The Noisest Shed ...and Car in Kent

We soon got over our disappointment at the Gun Dog show being cancelled by a fun Saturday spent training with the Whizzers.

Sunday was the Ball Busters indoor tournament in Maidstone. Rupert was in the Whizzers, who were seeded in Division 3 with a much faster time than the dogs available to run could do, given it was the first tournament or indoor tournament for the majority of the dogs. It was Rup's first indoor and first open.

The noise of the barking dogs and reverberation from the stone floor, steel roof and cement walls didn't put him off. He ran reliably - although he could fun back faster, stop chomping and double striding and stop thinking about whether to run for the ball or take the other dog's ball during cross overs. I'd also like to get him back to teh 25ft line where he does a much faster run. (I also need to make sure I wave the wubba well away from the line in my attempts to get a faster run back!!!) But he is on his way!!! The Whizzers got a lot of support from Ray and Guy who stressed it was the experience and to count the day as a training on the job day and just enjoy it. Well we did and came 3rd!!! But it is really having an enjoyable day with people and dogs from all walks of life that amkes the day.

The only person who didn't enjoy his day was Magic. Confined to the car with the noise of flyball going on was all too much. He barked and tried to chew and dig his way out of the car to be part of it. He also made more noise than that in the hall. Poor little cocker. Roll on 16th May 2009 when he can start his flyball career.

Jordan trained with Magic on Monday at Surrey Weald. If Magic measurers into medium, Jordan and the Magic cannon ball will go all the way to the top. Magic loves running with Jordan and is now learning to watch body language and Jordan is now using more vocals to keep him going on ahead. His run contacts are accurate he just tends to search for food at the end of the dog walk. The biggest bug bear is the cloth tunnel and wanting to go under the first jump - hey he must be medium if he can run under the medium height!!!!

The Gun Dog Agility League Show Cancelled

We are really gutted! The Gun Dog Agility show has been cancelled due to snow. To be honest it was the right decision. We were up since 6am checking AA roadwatch and we would not have got there anyway. Jordan and Rupert were 3rd in the Large Grade 1 League and J was really excited about the presentations. He's now decided he doesn't like snow anymore!!! After a week of snowballs sticking to cocker feathers and the icy slush it's become, I'm not too sure either now. Getting into Pachesham was a nightmare yesterday.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!!!!

C-Side

On Saturday we went to Golden Cross for the 2nd show of the C-Side crystal challenge tournament. I was not hopeful as Rup does not run well at Golden Cross due to the acoustics - the background noise seems to de-focus him and he finds it hard to hear Jordan's very quiet noises.
We nearly didn't go as I am that close to taking Rup off agility for a few months to repair the run contact after WAG last weekend. However I did some really intensive contact training with him this week but I wasn't hopeful.

Pigs flew. Well, the flying cocker did. He flew round the agility course with passable contacts and Jordan and Rup came 3rd in the Starters' agility. They then did a fantastic jumping round which sadly got faults when Rup did a wrong weave entry just before the last jump. They both seemed to have gone up several gears. Jordan was more calm and confident and both seemed more focused and not racing each other.

The afternoon's open jumping course was a real Rupert trap. A fast flowing start that led straight into a box with 3 diagonals. I could see Rup doing his flying cavalry charge and straight across the box before Jordan could get in there and switch. When we walked the course I tried very hard to warn Jordan or that danger as well as the need to do the 3 switches to execute the diagonals. ...As well as telling him there would be a lot of Es and it was the experience that was important.

As expected Rupert couldn't believe his luck and flew off over the first 5 jumps. Jordan was running flat out 2 jumps behind and would never catch him up in time to get in the box and switch. Then the cocker did something he has never done before. he decided for once NOT to take his own line if he got there first and turned and looked at Jordan just before he entered the box and Jordan started to run in a diagonal pointing to the left. Rupert immediately did a diagonal. By then Jordan was in the box and there was some lovely fast handling with beautiful switches. They then skillfully executed the rest of the treacherous course - the tunnel into right hand weaves and staggered finish. Jordan was so elated he stripped off his T-shirt. They finished 4th in a strong grade 1-7 class.

They didn't come down to earth in time for the open agility. It was a nasty backward start with a horrid angle from teh second fence onto the dog walk. Rupert went far too fast and fell off the dog walk. Then jumped back on to it from a standstill. Typical Parkbreck cocker.

So the good news is that Jordan and Rupert have now qualified for the finals of the Crystal challenge in March. Whatever happens it will be a memorable show with J and Rup in the finals and Magic making his agility debut in the fun run.

We spent today trying to speed up Rup's weaves and doing some Tellingtouch exercises to try and slow him down and focus him over the dog walk. We also introduced Magic to 12 weaves. He shows great potential but needs a lot of verbal prompting and encouragement. He is defiantely not a take-your-own-line dog. However he is a merry little dog who seems to enjoy running with Jordan.

Team Players!

We spent Saturday with the Whizzers for flyball practice. Jordan and Magic were in the Starters class and both are now running really well. The purple and green Whizzers tuggy has given Magic a lot more speed on the run back and enabled Jordan to catch him more easily. Lian's husband, Colin, got a nice piccy of them so check out the Knight's blog.

Rupert trained with the team who will be running at Maidstone. Ray and Guy decided to do timings. I usually start Rupert right at the 15 foot marker so we can get him in without distraction. However we discovered he is much faster from the 25 foot. However the ******!!! cocker won't co-operate. He just wants to get all the balls for himself and that includes tackling the dog coming out for their ball. We tried running the team so the bigger dogs came out as he ran in. Size makes no difference, he still want sot take them out for their balls. So back to the 15ft marker and running as anchor dog.

We then had great fun with Guy's agility course. Magic ran the course beautifully. Rupert was his normal self. Messed me around and ran well with Jordan.

I really was cursing Rupert's lack of team play and bloody mindedness.

Sunday we left at 6am in gales, floods and pouring rain for the WAG agility at Minnis Bay. Despite weather we had J's bike. I was really pleased with Rup and J as they ran some complicated courses very well. Rup is now getting the weave entry left and right for himself. However he is now going too fast over the dog walk and missing the down contact. (He's also being bloody minded about it!!!) I might pull him out of agility to repair the run contact.

At lunchtime we braved the weather for a cycle along the beach - well J cycled along the sea wall with Rupert running beside the bike to look after him. I took Magic on to the beach with his wubba. Magic was happily playing when he suddenly saw flocks of seagulls. Now I thought I had spent the last 6 months desensitising him to birds. He now recalls in chase. Not then!!! He raced after a flock of gulls who took off in flight pursued by Magic. They flew quite low and he was able to jump up trying to catch them. In seconds he was literally at least 1/4 mile away and not coming back. He then found another flock of gulls and started chasing them out to sea. I was getting really worried as he was quite far out, not responding to whistle or anything. I was about to take my trousers off....to enter the freezing water. Suddenly I could see Rupert race down the beach and into the water. He swam out to sea in pursuit of Magic and started to drive him back to the shore. Once on the shore he gave him a real "pack" dressing down.

Well, Rup might not be a team player but he does pull his weight in this family. Magic spent the rest of the day shivering in Trover towels being a really miserable little ****. Oh well, it's back to the pheasant run.

Monday Magic started agility training at Surrey Weald with Jordan. He is still getting used to running non verbally but I'm really pleased. Some lovely weaving and handling. He has bold but careful run contacts and is a lovely little dog to handle over tricky jumping course as he looks for direction. At the moment he favours verbal directions but he is starting to follow hand signals. The only problem is archaeological digs for ancient horse poo during runs. He's definitely making his debut in the fun run at C-Side in March and UKA Waverunners. I think at UKA I'll enter him in the normal beginners classes as he can always run NFC if the course isn't appropriate. This means he'll get 4 runs to learn how to behave in the ring. At Waverunners, there will be birds...!!!!!....and the Thames.

Training

We spent this week trianing. It was fantastic to see Lian Knight with Sing and Sizze who train with us at Pachesham at the Whizzers flyball on Saturday.

Rupert was not his normal self on Saturday as he swallowed a discarded tennis ball he found on a walk and had to go to the vet on Thursday to make sure all the pieces had come out. He was not really focused. I hope that we can help him to run faster back after he gets the ball and to stop running back in. He seems more willing to cross over and not tackle the other dog for their ball or run back in. I found this video taken by Lian Knight on one true media.

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=7dd5079442f27d4ffd28af&skin_id=1704&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Magic continues to enjoy flyball and will be doing his next Starters at Stockbridge at Easter.

His training has been agility. He gets very excited at Pachesham and doesn't run as well as he does at home. His weaving is lovely. Contacts firm. He just needs to gain confidence and speed to go on on his own initiative and not always look for mummy/Jordan. Aww!!!!! The baby!!!

A Dog for Jordan

This weekend we went North to Grantham for the 50th EMDAC BAA show at the UK Arena.

I was pleased with how Jordan and Rupert were running but they do tend to make mistakes and are still finding feet and paws at primary level and advanced juniors.

I decided to teach Jordan how to use his back and one hand to block as there were a number of tight handling challenges/traps on the courses. He's finding this technique difficult at speed. But they came away with a 7th in TFO agilty and a 10th in clockwork tunnels - not their normal speed due to Jordan's lack of confidence.

I'm still worried about Jordan and Rupert in the advanced Juniors with the Grade 5 courses. I am not one to try and get Jordan the best dog so he can win but I decided to see if someone would lend him a more expereinced dog so he could learn from teh dog and have to think less about the demands of the course and the need to get an inexpereinced dog round it. Gemma Miles kindly agreed to lend Jordan Focas. We hoped that Focus would run on body language alone and some noise. We learnt a lot from this!!

Jordan is definitely at the stage where he can handle a large, fast collie as they made a fast flowing start over some tight handling. However they came to grief when Jordan made his noise to get Focas' attention to stop him going in a tunnel. Jordan's oo!!! was translated as go and Focas shot in the tunnel and came out and got really confused to see Jordan's body language saying "back- left". They had another go and poor Focas got really confused - here was a handler whose body language said stop and voice said go. It ended in disaster.

The disaster continued. Jordan then tried to run Rupert like a big fast collie. He put him miles back from the start in a down, so he could do remote handling from the 4th fence. Instead of close to the first jump at an angle with a line of vision and handle via hand signals. Rupert interpreted being put a long way from the first fence as the need for a Calvary charge along a straight line of jumps. An inevitable "e" followed.

I was pleased with the learning from this:

Jordan can never handle a dog he doesn't train with.

The dog needs to be trained to run with Jordan so it runs on body language and his distorted sounds.

We are going to have to get Jordan training with Magic sooner rather than later and get Magic up to the standard for Grade 5 junior courses as soon as we can.

We cannot do what most juniors do and borrow dogs to run so Jordan will have to just run Rupert this year until Magic is ready.

Would a Deaf dog be the best bet for Jordan?


I can't afford it at the moment but with this in mind we are going to have to increase our pack to 4 dogs long term. Another cocker and possibly a Deaf collie that has the potential to go all the way to the top with a Deaf handler. I don't know would a hearing collie or kelpie learn to run with Jordan?

Later that day Jordan was playing at the top of a great mud mountain. Rupert ran up the mountain to play and watch over Jordan. He played with Jordan for an hour. Magic took one look and decided it looked dangerous and I was a better bet with his wubba kong. There is defiantely a unique relationship with Jordan and Rupert and it'll be interesting to see if we can get a partnership with Magic on that level.