her feet and I was pulling it with my hands , unfortunately we only managed to have the drum for a fortnight before the show and did not perfect the move intime)
all in all we acheived 100 times more than I ever expected to in our first show and am still shell shocked at how they both remained with me
Anyway our second show soon loomed 2 weeks later at Aberystwyth (last saturday), unfortunately Poppy came in season afew days previous and was unable to go but ella competed for the 2nd time in starters htm and am pleased to say she was placed 3rd in class of 14, we acheived some immaculate heelwork positions (something which is quite hard with a small dog) but we did mess up the freestyle beginning and end a bit
So, Ella has collected 4 of the 14 points needed to move up to the next class
but this is something I am in no rush to do as both ella and myself need more performing experience
What I would like to say is any of you which are training a little bit of htm , do have a go at the competitions everyone is so friendly in this discipline and received loads of positive comments (particularly about working spaniels
) and helpful advice from complete strangers whom watched the routines, well we now have plenty to work at now over the winter before we start some competitions in the spring but in a very long winded way
I am trying to say how proud I am of my girls, they are little gems
