The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Well, I had no idea what to expect from my WILD child. There were wild parts, believe me...our JWW run on Friday was a train wreck as I didn't expect Gemma to have all of this confidence in the ring..so Sunday when we went back I did ONLY rear crosses, LOL
Without further delay....here she is...my magic girl...and third generation of agility stars...her Uncle Oreo and Auntie Midnight are smiling at Gemma!
Go Gemma!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtFM6RP09HU

Oh my -- she is fast! I don't know what it is like to run a fast, high drive cocker . There are going to be good times ahead with Gemma.

Colleen

Thanks Colleen....I spent extra time before running Gemma teaching her that stay and stopped contacts as she was not willing to cooperate as much as Andy was, LOL:) I have a feeling that Gemma has not even begun to show her real speed..let's hope I can handle it..yes, it is going to to be an exciting, exciting ride in any case.
And Colleen....you may want to think about getting a Gemma pup!!! Yes,,,,I will be breeding Gemma one day...God willing:)
Andy by the way, your Solo is fast and drivey....and Rosey is inches away from her MACH.....so no slouches in your house either!

Wow, Michelle, you both are awesome ! I don't think Gemma's tail ever stopped wagging -- she is so joyful to watch.

Congrats, Gemma did awesome.

Congratulations, Gemma! Another wild child. Its nice to see that Star is not the only one. She obviously loves it too.

Oh my!

She's super cute and SUPER fast! That was pure delight to watch Michelle!

I noticed she doesn't have wings...she has a propeller!

How old is Gemma?

Thanks Lisa....glad you liked watching Gemma.
Gemma got delayed on her debut...her litter mate Andy debuted at 18 months old..
here he is back then
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIqaGsm3IPc
Andy got to debut first because he has lots of obedience training in, notice how Andy heels out of the ring by my side in standard...I had hoped to debut Gemma in the fall of 2010 right after Andy but I had a near fatal accident where I fell and ruptured my spleen....so I wasn't cleared to run for a while. My trainer was willing to show Gemma but I decided I wanted to run her myself! Gemma just turned 3 a few weeks ago....My famous Midnight didn't start running agility until she was 4......Andy was the youngest I ever had in the ring....except my C.C. showed in rally at 14 months old.
Is Chessie ready to show yet?

Notice how bad Gemma was in the end of her JWW run....she wanted to do more and was very angry with me for saying no!

First off... may I say how impressed I am with your pups! You sure breed them to be FAST! I can see how much work goes into their training too! I can't believe you accomplished so much with them especially knowing about your accident now! I can understand why you wanted to be the one who ran Gemma. It's about the relationship as much as the actually competition that matters most.... at least to me anyway.

Some days like today.. Chessie is ready to compete... yesterday ... not so much. She can do every thing pretty consistently, has very good contacts, so~so start line stays... I probably could run her now except her handler is not ready. (me) I'm still learning how to to run the courses myself. It frustrates Ches to no end when I mess up. And it's only recently that Chessie has matured enough to pay attention to me off lead. I've seen a big difference in the past couple of weeks in how she focus's on me instead of everything around her. We are still working on becoming a TEAM. The club I train at has done a wonderful job teaching us the parts and pieces. But they go very slowly when it comes to putting it all together. It's only since I started at another location that I found a trainer that works the WHOLE course. So I am hopeful that I will gain the confidence I need to compete.