So off we went to Manchester yesterday, got there at 1pm and didn't get on stage till 7pm!! I was quite annoyed as Cas was the only dog there so they should have put her on early. Still she was okay and had fun playing with her pink furry pig lol.
Did some interviews for ITV2 and for ITV1, met Ben Shepherd (sp?) and Ant & Dec.
I was performing 'Cotton Eye Joe' as it is a bit more interesting and upbeat than 'In The Mood.' We did some practice in the holding room and she was fine. I was worried she might be a bit wide on her backward weave but nothing else could go wrong (or so I thought).
We were about to go on stage when they had a little break so we had a chat to Ant & Dec and I put some paw spray on Cas as the surface looked a little slippy. We got on stage and had a chat to Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan and Amanda Holden. Then given the cue to start, off we went. Anyone who knows Cas will know how focussed she is on me when performing and World War 3 could start and she would still perform, what happened next I could never, ever have imagined happen.
She did her first jump, started the backward weaves and then the beat in the music changed and the speakers were facing in to us, she totally freaked out, the noise was so loud. I tried so hard to coax her into doing some moves, we moved to the back away from the speakers and I managed to get a little out of her but nothing much at all, I wonder whether she could hear me as well as I was having to really shout over the music. Needless to say we didn't get through.
I feel so awful I put her through it, if I had known how she was going to react I would never have done it. The judges said she was the best they had seen so far, if they had a better surface and the speakers didn't scare the dogs then all the others would have probably performed too.
She has been in studios, at Country Fairs, Crufts etc. So it's not something we would have ever, ever imagined happening. I don't care that we're not through, I wouldn't have wanted to put her through it again anyway. Just feel awful that she had to go through it. As she loves her canine freestyle, she was fine though afterwards and was happy to get back to her pink pig
Meeting Ant & Dec was fab. But I know now that she will never be able to do anything like that, studios and Country Fairs etc. fine but the music was just far too loud and it had to be for all the audience to hear, so theatres are a no go.
And I know that if ever anything like this comes up again on stage it needs to be a really really laid back dog, I think Rum or Diz would be fine. I know Ember would probably yap at the speaker as she has done that at Crufts when we were sitting watching lol. So if ever you think about entering something like this, just think twice. I think the BBC1 show would be fine as it is only a studio, but this is in a theatre. Bear it in mind.
Oh and we weren't allowed to take pictures either!
Here she is back home with her pink pig
