The RSCTA 2009 Fun day was held once again in the beautiful Vale of Belvoir. It was well attended with 15 Roughs, 17 Smooths taking part along with their owners and a number of other breeds. It was lovely to see an increase in the number of Rough Collies taking part in the event. Thankfully the April weather was once again kind to us.

The morning started with some hard work. Before the event had started a cohort of silver Good Citizen hopefuls drove off to do the road test. Obedience sessions to brush up on Bronze and Silver Good Citizen skills followed and then Penny Evans kindly examined the candidates. There was an excellent pass rate with 6 achieving the Bronze Good Citizen Award and 2 passing the Silver Good Citizen award. Well done to all participants!

Whilst all this was happening, Amanda Hampson, who represented the UK at the World Agility Championships in both 2006 and 2007, and who qualified for the England team in the European Championships in 2008, was providing some expert tuition to those members competing at agility. She put Rough and Smooth Collies through their paces on tricky turns, weaves and contact work. As always, Amanda was very sympathetic to the needs of the Collies and she ran an extremely enjoyable session.

In addition, Delia Moores provided some ringcraft training for those looking to better their skills in the breed ring. Everyone was very grateful when lunchtime finally arrived.

After lunch, the agility equipment was adjusted so that everyone could have a try, and Pen, Nat and Ann helped aspiring agility enthusiasts to start to learn to navigate the equipment. All the dogs and handlers enjoyed it and it seems certain that once again there will be some newcomers into the sport.

Whilst Delia and Paul drew the raffle, our games specialists, Ann Miller and Nat Silcock set up some new Collie challenges for the Roughs and Smooths. First up, was musical weave poles—handler or dog had to negotiate some low agility obstacles until the music stopped and then find their own weave pole which became harder and harder as the game progressed. This was followed by a recall knockout and then a game the dogs loved, knockout toy retrieve!

By the end of the day, all Collies and handlers were exhausted from all the activities. But, somehow, everyone had found time to catch up, reunite with old friends and chat about anything Collie.

To see the wonderful photographs of the event taken by RSCTA member Colin Page, click here