Dogs Christmas

It was Christmas for dogs too. We had Audrey the Deerhound, and Molly the Jack Russel/Tenterfield round to play on Christmas day while the humans sat around drinking and eating. They put a human pup in a blowup cage for us to play with, It was great. The pic shows us all around the cage while Nicholas entertained us. Later on I got in the cage with him and so did Hannah, but the humans got us out. We played chasey with Nicholas; first we chased him into the house, then he chased us out, and then we went back again. We kept it up for ages, Molly and Audrey had to go for a lie down, but we carried on. I think the humans were glad they had us to look after their pup!
At the end of the day, Audrey went home to sleep, Molly is staying with us for a few days, but she went to her bed, and we just collapsed in a heap. We were still tired this morning when Hannah had to have her breakfast in bed because she was too tired to get up.

Getting Ready for Christmas

It is getting close to Christmas and we have had to help Santa because his Reindeer can not cope with the Australian heat. The photo shows us practicing over the Australian outback.
We had to look the part just in case some kid saw us, so Santa used some of his magic to grow Antlers and to let us fly by flapping our ears. The magic is known as Image-Place-of Retail, but he said it as "foe tow shorp"
We could have done with some magic on the weekend in the Portland Agility trials. Every time we made time in the trial we had faults, every time we went clear we were over time. We had fun though, playing with Maggie and Minty, meeting some friends and having some nice walks.

Trials again.

We were at Southern Districts last night, I did Masters and Open while Hannah just did Masters. It was a night of "almost " for us, we almost got it right but did not qualify. I got clear in Agility but over time due to a slow start; then did the discrimination in open but Keith crossed the line and I did a wrong course. The pic shows me at the top of the Scramble in the Discrimination zone.
Jumping was going well until I missed a jump in Masters, then we were almost home in Open when Keith stopped too soon and sent me over a wrong jump. Hannah dropped a bar in Masters Jumping then went the wrong way over a jump, but ran well. Agility was not too good after she went up a dog walk instead of the tunnel, so Kathy pulled her out. Hannah fell off the dog walk in training (she turned round in the middle of it and lost her footing) so we did not want to risk another accident.

Tiffany RAE

 Tiffany has got her Rally Advanced Excellent Title, so she now has RAE added to her list of titles.
It has been a long road for Tiffany. She backed into the fridge and hurt her leg practicing the 3 Steps Backward station and would not do that for ages. Then there was the time she was waiting at the Honour station and did a marking wee to get disqualified; and we won't count the times Keith did the wrong station and  run out of points.
At last she has her 10 Advanced and Excellent at the same trial qualifications. In fact she has 12, getting three out of three trials at the Gundog Club Double/ Double. Keith was trial manager and was too busy to do the fourth trial, but she did not need that one anyway. The photo (taken by Lynne) shows her jumping over the bar at the Send Over Jump station.

Ettamogah Pub

The Ettamogah pub is something of an Australian treasure, steeped in the Aussie culture. The pub came from a magazine cartoon that was popular in the 1970s, a long long time before I was born, and has been a great tourist attraction ever since they were built. I say "They" because there are four of them, spread over Australia. This one is in Cunderdin in WA.
Is it only me that sees the irony in the fact that some people have built replicas of a pub that does not exist, and hundreds of other people go to see them?
The picture shows Hannah and I outside a paradox, that's got to be a first for any Toller.

Cow Town

There is a town called Cowaramup that the locals call Cow Town because there are 42 fibreglass cows set up all through the town as tourist attractions. The pic shows us lying down with one of them.
Cows are themed through out the town, from the Cow Candy shop through to Cow Town fuel,
It was all the same to us, we had a walk among the cows, had a photo taken and then back in the car and on to the next place.
Sometimes we are amazed at what attracts tourists.

Bunker Bay

Still on holidays in the west. The pic today shows us at Bunker Bay, WA. We are staying at Busselton and have been out for the day touring around. We stopped for a leg stretch, a sniff, a toilet and a photo. We were not allowed to go for a swim, despite Tiffany's pleading, because we would get the car wet.
Most of the places around here are National Parks and dogs are not allowed so we don't go in there.
School holidays are on, so everywhere has lots of children around. We have to put up with kids coming over to pat us and play with us. Its a hard life, but someone has to do it.

Gold Fever

The picture shows us with the statue of Hardy Norseman, a horse that started the town of Norseman. The horse was walking around here when he kicked a rock and revealed a nugget of gold and that started a gold rush.
We spent ages digging up rocks to find a nugget, but could not find any. Someone said that to get gold out of rocks you smelt it. Well, we sniffed every where and we still did not find any. If they smelt gold they had better noses than ours. For all the good we did we would have been better off filtering sea water through our tail feathers.
Today we went down the 'Ninety Mile Straight,' 90 miles of road with no turning. Not much for us, we went past a sign, nodded off to sleep and woke up when we went round the next corner. Couldn't see what all the fuss was about. It was much more fun searching for gold in the caravan park!

Go WEST young dog!

We are following the code of the American pioneers and heading for the west. The pic shows us at the border, with me in South Australia and Hannah in Western Australia.
It has been an interesting trip so far, we met up with Mintie and Maggie for lunch on Saturday, had a night in Kimba where we played ball at the back of the caravan park, stayed at Nundroo where we had to stay close to the caravan because of the snakes and now we are in WA at Madura where we have to beware of 1080 fox baits! We do have an exciting life.

Woomera

We are back home again. It was a long ride home from Katherine with just overnight stops. The last night away was at Woomera where we went for a walk past a free museum of the Woomera Rocket range. The pic shows us posing in front of a Canberra Bomber, but there were lots of rockets and a Meteor jet plane as well.
We had a bit of excitement in the middle of the night before at Cadney Station, when a water pipe broke in the van. The floor was wet and Tiffany had to wake up KnK to fix it. It pays to have a human around when something goes wrong.

Pine Creek Railway

Look at us on this really old train at Pine Creek. A long time ago this narrow gauge train ran between Larrimah  and Darwin but it is now just a museum piece. We stopped at Pine Creek on our way to Katherine where we stayed over night. Next day just after we started out, there was a big bang and we had to stop because the caravan had broken the other suspension spring. KnK were on the phone, muttering strange words, and eventually a big truck came and took the van away. KnK are staying in a cabin, but we are not allowed inside! Lucky for us it is warm at night. We will have to sleep in the car tonight. We hope the van gets fixed soon.

Last Day in Darwin

Our last day in Darwin is today. We move on to travel down the west coast of Australia tomorrow so we will be leaving all our new friends behind.
Last night was the last night of trials where we had a little success. I got a Gamblers Excellent Qualification in 1st place which was my 5th pass  making me a Gamblers Dog Excellent (GDX) dog, and a Jumping Dog Open qualification, also in 1st place. Hannah got a Snooker Dog Excellent pass in 2nd place too. The pic shows us with our sashes and trophies.
We have had good time in Darwin. We lived in a tent for a week while we waited for the caravan to be fixed, we competed in the Darwin Royal Show and also in 2 local trials and trialed and trained with lots of dogs. We had a few trips out to see the sights and have a run in the warm sunshine.
It is sad to leave our friends behind, maybe we will come back one day to play with them again.

Freds Pass Trial

The trials at Fred"s Pass are over with no passes for either of us. The pic shows Hannah doing the See Saw, all her feet on the contact colour and the Up End firmly on the ground. She got that one right. Keith has been working at putting up Solar panels on roofs, and we missed training for the week before, so we were not fully coordinated. I popped weaving poles, missed contact colours and dropped bars all week end, and Hannah had troubles with tunnels. That should fix them for not taking us training!

Darwin Royal Results

Look what we did at the Darwin Royal! We posed with our sashes on the fence of the caravan.
Sashes are from left to right:
Tiffany; Master Jumping Qualification, 2nd Place Masters Jumping,
Hannah; 2nd Place Masters Agility, 2nd Place Rally Excellent A
Tiffany: 3rd Place Rally Advanced B and  3rd Place Rally Excellent B.
Hannah got her 11th RAE qualification and I got my 9th RAE qualification and my 4th Masters Jumping Qualification.
The Royal is over now so we are back to being tourists again.

Hannah- 4 Years Old

Hannah was 4 years old yesterday. We are in Darwin, where Hannah had her first birthday, and had a day of quiet walks, sleeps, extra chews and a visit to the dog grounds for some socializing.
It has been a good year for Hannah. She has been very well with no sign of that SRMA she had as a pup. This year she got her JDX and ADX titles in Agility, her RAE title in Rally, and competed in the National Agility Trials in Brisbane.
We have been to many places. Lots of trips in the caravan to South Australian places, we have been to Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory as tourists and competitors, and we are about to go into Western Australia next month.
 We have met many dogs from all over Australia, visited many places and been made welcome everywhere we go. What a life for a dog!

Darwin

We are in Darwin, and we are camping. KnK bought a tent and we have been living in it since Mt Isa. Something broke on the caravan again at Mt Isa so we left it there until the parts could be delivered and fitted. The pic shows us by the statue of Sabu Sing in Katherine, who was a famous Stockman in the Katherine district.
We spend our days here in Darwin relaxing under a tree, with a few walks to keep us fit. There are dog trials on for the next three days but we can not enter because Keith is judging.
Hopefully we will get the caravan back soon so we can use the air conditioning.

Tollers in Roma

These funny looking trees are called Bottle Trees here in Roma Central Queensland. They look like Boab trees but they are a different plant. We have stopped at Roma for a few days because something broke on the caravan and it needs a part to be sent from Melbourne. KnK were hoping to be on the way to Darwin, but we have to wait for the repairs. It does give us a chance to have lots of walks and ball chasing in the parks here in Roma.
We did OK at the Nationals. I got a qualification and 5th place in Gamblers Excellent and my best performance in the Agility heats was 13th place with just 2 time faults. Hannah's best place was 14th place with time faults only. When we made the time we had course faults and when we went clear we had time faults, but we did have a good time with some very good runs.

The Nationals

We made it to the Nationals. Here is a picture of me running in Masters Jumping at the National Agility Trials in Queensland. I did not do all that well, neither did Hannah, but we were there in the ring competing.
I wanted to go in the tunnel but Keith wanted me to go up the Dog Walk, and I did eventually, but it was too late. In the Jumping we had a bad start when I left the start line early and Keith was in the wrong position, but we got quite a way round before it all went pear shaped. Hannah was doing well until the second jump when she went up a Scramble instead of over a bar, then did not want to run at all in the Jumping.
We have a day off today as we don't do Open class, but we will be back on Friday and Saturday to run again in the National Agility Trials.

SherbrookeTollers at the National

Look at us at the 2014 National Agility Trials in Queensland. All my relatives at the Nationals in one shot. From the left is:
Willow, (Half Sister), Cherry (Auntie), Rio (Dad), Murphy, (Uncle) Hannah and me.
We have been traveling since Thursday. We met up with Rio, Murphy and Cherry on Thursday night and traveled with them all the way to  Ipswich in Queensland, arriving on Sunday. We had lots of runs and chasey games on the way and then when we got here, we met up with Willow.
We had a look at the trial grounds today, there were lots of people and dogs all setting up there sites for the week of competition. I will be the second 400 dog to run in the Nationals, so I will have to be ready right from the start. Hannah is running a few dogs after me.
We have 5 days of competition ahead of us, competing in Masters Agility and Jumping, Excellent Snooker, Gamblers and Strategic pairs.
Willow is not old enough to compete, but all the others are in the running to be the National Champion in their class.
Well, I have to go now, I need my sleep to get ready for Day 1, tomorrow.

I've been Pyrographed!

Here is a photo of the pyrograph of me. The colours did not come out properly, (something to do with electronic artifacts, whatever they are, they caused the green bits) but you can see it is me. The picture is made by burning the image on wood with a really hot tool, then tinting and shading. It was done from 2 photos that Keith sent to Paul, one of his friends from Rotary, and Paul made the picture.

Hannah and I are getting ready to go on our big trip. We are leaving today and will take 3 days to get to Brisbane where we will be competing in the National Agility trials, then taking 3 months or so to get back home.

I had a few runs at Whyalla last week and got a Masters Jumping pass and a Rally RAE qualification too.
Anyway, I have to go to make sure they pack all our toys, beds and food.

Week end of work.

We had a busy week-end last week. Saturday we were at the Agility trials at SDK&ODC then Sunday was the Gawler Rally trials. The pic shows me coming out of the Offset Figure 8 station on my way to a third place in the Rally Advance B class.I got two qualifications towards my RAE title, 3 more to go, just not many trials that I can go in before November.
The Agility trials went very well, except for a big mix up at the start. I wanted to do the dog walk but Keith insisted on a bar, so we did neither. Apart from that we had a good round. Hannah was clear but over time. Jumping went a bit haywire too, so we ended the day with no passes but we had a good time.

Masters Pass No.5

Here it is. The instant I got my fifth pass in Masters Agility! It was a close thing. We were at the Para Districts trial on Saturday, we had only the morning session for a pass because Keith was judging in the afternoon. I was going very well with Keith calling the jumps and I was nailing every one of them, until Dopey Dad sent me to the wrong entrance of the tunnel. Panic stricken calls let me know what was going on, so I cut back to the other end and then into the correct entry to the tunnel. Judge Noeline and half the crowd were in fits laughing at Keith trying to get back into position for the rest of the course, but we did it with a couple of seconds to spare.
Hannah had a good run in  her Agility Masters, with only a couple of errors, but we both messed up in Jumping.
In the Afternoon Trials, with Kathy handling us, we had a bit of a disaster when both of us went up the dog walk instead of a bar, so we were disqualified. In the Jumping I ran with Mel and we almost made it with a mis-communication near the end which cost us about 3 seconds and we finished up one and a bit seconds over time but clear. Hannah also got a clear round but with time faults.

Busy Weekend.

What a week-end we have had. We were exhausted after doing the mock trials and then the games trials on the week-end. Look at us in the photo, we were still sleeping it off the next day.
On Friday we went to the mock trials where new judges were practicing their skills so we had lots of runs in Masters and Open classes, and we did well too. Hannah got her first Masters pass, but it did not count as it was not a real trial. The next day we were in the Games trials. Hannah got a Gamblers Excellent and a Snooker Excellent pass and I got a Gamblers Excellent pass. Keith was judging and so I got Uncle Murphy's mum Mel to  be the human in the team. We had a mix up in the Snooker at one jump and that cost us the trial. In the afternoon we were a bit over time in the Pairs event, and I dropped the last bar in the gamblers and the first bar in the Snooker closing sequence so no prizes for me. When Hannah popped out of the weaving poles in Snooker, and missed the tunnel in Gamblers that sealed our fate for the PM trial.
Had a lot of fun,barked at a lot of friends and cadged some treats from their humans, so it was not a bad week-end after all.

Easter Trials

Look at me in the pic, I am higher than Keith's head as I go over the top of the Scramble. Yesterday we were at the fundraising trial for the National Trials to be held here in SA in 2016. I had three good runs (but no passes) and one not so good, while Hannah had four good runs, including a pass in Agility Excellent, (she was too late to upgrade to Masters after gaining her ADX last week.)
We had four runs in the morning, but none in the afternoon because Keith was judging.
We have a day off today, just taking things easy, having our Easter Chews and recovering from the excitement of yesterday.

Hannah ADX

Hannah got her Agility Dog Excellent Title (ADX) yesterday with a First Place too! She had two first place and two second place awards in her five passes needed for her title and she had one of her passes in Queensland. The pic shows Hannah with her 5 Qualifying Cards.
We were at the SAODC double trial. In the morning run Hannah messed up by going in the tunnel  instead of up the dog walk, but she got everything right in the afternoon. I was in the Open class and popped out of the weaving poles a bit early but did the rest very well, then in the jumping Open I went in the weaving poles instead of the distance section so I was an NQ in both. Keith was judging in the afternoon, so I did not have a run.

Hannah RAE

Hannah is now a Rally Advanced Excellent dog (RAE) which means she has passed Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent 10 times at the same trial. She got her title today at the SA State Titles, with a 3rd place in Excellent B too. It was a busy weekend with both of us competing in Rally on 2 days, and KNK judging on alternate days. It was quite warm in the sun and I was not too interested in working, I did pass one trial each day, but not both classes so Keith is a bit disappointed. Hannah made it through both Advanced and Excellent on both days, and that was enough to get her the highest title in Rally, and we think she is the first Toller to get the RAE in SA. The pic shows her rushing back to our crate to get her Chicken reward, dragging Kathy behind her.

Noarlunga Trials

Here is a photo of me leaping through the Hoop at the Noarlunga City Trial yesterday. I could only run in the morning because Keith was judging in the afternoon. I missed a weaving pole in Agility so there was no qualification there, and in the jumping I went the wrong side of a jump and got a DQ. Hannah did not do much better in her runs, but our half sister Maggie passed in jumping and agility with two first places and a title.

Warrnambool Beach

We are on holiday at Warrnambool with Maggie and Minty. The pic shows us running on the beach, I am in front with Maggie next and Hannah close behind. Minty is too small to run with us, but she had a good time at the beach too. The waves were pretty big and when I got too close to one it knocked me over. After that we were not allowed in the water, something about a rip, but it wasn't us that ripped anything. We will be down here for a week then returning home.

Tiffany's 5th Birthday

Tiffany is 5 years old today. We have had extra chews and Scooby snacks and a present each. I got a Yellow Dog and Tiffany got Rancid Raccoon. If you don't know who Rancid Raccoon is then you probably don't play Farm Hero's Saga on face book. KnK took a great delight in watching Tiffany de-squeak him then cheered when we started playing tug of war with him.  The pic shows Tiffany giving Rancid a good chewing. The toys are really good because inside them is a plastic drink bottle that makes all sorts of noises as we chew them, and when the bottle is completely wrecked, the humans stick another one in.
It has been a good year for Tiffany, she has gained titles in Agility Games, Agility, Rally and has several qualifications towards her Masters Title in Agility and Jumping. We have been in competitions in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory, so we have seen a lot of the Australian Outback, met up with old friends and made many new friends too.

Agility Games

Agility trials are back. We were at the Agility Dog Club's Games Trial last night, the Pic shows Hannah jumping a "Red" as she looks across to Kathy for direction to the next jump. Not a very successful night. Hannah popped out of the weaving poles two poles before the end on the last obstacle in Snooker then bumped her head in a tunnel and was shaking her head instead of running to the gamble in Gamblers. I missed a critical contact colour and also missed the last poles in Snooker. I ran up the Dog Walk as the siren went for the Gamble and by the time I got to the gamble I was out of time. I did do the Gamble in 8 seconds so Keith was happy with that.
Strategic pairs was our usual laugh. We take turns in doing sections of the course. I missed a weaver so Hannah had to do them for me. I did her next section which left Hannah to do the final twisty bit of 5 jumps which included a tight turn on the Broad jump. By the time Hannah had done that I was right with her and we both did the final two jumps together. Unfortunately we were out of time, but we did have a good time.

Hot days in Adelaide

What can you do on a hot day?

It has been a hot summer. Temperature is in the 40+ degrees Celsius for lots of days and stays warm all night. We have been hiding in the air conditioning most of the time, but come out to play in the evenings when it cools down a little. Kathy waters the garden and we help. Hannah chases the water where it hits the ground while I go for the nozzle where the water comes out of the hose. We get our blue shell filled with water and we play in that too. I kick the water up and Hannah bites it, we can keep it up for ages, but eventually when we have had enough KnK towel us down and we go back in the air conditioning for a sleep.
Training is starting again and we have been practising our agility and obedience skills. I can still get round the course, but Keith needs a sit down about halfway round to get his breath back. It should not be too long before we get the handlers back in shape.

Happy New Year 2014

Happy New Year everybody. We spent New Year's Eve at a dog trial in Gawler, and Hannah won the Agility Dog Excellent class with her fourth qualification towards her title. The pic shows us lying on the Beach Lounge that she won. It was a hot night, I was the first dog to run in Agility Masters, but it was too hot for me, and when we got round to Jumping Masters at about 2:00 AM I was too tired to run, as was Hannah, so we did not do very well at all.  Keith judged Rally and was busy for most of the night. Hannah got her excellent run at just the right time, the temperature had cooled down a bit, and she was ready for a run. The course flowed nicely with some tricky bits but Hannah got round it very well with Kathy steering her through the twists and turns. She had a bit of a moment approaching the Weaving Poles, but it all went smoothly in the end with her completing the course well under the time.
We got home about 4:00, went to bed and did not move until noon today, thankfully New Year's Eve is only once a year!