Tuesday 21 July 2009

A New Partnership











After a very tense week due to the problems we're having at the moment and worries about Rup's sporting future, we went to Ashfordby for the BAA Mid summer Madness Show.
Rup had had his first session of Galen massage and I feel he is looser. However he had also had the first 2 steroid injections which the vet feels accounts for his looseness. I'm not sure which is benefiting Rup - all I can say is he is quite hyped up with the steroids and I do slightly regret doing the injections at this time of year. He has one more tomorrow and the last the day we leave for the UKA Nationals next week.
The weekend kicked off with the Disney fancy dress and Jordan and Rup came 2nd as Will Tuner and Capt Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. Magic was due to join in but was sacked due to trying to chew up Rup's cutlass and pistol. Then we got forked lighting just as we were about to do 2 handlers, one dog and the rings closed for 40 mins.
I decided to work extra hard at getting Jordan running with Magic. J played frisbee with Magic and suddenly Magic decided he was OK running with Jordan and didn't need to keep running back to see Mummy providing she stands on the start line. Magic is much better runnnig with Jordan as he has quite a long fast stride and Jordan runs faster than I do and strides alongside him better. BAA is all heights and I was pleased that they clocked up 4 clear rounds just outside the placings with times of 18 secs. I do think Magic and Jordan will be up in the first 3 next year as Magic is still not working away, lacks confidence, weave entry needs polishing and he isn't yet at full speed. Jordan and Magic are still developing thier communicating and it's interesting as J is using directional claps to run Magic. As you can see from the photos he is economical on his turns. It should be easy for them to loose seconds. They also came 6th in the advanced juniors.
Rup was defiantely slower than normal due to the impact of the steroids on his behaviour. But was clear most of the time and got in the placings.
Well, I'm dogless again but hopfully the next cocker will be my dog. I will run Magic when he starts Agility classes at shows. We've taken him off agility due to needing to polish the run contact. Personally I'm happy to follow Toni Dawkins' advice and keep him out of agility classes until grade 4 when he is confident about his speed and working remotely and the contacts are embedded. I may however run him NFC at UKA in agility classes to trian the contact. However this decision means he will be beginners at UKA for quite a while which is a shame as he already has enough points to go through to novice on the jumping. He is novice in the steeplechase.
I spent a lot of the weekend in thought over what we should do re retiring Rupert in the next 2-3 years/ reducing his agility. I had toyed with looking for a medium collie but I have to remember that Jordan's father was over 6 foot and that Jordan is now 9 and in the next 2 years will start growing and we need a dog that he can grow into long term both physically and as a handler, even if I handle it for the first year or so. He is honestly going to need a large dog to develop further. I also feel he needs a large fast dog as the advanced juniors is always won and placed by the kids running grade 5/6 collies. I'm in love with working beardies/collie beardie crosses and I'm looking at some collie/beardie/lurcher pups this week. But J wants a collie. I've also started to look at collies that would be right for J - fast, trainable, high drive but without the collie traits that would not suit a household of cockers and children. I found several this weekend and 2 were from Canen Roy lines! I plan to watch dogs very carefully over the next few months to identify lines.
I'm now not sure what our summer will be. We are going to the UKA Nationals next week. I'm very unsure as to whether to go to the YKC Chippenham show as I'm not sure if Rup is able/should to jump the full KC height and Magic is not 100 per cent with A frame contacts and I'd only let J run him in that if the dog walk entry was straight. Rup and J were also in the YKC at the KC International and the International Young Handler. Oh dear!!! We'll just have to see how the UKA nationals go and try Rup over the large height in the practice ring.
No agility this weekend but we are trying out for a new flyball team that we can run Magic in from September.

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