Dogs

Here is information on our dogs, enjoy!

Doople

Doople is a 7 year old (born 2005) brown toy poodle bitch and is run by +Susi Cooper.  She is currently small grade 4 and is quite happy there.

Doople at home asking us nicely to throw her toy.

Before we go any further let me briefly explain Doople's name. It is an anagram of Poodle (swap the 'D' and 'P'). When I agreed to getting Doople, I said, "Only if I can name her". It is interesting seeing how people pronounce it when written down.

Anyway, she was the first dog we have owned and we got her just after finishing University.  +Susi Cooper wanted to get a dog when we graduated so started leaving subtle hints around the house.  By subtle I mean she would put pictures of poodles on an A4 sheet of paper and write on it "I want a Poodle please".  So we went and got Doople.  She is brilliant and always tries to please us.  She my not be the fastest dog at agility, especially when it's too hot, but she loves doing it and has given +Susi Cooper so much learning and confidence about agility.

She has still won her share of trophies.  She won the JDA Final small grade 1-2 in the summer.  Also came 3rd with Shadow in the Dog Vegas Jewlnick Pairs Final.  Not bad for stand-ins as our trainers Den and Niki couldn't make it to the show!

Shadow

Shadow is a 6 year old (born 2006) silver toy poodle bitch run by me (Greg Cooper).  She is currently small grade 6, hoping to make it higher.

Shadow after winning the Embroidery Shop Finals.

We got Shadow partly as a companion for Doople and also so that we had a dog each to play around with.  Also another little hot water bottle for winter evenings on the sofa!  When we got her we weren't looking at getting an agility dog or anything like that.  She just happened to love running so really enjoys agility.  She has always been a quite nervous and timid.  She loves having cuddles and going exploring but always quite careful of new things.  When we started agility she wouldn't leave my leg so it was quite hard to make her go forward over jumps.  Now she won't stop barking at me!

When she started learning the dog walk it took a while.  She finally gained confidence on it only for us to move training indoors and onto a different dog walk. Now as far as Shadow was concerned this was now a completely different bit of kit that needed learning all over again.  We had the same problem at shows to start with.  Eventually she got over this to the point where she would run so fast a cross she would launch her contacts as if the different colour at the end was poisonous!  Earlier this year we went about 3 months  of going to shows with her getting faults in nearly every class, be it missing a contact or weaves.  Suddenly it seems she has too much confidence!  Now of course I don't really mean that, but we did have to go back to training the contacts properly.

Now she flies across only missing the occasional contact.  We have only recently (October 2012) moved up to grade 6 so it has been quite a steep learning curve for both of. The courses are somewhat tricky!  We have had a few placing at the end of the season though so I am happy with all that has happened.

I'm almost forgetting the big trophies that we have won this year.  Starting with 1st in the Barking Mad Winter Series grade 1-2 at the start of this year.  Then 1st in the Embroidery Shop Finals at Ely and District in August.  Also 3rd in the Dog Vegas Jewlnck Pairs with Doople in October.  And last but not least we won the Agility Club small grade 1 league for the year.  Nice big trophy!  And yes, we were grade in October last year.  We have come a long way since then!

I think that just about sums up Shadow.

Winnie

Winnie is a 3 year old (born 2009) blue standard poodle bitch run by me (Greg Cooper).  By blue I mean off black.  She is currently large grade 3 by default.

Winnie getting into the Christmas spirit.

We got Winnie at 8 months old from a family that essentially couldn't cope with having two puppies at the same time.  She preferred the company of dogs to that of humans as she had spent most of her time in the garden with the other puppy, a Bichon Frisé.  Nether the less Winnie was quite happy to come along with us, especially when she realised that we had tennis balls, what was to become her favourite toy.

We started her at puppy agility training from about one years old.  She enjoyed doing the equipment but wasn't particularly interested in doing a full course.  As she was obsessed with tennis balls we also started her at flyball with Molten Magnets in Northampton.  We had been running there with Doople and Shadow for a couple of years so we took Winnie as well, she loved it!

We persevered with the agility and eventually started using tennis balls as a reward.  Once she had gotten over the blind excitement of having a tennis ball she did start to work quite nicely.  Unfortunately, earlier this year she hurt her back playing with a tennis ball.  She had x-rays and tests but nothing severe was found, just strained muscles in her hips.  We rested her for a few months and had regular appoints with a dog physiotherapist.  She was wonderful.  She showed us some good stretches to do an really helped Winnie to get back to her normal happy self.

Now she has started back at agility and seems much better and happier than she was before.  We are still bringing her back into work so she is only jumping over medium height jumps.  She may or may not be any good over large jumps but I don't mind, as long as she's wagging whilst running I'll keep unning her over what ever height is comfortable.

Zazu

Zazu is the latest addition to our family, he is a one year old (born 2011) cream miniature poodle dog trained by +Susi Cooper.  As he is only a year old he is still training, but is likely to be medium height.

Zazu on the prowl for the camera.

Zazu's name comes from the bird in the Disney film Lion King.  We were thinking about getting another poodle and wanted a miniature to complete the set.  A friend of ours, Mary-Ann Nester, said that her boy Twizzle was siring a litter of poodles.  We weren't sure we wanted another just yet but it was a hard opportunity to miss.  So we went and had a look at this litter of 3 week poodle puppies.  Need I say any more?

Zazu is a very confident little boy who is always running around chasing the others who don't seem to mind.  He keeps Winnie entertained who keeps trying to fit his head in her mouth!  We started training him a couple of months ago over poles on the floor and to get him used to the equipment.  He picks things up well but when he starts running he forgets to think about what's going on!  Not really a problem for a one year old, but he has started to concentrate more now that he's older.