Sunday 29 March 2009

Magic's big adventure







I didn't feel like it - still got a cold and infected sinus - but we went to UKA Waverunners. It was freezing cold with an icy east wind. The venue was covered in foul goose turds that the cockers found irresistible to roll in and eat.... and to top it the loos were shut as they'd flooded.

I'd put Magic in the nursery agility and decided to run him over the small height to encourage him not to run under the jumps. When I got him and took him to the ring he was sooooo excited and barked and jumped up and down. He was so excited he took off and jumped the first jump and ran past the dog walk. However that was his only 5 faults and otherwise it was a nice round. In the steeplechases he was entered at medium jump height. I was very pleased as he jumped well and fast, he just messed up the start due to over excitement ...and suceeded in knocking me over when he went into overexcited bambi. I'm told I fell very gracefully and got up and finished well within course time!!!

I won't write about Rup on Saturday. The less said the better. He played up all day - even left the ring for a mouthful of goose poo and, again on a hunt to find mummy to remind her it was getting towards tea time.

That night we had the Wimbledon Whizzers first birthday party. It's quite amazing that a club who only started a year ago have been so successful with 3 teams, 2 starters teams. Run their own winter warmer and got enough variety of dogs to run a multi breed league!!!! Rupert got a certificate for being the most versatile dog and Magic for being the youngest dog to attend training (...memories of him aged 9 weeks in a warm canvas dog carrier, braking and whining to be let out to have a go!) So we were late in bed...

At 7am I felt we had time in hand when we left for Waverunners. I then realised the clocks had gone forward and it was really 8am!!! So we arrived as the courses were just finishing walking. The nursery agility was very technical and Magic forgot about his contacts. (I think at the next UKA, I'll go NFC in the nursery to double check he does know them in the ring as he is 100 per cent in training.)

I decided to do Tellington Touch with him to calm and focus him before the Steeplechase. This worked. Plus it was a Magic course with an exciting tunnels sequence early on after a good run and the fiddly bits half way. I took it slowly and we ran on 2nd and 3rd gears. That's the beauty of Magic you can control him when he is calm. He was very responsive to left and right signs. Well, we went clear and he was 2nd!!!!

Somehow all the novice courses came at the same time and started on midi. So we walked about 3 courses and Rupert went from ring to ring. So Magic was a bit manic when I got him out of the van for the 2nd steeplechase. I tried to calm him down but there wasn't a lot of time. To top it we were next to a very yappy snappy dog which didn't help. Magic just shot off and headed for the first tunnel he could see and got an E. When he did come back and knuckled down he was fantastic.

Well, I'm really pleased with him and that 2nd place. He's now got points on the Gun Dog League like his big brother. I'm really looking forward to next week and to the not so far ahead future when we can run him in 4th gear or rather Jordan can as he runs much faster than me!!!

Jordan and Rup got rather a lot of rosettes. They are only a few games points away from senior.

3 comments:

Vicki said...

well done with the 2nd - thats great.

Are you at Scrambles next week?

Kerena and Jordan and The Cocker Circus said...

Yeah we are at Scrambles next week. The Fri and Sunday as have flyball Sat. Hopfully I'll have got my voice back and can have a chat re the raw feeding.

Glad you did so well. You msut be in senior now.

Nat said...

Am loving those pics, he looks very keen!! :)

Good luck over the weekend!