Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:30 pm Post subject: URC Southern Novice 7.8.11
URC Southern Area Novice Broad Oak Farm, Turners Hill by kind permission of Mr & Mrs John Dawson
Results
1st Christopher Baker’s Buccleuch Sterling
2nd Katy Parrott's River Meadow Oak (YAY!!!!!!)
3rd Pauline Tiplady Millcombe Fern
4th Sarah Forward Brockwier Storm Petrel
COM James Pearson Packmore's Maple
COM Kim Reed Woodash Primadonna
OK, I know I haven't been on here much lately, but couldn't resist a proud Mum boast - Oak came 2nd today at the URC Novice!! Out of a field of over 40 dogs, we were equal 1st, (I discovered afterwards), and after a run off which, thank God, I miss marked and mucked up, we finished second. I am SOOOO delighted with him!!! Oak went really well. The tests were nice, achievable, novice level, none of this” almost Open difficulty” tests, and we only lost 4 marks in total. I am very glad that we didn’t win, as I don’t feel he is ready for Open just yet, but I am totally ecstatic about our second! Thank you so much to Wendy Harrison and all her team for organising such a great day.
The tests were -
(in the order we did them)
4 dog walk up with Helena Sully judging. I’m hopeless at distances but it was a mark of a fair way, in long, rather “wild” grass. The dogs were finding it hard to mark and many were going well outside of the area. Oak was 3rd to go. He very nearly got it on first cast, but then drifted the wrong side of the wind and so I stopped him and handled left whereupon he picked nicely. I interfered rather quickly simply because the other dogs had drifted all over the place and I thought it was better to help Oak than risk him hunting the whole field! Score 19
Double retrieve Judged by James Bailey. A mark, with an unseen. Get unseen first. The area was a clearing, with cover in between the two guns, approx. 45 degrees between the two guns. The unseen required you to stop your dog and push left out of sight up a little track. Oak was steady, marked well, turned head to acknowledge shot for unseen, went out well, stopped, handled, picked, then got the memory perfect. On his return with the second dummy he winded something and turned his head to acknowledge it, so I whistled him in “pip pip pip”. He didn’t falter nor break his line, but we scored 19 so I guess that was how we lost the mark.
Unseen with shot judged by John Bates. Basically a nearly straight line. Score 20 as Oak was paw perfect!
Water with jump, judge Derek Buckland. A mark into water, the water was out of sight and you couldn’t see your dog when they went down the bank towards it. There was a jump first, with a gallop across the field, to the water. Oak shot out, leapt the jump, across the field, disappeared from sight, huge splash and loads of water thrown up in air! Appears holding dummy by very edge of toggle end, he must have had the stitching between two canine teeth! A gasp from watching crowd as it swang from side to side as he galloped back to me. Amazingly he managed to keep his precarious hold as he jumped the jump and I took it VERY quickly! What a good boy! Score 20.
Then we had a 15 minute break, which turned into a rather longer break, leaving Oak flat out asleep beside me, and myself rather switched off and relaxed! The last tests was judged by Andrew Ward Smith and comprised of a mark in woodland thrown down a gully to the right, followed by an unseen straight ahead of you. Here I berate myself for poor handling. Oak did the mark perfectly, gave me to dummy, which I THEN DROPPED! Hopefully the judge realised it was my butter fingers as I had the dummy to hip height when I dropped it! Twit! Then I didn’t think and simply sent Oak straight back for the second part. Of course he went back to the first fall area, so I had to push him left to the blind, which he picked nicely. Score 18.
I thought I had blown it with that so was very calmly waiting for the results when a run off of 5 dogs was called. To my astonishment my number was the first called out! The exercise was over the jump we had jumped prior to the water, but going the other direction, and a mark into long “wild” grass again. The gun jammed for me, so after a pause while another gun was found we had our go. Oak was super but sadly his Mum was not. I mismarked the clump of grass, and when it became apparent that Oak has also mismarked it, I handled him to the wrong area. Bless him he hunted his paws off, going back, left, right exactly as I told him. He didn’t flag once, just kept on and on hunting for me. But I had told him the wrong area and the poor dog stood no change of finding there, so we were called up. Not Oak’s fault at all, totally mine. The other dogs in the run off hunted with varying degrees of success, with the winning dog, Christopher Baker’s Buccleuch Sterling, doing an almost perfect retrieve, and another failing, like me, to achieve.
When the results were read out the COM;s didn’t include me. I was a bit disappointed, but thought, oh well,never mind. Then the other 3 run off candidates had their tickets, Pauline Tiplady with Millcombe Fern, who hadn’t run off was given 3rd, and there was only Christopher Baker left, and two places to announce. As Wendy read out second place Katy Parrott and River Meadow Oak it dawned on me that I had been running off for 1st place against Christopher! My face, apparently, said it all, not to mention my squeals of delight and hugs and kisses of Oak!!! When I had calmed down a little all I could think was Thank God I didn’t win!!!
I was totally delighted with the way Oak ran, feeling all the lost marks where my doing. He has improved so much this season, his confidence is really growing, and considering that he spends so much time training and competing at Agility, to do so well in this too is almost more than any proud Mum can cope with!
Thank you Oak my darling, you are a total STAR!!!!!
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