Lovely weather, fantastic setting with Wilton House as a backdrop and a much bigger turnout than had been expected at the Wessex Country Fair – but I wasn’t really happy with our performance. Yes, the audience “Ooohed”, “Aaahed” and clapped at all the right places and the dogs completed their routines, but it was all a little ragged for my liking.
Poppy did her usual “I’m in the public eye now so I’m going to bugger about cos I know you can’t do anything about it” routine, lifting several times from the sit/stay, hoop and pen. Then she decided to tuck in to the dummy before retrieving it. Daisy’s runout to the blind retrieve involved a quick lap of the arena. The finale in the retrieving section of a double split retrieve also hiccuped. All these things the crowd found amusing, but I couldn’t share in the hilarity – particularly as last week’s show had gone so well and because rehearsals had been perfect. Problems with the PA system didn’t help either. Grrrrrr!
Expecting too much from animals? Maybe. Too much of a perfectionist? Almost certainly. I am constantly reminded by those who help me run the displays (Andrea, Anne, Barry, Andrew, Beks, Ems and Rob) that the crowd’s reactions both during and after are what really matter. And we did receive a lot of positive feedback.
But it wasn’t up to the standard I know we can achieve.
Still, I got to met the Earl and chat about training his Golden Retrievers, the training clinic I ran after the demo with Rachel’s Vizsla was fun and I got a free cup of tea and a ham sandwich. So it wasn’t all bad.
No more shows for a couple of weeks, then we’re off on our summer hols before the final two day show at another beautiful venue, Breamore House near Fordingbridge, on 3 & 4 October. Then it’ll be away with the canvas dummies and out with the fur and feather as the shooting season gets underway. Can’t wait!