H&C

20
Jul
2010

1 Comments

Just Dogs Live

Mullenscote's consummate professional., Apollo

“Just Dogs Live, what a brilliant name for show. Held at the East of England Showground at Peterborough, it certainly lived up to its name. Unique in that the organisers are combining a County Championship dog show with an Agility and Fly Ball Festival, Gundog Scurries and a main arena programme crammed full of some fantastic canine acts, ourselves included (well someone’s got to big us up).

Number one groupies the Cannons, Annie and me made up the demo team and what a brilliant team we were. Once again the weather was fantastic but ensuring that the dogs were kept out of the sun required the use of a giant sun umbrella. Normally we get the dogs to sit in the middle of the arena, but the heat meant this wasn't practical. In temperatures that would have made a desert camel wince, the dogs were superb their enthusiasm, professionalism and star quality - ensuring that we have been booked again for next year.

"Professionalism?" I hear you cry! Kirby has lost the plot, he’s humanising the dogs, how could he imply that they employ a professional approach to a demonstration? Simple really, these dogs love it, 100 per cent effort, an attention to detail which sees these fellow showmen observe, anticipate and take part in every movement that is made once we get inside that arena. They follow every word of my unpredictable (some would say incomprehensible) script, ever hopeful that they will be called up to do their bit. Show me a team of human beings that are this efficient and you will understand why I use the term 'professional' to describe their performance.

Speaking of a professional team Craig and Natalie Cannon regularly attend the shows and game fairs, they are fantastic company and the fun and mischief that we get up to makes for a brilliant social event as well. Both Craig and Natalie help us out in the arena, Natalie’s ability to handle a dog means that she is real asset, her husband Craig is another story; Craig usually helps out as arena party doing a great job of ensuring that all of our equipment is rapidly set up and removed from the arena so we keep to our allotted time schedule.

However unlike the dogs Craig is not always 100 percent reliable, you might say he’s a bit of ‘a loose cannon’ (see what I did there?). To make things worse, Craig is in charge of firing the dummy launchers at the appropriate moment during the demo. Unfortunately Craig’s idea of the appropriate moment could be within seconds of the demo starting, as I happen to be walking past the dummy launcher causing me to throw myself to the floor to avoid being killed by the projectile or sometimes his lack of ability to concentrate for more than five minutes means the launcher doesn’t get fired at all. To be honest I love his involvement in the demo it is his very unpredictability that I enjoy most. Professional, definitely not, in need of more training, well yes. Trainable, hmmm, to be quite honest, probably not!”