The Dog Walk

Our dog walk is ready. The surface is still a bit slippery so that will have to be fixed, but in the mean time it stops us from jumping off early because we can not get a grip. The pic shows us testing it out.

We have an extra panel for our shelter tent when we are trialling. Kathy made it today and we set it up to see if it fits. That is in the pic background.

We did not do too well in the trials, Tiffany forgot how to heel, and I got distracted by a bug in the Stand for Examination, then I sat. We both did all the other exercised OK, but the humans were still grumpy with us. Ah well, we will have to use the big sad eyes and the waggy tail for a couple of days and they will get over it.

Southern Trials

To paraphrase John Madden, of all my Agility Trials, this was one of them. The pic shows me just about to go into the weavers, but I missed the entry, because I had to "go", so I did and that got us tossed out of the ring. I had already missed a jump so we were not qualifying. I must have had a nervous bladder because I had been three times before we went in.

In the Excellent course I went the wrong way through the hoop, in the Jumping Open I missed a weaving pole and in the Jumping Masters I just got distracted and did a wrong jump. So we had four fails, but it was not all that bad. I did manage some very difficult parts and my times were good, so Keith was not too unhappy.

We now have a mini dog walk at home. Keith made it out of a work platform and some timber he found in the shed. At least Hannah and I can practice Contacts now.

Broken Hill Trials

KnK were judging the trials at Broken Hill, so we were just along for the ride. So far we have had Saturday night and Sunday morning at the trials, but we did manage to get in the ring, we were the make up dogs for the stay exercises. I did the UD and Open stays, and Hannah did the CCD stays. The pic shows some of the trial dogs with their humans, after the trial.

We start back tomorrow, very early, so we will not get a chance to have a look around.

Pass-less weekend at Mt Gambier

No passes in 5 attempts between us. I was in Novice Obedience and got distracted when Fur Dad Rio went past the ring and I forgot what I was doing on the first day, then on the Sunday I did not do the drop in the Distance Control but did everything else. Tiffany was in Master Jumping for the first time, until Keith got lost and went the wrong way, then in the Novice Snooker, Tiffany decided to go a different way to Keith and did not get enough points. The Open Jumping was Ok until Tiffany missed a bar in the distance sector.

It did not start out as a good week-end. Just after we left home the Navara got a fault and we had to take it and the caravan back home. The Honda Jazz was loaded up with everything we needed, accommodation booked, and we had to sleep in the dog crates.

While we were in Mt Gambier we met up with TeamJoseph, they comment on the blog quite often. On the chair is Summa and Gypsy, then Buffy and Demon with Tiffany and me.

Father Woods Tree

Trials time again, this time in Mt Gambier. We got in the car with the caravan hitched up, got 100 metres down the road when a light came on warning something was wrong in the engine. Straight down to Unley Nissan where the Navara was pugged into the computer which could not find anything wrong. The fault was reset and seemed clear, but as soon as we started off again, the light came on!. The caravan and the Navara were taken home, all the essentials were unpacked and loaded into the Honda Jazz and we came to Mt Gambier. Kathy booked us into a cabin for two nights.

On the way we stopped at Father Woods Tree. Father Wood was a local preacher who did a lot of work for the community, and he used to hold his sermons under a big tree. The council has built memorial park across the road from the tree. They cut down a lot of trees and carved statues out of the stumps which represent aspects of Father Woods life. The pic shows us looking at the carvings.

Ms Hannah, Tiffany JDX

Hannah has been converted from a Miss to a Ms and is doing very well. We have to keep her 'quiet and calm', for 2 weeks. We have a better chance of winning the lottery. So far so good, she has recovered from the surgery very well and is actively resisting all attempts to keep her 'quiet and calm'.

I went to the trials on Saturday, and passed two Jumping Dog Excellent trials which means I have another title to my name, JDX.

It was close for the first pass, I almost went passed a jump when Keith called me back, and Judge Joy was right in the perfect position to see if it was a refusal or not. After she said it was less than a centimetre in it, but I got the pass, and my Title. I will have to talk to Demon to see if he can get his mum to put me in the Masters Jumping at Mt Gambier next week.

20 years of Tollers

The Tollers have been in Australia for 20 Years, and to celebrate there was a gathering of Tollers at the United Retriever Club of NSW in Sydney. We were there and Tiffany won 1st place in the 400mm Agility Dog Excellent class,with a qualification. The pic shows her running through the weaving poles on her way to the win. The Jumping Excellent went wrong when Tiffany went the wrong way over a jump after leaving a tunnel , but the rest of the course was good.

I was in Novice Obedience, but it was all too much for me and I got put off by the thunderstorm that went through just before the start of the trial. Anyway, I did the heel work OK, but I would not sit at the start peg for the next exercise so I was sent home early.

There were lots of Tollers on the grounds. There was a Conformation Show, the Agility and Jumping trial, the Obedience Trial and the Retrieving Ability Test for Gundogs, with Tollers entered in all of them. Maybe next year at the 21 year gathering we will do better.