Atherton Trials

We both did well at Atherton. Hannah passed in Open Agility and Open Jumping then went well but without a qualification in Masters. I passed in Masters Jumping with a 1st in my height and also in Open Jumping. I messed up on the weaving poles in Agility so no qualification in that.The pic shows us with our prizes, 3 dog toys, a storage box and a solar lamp. KnK can have the last two but we will keep the others.
After Atherton, we moved down to Hull Heads for a night and then on to Townsville. KnK are judging on the weekend so we will not be able to run.
When the trials are over we will start heading back home, so this looks like the last few days of our holiday.

Far North Qeensland Touring

We are having a look around Far North Queensland, not right up to the very top, just around Atherton Tablelands and Townsville.
The top picture shows us at the top of Castle Hill in Townsville, looking over Townsville to Magnetic Island. It was a long steep climb all the way up, we were grateful the Toyota got there without us having to walk.

Later we were traveling past Crystal Creek where we have stayed before and the humans wanted to stop at the Frosty Mango for refreshments, Good idea because we were ready for a break too and we always get the end of the ice cream. There was a Big Mango there, so we had to have our picture taken to complete our set of Big Whatevers that we have had taken. Look back through the blog, there is a Big Koala, Big Olive, Big Lobster, Big Banana, Big Orange, Big Sheep, Big Sheep Bale, just about everything big you can imagine.
We are competing in Atherton this weekend, so we have to go and practice.

Tiffany JDM

Tiffany has finally got her Jumping Dog Master qualification. It happened in Cairns on Sunday in the rain. The course was a little unusual with some challenges that we had not seen before, but Tiffany took  it all in her stride. There was one heart stopping moment when Tiffany went towards the wrong end of a tunnel, but she quickly corrected and finished the course with 6 seconds to spare.
The pic shows Tiffany  in mid-air heading towards a tunnel while Keith crosses behind ready for the next section..

I had a good run in that masters class too except I went to have a chat with Judge Jody that cost me too much time. I would have made time had I just done the course.

We are on holiday in Far North Queensland. Yesterday saw us in the Daintree Rain Forrest. KnK thought it was wonderful, but it was just lots of damp trees. We slept through most of it. Lunch time was good because we were allowed to sit in the garden at the Fan Palm Café, and a cassowary wandered in from the forest and through the garden. We just stared at it, but the humans got excited and took pictures.

More trials in Atherton soon, more things to see and do now, so we are back to being tourists for a few days.

Lots of things

Lots of things have happened since the last post. Hannah has had her Birthday, she is now 6 years old and the highlight of her year was getting her Tracking Champion to become a Dual Champion Tracking.

I also became a Dual Champion Tracking the week after Hannah's birthday.

We are on the road again, going to Queensland to compete in trials in Cairns and Atherton.  We travelled on the outback roads  through some remote locations.

One place we went through was Aramac. It was the starting place for Henry Readford who, in 1870, took 1200 head of cattle 2000km down to Adelaide via the Strzelecki track and did not loose any of them. There were a couple of problems: a) they were not his cattle, b) one of them was a prize white bull imported from England. c) they were taken to SA because Henry thought no one would know he was a cattle rustler. Well someone recognised the prize white bull and he was taken back to Roma in Queensland where he was tried and found NOT GUILTY because the jury was impressed with the skill required to pull off the drive and released him. Henry Readford's droving feat was the role model for Captain Starlight in the novel Robbery Under Arms.

The pic shows Hannah tracking, me tracking and both of us posing in front of the replica of the prize white bull in Aramac.

Dual Champion Hannah SDX

Hannah is a Dual Champion now. At the last Tracking trial, Hannah passed her Track 8 with a Good rating and is now a Tracking Champion. She was already a Conformation Champion, so now she is a Dual Ch.(T) We went tracking a couple of weeks ago. I got my Track 7 so I am just one track behind Hannah. The Championship tracks are not easy. We have to find the track from among a lot of other smells created by people milling about at the start, then we have to track 1.2 kilometres with several acute angle turns, find 3 socks and the t-shirt at the end. Add in the kangaroo and rabbit tracks, the wind, rain and cold weather and you can see it is not just a walk in the park.
The photo shows Hannah doing a practice track wearing her Tracking Harness as she leads Kathy round the track. Underneath are Hannah's 3 certificates she was issued with, all on the same day. The certificates are, her Dual Champion title, her Tracking Champion, and her Snooker Dog Excellent Title. Hannah got her SDX at the Agility Nationals but we only just applied for the title.

Nationals and more

We have been very busy since the last post, but Keith has been too slack to update, so we had to bite him. Latest news, Hannah has passed her Track 7 in Tracking and is 1 off for her Champion, she passed in Snooker Excellent at the Nationals, and I have a TDX title. We have got a new Kennel on an acre of land so now we have room to run and play.

The top photo is us with our certificates and sashes.  Hannah got her Track 7 at the first tracking trial, but I failed my Track 6 because I went kangaroo hunting. Well, they were just sitting there looking at me and they jumped across in front of me, what's a red-blooded dog to do?
At the next tracking trial, I got a good rating for my Track 6, but Hannah was not in such a good mood, she was tired and lost interest so she did not pass.

At the national Agility competition, we had some bad luck. Both of us got a tummy bug and had loose toilets that did not help. It seemed that when I got everything right, Keith made mistakes, and when he got everything right I made mistakes. We had some good runs but no passes.
Hannah and Kathy had similar problems until they got to the Snooker Excellent class when they went through without a mistake and qualified. I popped the weaving poles with just 1 more obstacle to go so no pass for me.

The middle photo is me at the Nationals, and the bottom photo is Hannah at the Nationals.

Strategic Pairs Excellent Pass 1

Our first pass in Excellent Strategic Pairs was gained yesterday at the Agility Dog Club trial. We tried a new technique that KnK hoped would control our urge to play when we are competing. It slowed down the transitions, but we got a pass and in 3rd place too. The pic shows us with our qualifying cards and sashes.

I went first, up to the tunnel at Jump 6, then as soon as I came out of the tunnel, I dropped to the ground and lay still. Hannah then took off on the next section which finished on the Dog Walk (Hannah is good on the dog walk) and she dropped as soon as she was clear of the colour. I did the next section which included the weaving poles, which I nailed, and as I did the last jump and dropped, Hannah started her last part and she dropped as soon as she was out of the tunnel at the end of her section. That was my cue to start so I took off on the final section involving a tricky turn from the Scramble onto a Broad Jump and we finished with 10+ seconds to spare.

Our secret weapon was the drop at the end of each section. Usually, when one of us sees the other one running, the fun starts and we play chasey. Sorry to disappoint all of our fans that turned up for the entertainment, but this time we got a comfortable pass.

Murrumbidgee Again

We are home at last after our 5 weeks away. We stayed at Darlington Point on the way home, a little place at the edge of the Hay Plain, where I had stayed before in January 2010. click this link to see that post.Murrumbidgee in 2010
I took Hannah down to the river where I had a picture last time I was here, just to show her where I had been. The water was a lot lower this time and it was hard to find the original photo spot, but I think this was it.
The trip was great. We had lots of walks and plays with lots of dogs from different places. We ran in trials, only one pass each, but lots of fun. We have seen lots of places, been to the highest town in Australia, and now we are ready for home and a bit of a rest.

The Big Trout

We have seen the Big Lobster, the Big Olive, the Big Koala, the Big Bundy Bottle, the Big Banana, the Big Ram, The Big Bulls, the Big Ant, the Big Pineapple, the Big Hay Bale, the Big Galah, the big Orange and now we have seen the Big Trout. It is at Adaminaby near Lake Eucumbene in the Snowy Mountains.
We had a day touring in the Snowy Mountains. KnK enjoyed the scenery and the old towns and history, but we just had a long sleep in the car. We had to stay in the car anyway because a lot of it is National Park and we were not allowed outside and had to stay on the main roads. We were allowed out at places not in the Park, and we had some walks around lakes and reserves. Tiffany wanted to swim in the lakes but KnK would not let her off the lead.
We were glad to get back to the Cooma caravan park to get our dinner after a long day out.

Canberra Dogs

Tollers at the Houses of Parliament in Canberra. Hannah and I posed for this picture outside this huge human kennel where the nation's chief barkers congregate to decide who is in charge. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, dogs just piddle on a stobie pole to let everyone else know who owns the territory.
We stayed at the dog club where we met lots of dogs and were able to go into paddocks where we could run free, play with other dogs and chase balls to our hearts content. Kathy wanted us to do some work, but Keith was judging in the next ring, so we went to say hello. Not what Kathy wanted, but it was just a day out for us.

Gundagai

 We were On the Road to Gundagai, along the track leading back to a......., oh you know the song. We have been where the dog sat on the tuckerbox a couple of years ago, had our photos taken there, so we did not go there again.
Instead, we took a tour of Gundagai. It is a historic town full of interesting things for KnK, but not for dogs. We found this park where we could have a walk, sniff, mooch and attend to our toiletries, but in the corner was a sculpture of Dad, Dave, Mum and Mable who were famous for living in Snake Gully. We did not know them, but it seem they were on the Radio, whatever that is, and they got into lots of comical situations. Anyway, we posed for the photo then went back to  mooching in the park. It pays to keep the humans happy sometimes.

Ettomogah Pub 3

A long time ago before we were born, a magazine produced a cartoon about a fictitious pub at Ettomogah. It became so popular that people built a copy of the pub that didn't exist in the real world, as a tourist attraction. Then more people built more copies of the non existent pub so that now there are 5 of them. We have been to the one in Queensland, the one in Western Australia, and now we are at the one in New South Wales at Ettomogah near Albury. The cartoonist lived in Albury so this is as close as possible you can get to the original. Don't think too much about that last sentence or you will get a migraine.
Anyway, the top pic shows us outside the pub, but we are so small Keith had to magnify us in the inset and put an arrow to where we were. The cartoon pub had been faithfully reproduced. There was the truck on the roof, the writing on the wall, the crashed plane, the wobbly construction and Bandit the Dog's kennel. They had filled in the rabbit warrens and traps for safety reasons.
The bottom pic shows us trying to talk to Bandit. We heard him bark but he would not come out. He was not very smart, he just went "Woof" if you tapped on his kennel. Eventually we began to think he was not real, just a machine that made a noise like a dog, but we kept checking just in case he was real.

Albury Winners

We are back in the Winners Circle! Tiffany won 1st place in Masters Jumping qualifying with a time almost 3 seconds under the standard course time, and then we went in Strategic Pairs and we won the Excellent class. Unfortunately we  were over time due to a quick game of chasey half way through, but we did all the obstacles. The whole trial thought we were good though, said it was the best laugh they'd had in ages.
Neither of us did any good in Agility. Tiffany was over excited and Keith lost control, then I went in and there were some very interesting sniffs and a dog walk that I had never seen before and I had to try it out.
The pic shows us with our sashes and our prizes of Dog Biscuits.

Trains and Ned Kelly

We have been traveling again, We are in Albury tonight, but to get here we have traveled for 3 days, not because it is a long distance, but because there are lots of things to see and do. We stayed a night in Ararat, then Sheperton and finally got here. One of the stops along the way was at Elmore where there is a miniature railway. Hannah and I waited on the station  (see top picture) but the train didn't come so it must have been a model of British Rail, Keith said.
Later on we reached Glenrowan which was the home of the famous bush ranger and artist's model Ned Kelly. He must have been huge because the pic shows us sitting by his statue and we are only as big as his boots. You have to look closely to see us.
The Albury caravan park is next door to the dog club grounds where we are competing on Saturday, so this means we wont have to get up too early on the weekend.

Tiffany's 7th Birthday

Tiffany was 7 years old on 7th March 2016. She has had another good year doing all sorts of things that keep a dog happy. In the agility ring she became a Masters dog, she has a Tracking Dog title and 2 passes towards her Tracking Dog Excellent title.
We have also been traveling around Australia a lot too. We went to the Kimberly's in Western Australia and went along the Gibb River Road and back across the Tanami Desert.  Add in a few country trips to Mildura and Whyalla and that was a busy year for a dog.

The big news since Tiffany's birthday is, We Have A New Kennel. It is in Tanunda in the Barossa Valley. We will not move in until May because KnK have to do things first. In the mean time we are in Warrnambool for a week end of dog trials, and then we move on for more trials next week.
The pic shows us on our walk along the pathway next to the Warrnambool caravan park where we are staying. We walked to the harbour where we stopped for the photo.

Barossa Tollers.

We have been running and playing in Nurioopta which is in the Barossa Valley Wine district. We are away in the caravan for the weekend. KnK have been looking at houses so we have had to sit in the car while they look, but they do  not leave us for long and we get lots of walks at different dog parks. Fortunately it has been cool and we are always in the shade with water. The pic shows us at our favourite park in Nuriootpa by the steam engine. We run and chase the ball, chase each other and just mooch around the big park here until we are too tired to move, then we just curl up and go to sleep while KnK try to find us a new home.

Toller Beach Day

We had a morning at the beach yesterday, with lots of other Tollers and a few ring ins. We have a Toller gathering occaisionally during Summer but this was the first one we attended.
We had a great time. We swam, fetched balls, frisbys, dummys and anything else we could get the humans to throw. We chased each other up and down the beach, raced through the waves and investigated everywhere we could.
There were about 20 dogs there and it was hard work getting round to sniff everyone, but we did our best. At the end of the day we were too tired to move.
When we got home we both had a bath to get the salt and sand out of our fur, a thorough grooming and then we were allowed to sleep, and we slept like logs. When we eventually started to move about again we had to go slowly because we were stiff and sore from all the exercise, but not too stiff or sore to demand dinner at 5 o'clock.
The pic shows just a few of the 219 pictures Keith took during the morning. Tiffany top left, Hannah top right and then two shots of the crowd at play.