We've just come back from a fantastic weekend at the Cockapoo Games!
The event was organised by my fellow CCGB founder member, Mick, who decided that the Olympic year shouldn't go by without taking the opportunity to mark it with an event for Cockapoos!
The event was held at Woodland Waters in Lincolnshire which has camping facilities as well as a number of lodges that can be rented. We had the use of the rally field for the duration of the games!
Mick had put together a challenging range of events to make up the competition and I had stupidly entered all of them with both Ruby and Pepper. The events were:
Obedience - this included a walking to heel challenge, sit stay, recall and a send away to a pause table
Agility - there were three levels - beginners, intermediate and advanced
Tricks - you had 10 minutes to do as many tricks as you could!
We arrived on Friday afternoon - the weather was sunny but very windy! Ian went and helped several of the other attendees to put up their tents and awnings - there was a really friendly feel about the event with everyone mucking in to help! The main event was held on the Saturday.
We had stopped training in obedience but I did my best to practice the things we needed to for this - I didn't hold out much hope of them doing it all but wanted to take part! They both did me proud, performing some of the tests really well and making up their own bits when they weren't sure what they should be doing! Well, being Ruby & Pepper really!
The agility was a bit of a challenge! It was a big course of around 22 obstacles and included lots of things they weren't used to seeing, incluidng a wishing well and spread jumps. It wasn't being judged under normal competition rules - there were points allocated to each obstacle - the time would determine the winner if there were several clear rounds. Pepper had to enter the Intermediate section as she is being trained - she did pretty well for her first show and having only been training for 6 months. Ruby unfortunately had to be entered into the Advanced section as she has been training for almost a year! That meant that we were competing with experienced Grade 5 & 6 dogs! She did pretty well considering - she made up her own course at one stage, but I was pleased that she got round!
Finally the Tricks! We really hadn't spend much time on this at all but I managed to cobble together a few things - being able to use treats was a huge help! We certainly weren't the worst, but my goodness, there are some clever and well trained 'poos out there! Jo Harker has taught Freddie and Darcey to sneeze!!
We finished off the day with the CCGB AGM, the results and a big raffle to raise money for Hounds for Heroes - I was lucky enough to win a prize that had been donated by Helen Conway, a handmade silver charm that I will be having made with Ruby & Pepper's paw prints in!
We didn't get any placings in the competition but at the end of the prize-giving the judge from Dogs Trust awarded a special prize for 'The Dog He Would Most Like to Take Home' to our very own Ruby! I was so pleased that out of all of the Cockapoos taking part, it was Ruby that had caught his eye!
We spent most of our time with Pip, Stu & Kipper, and Darron, Julie and Charlie! It was great to spend the weekend with them all - we're so lucky to have lovely fellow 'poo owners living near us so that we can meet up regularly.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year!
Here are some pictures of our weekend:
The event was organised by my fellow CCGB founder member, Mick, who decided that the Olympic year shouldn't go by without taking the opportunity to mark it with an event for Cockapoos!
The event was held at Woodland Waters in Lincolnshire which has camping facilities as well as a number of lodges that can be rented. We had the use of the rally field for the duration of the games!
Mick had put together a challenging range of events to make up the competition and I had stupidly entered all of them with both Ruby and Pepper. The events were:
Obedience - this included a walking to heel challenge, sit stay, recall and a send away to a pause table
Agility - there were three levels - beginners, intermediate and advanced
Tricks - you had 10 minutes to do as many tricks as you could!
We arrived on Friday afternoon - the weather was sunny but very windy! Ian went and helped several of the other attendees to put up their tents and awnings - there was a really friendly feel about the event with everyone mucking in to help! The main event was held on the Saturday.
We had stopped training in obedience but I did my best to practice the things we needed to for this - I didn't hold out much hope of them doing it all but wanted to take part! They both did me proud, performing some of the tests really well and making up their own bits when they weren't sure what they should be doing! Well, being Ruby & Pepper really!
The agility was a bit of a challenge! It was a big course of around 22 obstacles and included lots of things they weren't used to seeing, incluidng a wishing well and spread jumps. It wasn't being judged under normal competition rules - there were points allocated to each obstacle - the time would determine the winner if there were several clear rounds. Pepper had to enter the Intermediate section as she is being trained - she did pretty well for her first show and having only been training for 6 months. Ruby unfortunately had to be entered into the Advanced section as she has been training for almost a year! That meant that we were competing with experienced Grade 5 & 6 dogs! She did pretty well considering - she made up her own course at one stage, but I was pleased that she got round!
Finally the Tricks! We really hadn't spend much time on this at all but I managed to cobble together a few things - being able to use treats was a huge help! We certainly weren't the worst, but my goodness, there are some clever and well trained 'poos out there! Jo Harker has taught Freddie and Darcey to sneeze!!
We finished off the day with the CCGB AGM, the results and a big raffle to raise money for Hounds for Heroes - I was lucky enough to win a prize that had been donated by Helen Conway, a handmade silver charm that I will be having made with Ruby & Pepper's paw prints in!
We didn't get any placings in the competition but at the end of the prize-giving the judge from Dogs Trust awarded a special prize for 'The Dog He Would Most Like to Take Home' to our very own Ruby! I was so pleased that out of all of the Cockapoos taking part, it was Ruby that had caught his eye!
We spent most of our time with Pip, Stu & Kipper, and Darron, Julie and Charlie! It was great to spend the weekend with them all - we're so lucky to have lovely fellow 'poo owners living near us so that we can meet up regularly.
Overall it was a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year!
Here are some pictures of our weekend:
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