“Hi! I’m just a very small Fish!! Fluffy, cute and wearing the same very slightly bemused expression my Daddy has most days of the week…. ”
” I’m another Fish-let but I’m very clever indeed! I’m just four weeks you know but have a VERY regal expression! ”
Crufts 2010. This was on Sunday just gone. Now love it or hate it (and most people who attend regularly harbour a bit of both i’ll wager…) Crufts is the one to go to. When I looked at the pinboard in the kitchen where we put prize cards up, there were only two SHOW prize cards since Crufts 2009 and so I realised that commitment to the showing ’cause’ needs upping a little if we are to keep the old ‘Dual Purpose’ banner flying 😉
Crufts…. 5am leave the drive. 10.30pm return onto the drive. Crufts you can’t beat it! So we arrive nicely, calmly, and relatively on time, to my amazement. I’m usually doing 95 in the mandatory 50mph segment of the M42 grabbing at leads and throwing dog passes and suchlike around the car at least an hour later than is comfortable to arrive! Not so this year! It was all organised, calm, serenity. I felt SURE we must have left the dogs at home or something to be so on time. But apparently not.
We strolled into the NEC and even had time for a little shopping before it suddenly all turned manic, with the Gamekeeper Dog classes and the bitch classes starting at almost the same damn time! Thats FINE…. unless you have two handlers… two bitches…. AND one dog! So we saw our good friend Mark Toublic wandering around, dogless, and looking FAR too unhassled and serene so we begged him to show Deeds, which he did to great effect! Thanks Mark! Meantime Allan was showing Shiney and I was showing Jade in the Gamekeepers bitch ring. As were 25 or so others…. and wow has the Gamekeeper ring taken OFF! The standard was amazing! The Gamekeeper ring could prompt me to write a whole ‘Dog Blog Xtra’ (watch this space) but in general i think everyone was justified in being there and competition was HOT! No pressure but Jade won this class last year, but she was 12 months, a small litter and a Csection and a spay down this year…. and lightening rarely strikes twice! Judge, Joy Venturi Rose reduced the class by 8 or 10 in the first cut, but kept in Jade, Shiney and also a Deeds daughter, Happy, at her first time of being shown. Then a second cut took Shiney and Happy out but left me and Jade to battle. We were pleased to be third in such strong competition beaten by a Champion bitch and another I’ve admired from the ringside for quite some time and I know works her backside off all season. So I unclamped my fingers from the trophy, smiled sweetly and handed it to CH Warringah Bunya, a beautiful yellow bitch with working test awards and her GWC too!
Jadey in the Gamekeeper ring with me….
So on we go and Deeds is shown by Lesley, his co owner, in Mid Limit but is sadly not considered. Not a problem, I never thought he would be, as the competition was probably mostly of a bigger, more substantial type than the boy. Then I showed him in Special Working, again, to not get a place but amongst several international Champions and UK Champions, we were happy enough to show we had earnt our way into the class. Infact, if they removed the ‘SGWC’ stipulation and brought back the ‘working test awards’ stipulation that Special Working always DID have, then Deeds would still be in there, and the shape of dog in the class would change considerably. But thats a whole ANOTHER story 😉 The fact that Jake – Wylanbriar As Time Goes By at Millerdan, not only made the cut for this class, but was 3rd overall was a source of huge huge pride and a credit to his mum’s (Rachel Williams) hard work both showing and working him! Granny cried… a little… I’m not ashamed to admit it!
Now about 30 mins before Special Working BITCH where we had Jade and Shiney in, the cry goes up….. ‘where is Allan?’. He’d been spotted disappearing into the Hall Five Bar about three hours previously, but noone could reliably say they had seen him elsewhere since. there were rumours…. someone had seen him at a breed club stand. Someone else had seen him heading to the loos… but nothing concrete. So when he rolled up five minutes before the class looking slightly worse for wear I delegated Shiney to someone far superior and more reliable in the handling stakes – Auntie Rachel. Jade was binned but Shiney made the cut… and then by the huge handling skills of Rachel, she was placed fourth in a hugely strong class! YES she is a lovely bitch but usually she HATES showing and stands looking dismal! Rachel fired her up throughout and she looked lovely! Rach – you are a handling legend! Thank you! Shiney got her just reward.
So Crufts draws to a close for another year….. only it doesn’t because sadly after several undisclosed amount of pints and a fair bit of Malt Whiskey, Al treats Crufts as the social occasion it prides itself on being, but then has to walk about three miles as the crow flies to the car in the West Car Park… happy days….. if you are not half cut 😉 😉 The M40, usually the best motorway in the world, was being a Sunday night nightmare for no apparent reason, and so Al slept peacefully from about Oxford…. and I dragged us home…. and I thought hard over next year on the way. Goddammit…. wouldn’t a dog in the field trial class be great?!! Fish??? Bondy??? The future lays with you guys!!!!!!!
Fat little crickets!! For some reason I am desperately in love with puppy little person number two in both these lines – and from Shirley, their breeders comments, basically, puppies 1 – 4 were hugely well behaved in trying to form an orderley line for a photo…. and then numbers 5 – 7 came along and RUINED everything!
4 well behaved pups!
4 well behaved pups and 3 hooligans 😉
Just a quick ‘Stop Press’ that I took Bondy too eye testing, and he, Tom, Shiney and Deeds all passed so thats good. Always a relief! Shiney still dreamy and muttering ‘Lady with a baby coming through’ as she goes through doorways…. but, you never can yet quite tell 😉
Took Fishy the Fish to Gillys (Nickols) today. Had a good lesson which showed up that whilst he has excellent forward back and stop, his left and right is less established…. or at least less established than i *though*. Just goes to show you think you are getting somewhere then, new piece of ground, some exercises from anothers (very clever!) brain and it all turns to shit 😉 Thats a bit of an exaggeration but work is needed – (blare of trumpets to Herald new ‘extra work on Lefts and Rights’ regieme kicking in!) Good old Fishy. Always the tryer and the nicest bloke you could meet, bar very few! When he wasn’t sure when I asked him to do something about 50 yards down a track from me, he very…. very….. slowly sat down. Then when I paused, took a breath, and gave the command again, he very…. very….. slowly laid down…. 😉 Could a guy express confusion more clearly!!! Its such a genuine response. He didn’t want to do the WRONG thing so because it wasn’t clear in his head WHAT I wanted…. he thought it best to stare intently and do…. nothing 😉 Then he couldn’t possibly be wrong… 😉 I feel a few husbands could take a excellent leaf out of Fishys book…. When in doubt, do, and say, NOTHING! It lessens your chances of being wrong… (Probably….) 😉
Bondy had a lesson this week with Uncle Robert (Worrall). The Meercat graciously allowed Fish to come in for the second half of the hour when his little brain had peaked and doing more would have been foolhardy! I wanted to pick Roberts brain on hunting exercises for the Fish-meister and he gave me some fantastic advice which I couldn’t possibly share or would have to kill you (or worse STILL, you might beat us this year 😉 ) Bondy really really pleased me. He did some nice memorys and marked well. He finished with a lovely blind up a hill at a decent distance… not bad for just ten months 😉 Training with another lady and her Golden at Roberts is also a massive boon as he is really learning about steadiness nice and early. I feel almost daunted by Bondys natural talent. Yes his progress is through work and practice, but Tom has had as much put in, and yet is quite a way behind Bondy and is a month older. Bondy has his first Puppy class with Gilly (his Grandma!) next Tuesday. We can only do our best. Just hope that shows the blimmin work that has gone into the last eight months and she doesn’t raise her eyes to the gods and think ‘why did I place pick puppy from that litter with this complete MORON of a handler!’ 😉 More as it ‘happen’ (as they say!)
Darling Tom. We have decided he is a canine ‘Forrest Gump’. He is terribly straightforward and whilst slightly brighter than his Grandad Deeds, is a very black and white dog (whilst at the same time being Brown – grin). Tom is the sort who when the wind is right, Mars is in Pluto, and we are in a Leap year just does everything in his own sweet way, just so. I say go – he goes. I say stop, he stops. I say keep running…and that boy just keeps on running…. out the field… down the road… up the hill…. as they say in Forrest Gump, ‘That boy sure is a Runnin’ Fool!’. But he does everything he can NOT to have to think much. When it gets a bit trickier he packs in. Not in a ‘bastard’ way. But in a ‘throw himself on the ground because the pressure is JUST-TOO-MUCH-for-my-BRAIN!’ Tom is Tom. He is ‘Deeds started from day one in a positive and whizzy style’ using triallers training methods rather than ‘steady steady’ pet dog type ones. His progress will be almost as interesting as Bondys. I feel Bondy will get *there* faster (whereever *there* is, I know what i want but its getting there!) In terms of mental ability and natural instinct and problem solving I feel the three young lads go Bondy, Fish then Tom… but later on in terms of compliance and willingness to lean on me if need be and take direction I think it will be Tom, Fish, Bondy 😉 We shall see. The futures bright… the future’s Black Yellow AND Chocolate 😉
I love this picture so am sharing it here. The Meercat. Doing what he loves – Holding, Posing, and looking rather gorgeous (not that i’m biased!) 😉 :
So this blog is a ‘warts and all’ Blog 😉 And so therefore will be completely honest in it 😉 Today was the first Open working test of the season. It was a ‘Walked up on field trial lines’ at Steve Kings at Knowle. Super, smashing lovely etc etc. Only slightly NOT. 😉 I wasn’t alone in thinking their dog had slightly lost its mind, but we kindly stayed in for three retrieves, only one of which I would have rated in any-way, and one of which I probably would have suggested, if I were one of the three panel judge, that I turned her into a pair of brown slippers at the earliest opportuinity, and so it was one those ‘so/so’ days. That might, infact be being a tad generous. ;-(
A lovely test day marred, for me, by our performance. Funnily enough she definately thought it was on game. I’ve never seen her shake like that on dummies, but seen as we have been to Kingy’s place probably 10 times in the last twelve months and NEVER picked anything but game there I suppose you can in some ways forgive her. However ‘might-be-on-game’ is no excuse to shut part of your brain DOWN and not handle so thats that. Goodnight Vienna. And rightly so!
A lovely test which ended in the Pepperpot Inn which, to be honest, was a GREAT TONIC! The company was excellent and the banter better 😉
A few other bits of news. I took a group on Friday which i have christened ‘Triallers in triangles’. Basically these are some ladies that are taking the plunge to enter both the Field Trial class at Crufts but also the BASC ring ‘Pickers Up and Beaters’ and the ‘Picking up Team’ class. They were all excellent. I think the thing being they did realise there is actually more to successfully showing a dog than they thought, and their good looking, well made, working dogs will hopefully do well at Crufts and restore their faith in the fact that the breed standard is about function not dogs that stand still and wag.
Ok – Shiney. Oh my goodness, that girl! Three good matings with the Fishmeister. And she is ploddy, extra loving and walking around in a dream 😉 Lets hope we have ‘tiny tadpoles’ on the way! There may be stop press news to add shortly about this whole malarky but will update you as a when! Have three off for their eye certificates tomorrow, cross fingers for us! You never know…. !!!! (Bites nails!)
