The Adventure begins.

We have set out on our big trip to Western Australia and the Gibb River Road. The pic shows us at the Ranges View rest stop north of Port Augusta where we stopped for lunch. The photo shows Hannah, then me (Tiffany) then Maggie and Mintie.
Our first night was with Sasha at Bute where we barked at the chooks, chased the cats and had a good sniff around Sasha's yard.
It has been a hectic trip, stopping at Coober Pedy (cold night) and then Alice Springs (Very Cold Night). We are now in Tennant Creek where it is a bit warmer.
Tomorrow we go further north and onto the dirt roads where the adventure will truly begin.

Hannah gets her TD title

We have had a busy weekend with Agility Games on Saturday and Tracking on Sunday. The prize of the weekend was Hannah getting her Tracking Dog Title.
We set out early on Saturday to go to the Games trial. The Strategic Pairs was a great time, it was only marred by us having a play for about 30 seconds in the middle of it, otherwise we went well even if we were over time. In the Gamblers we did not do very well, but in Snooker Excellent I got a pass in 5th place overall. Hannah was doing well until she jumped off the dog walk.
On Sunday we got up even earlier to get to Monarto by 7 AM to do our Track 2. Hannah went first, found Keith and a sock, ( the other sock disappeared, that's 2 socks we have lost). Then it was my turn, I found Kathy and both socks on the track. I was doing very well until near the end I had a bit of trouble finding the scent in the trees. Kathy said there had been some rabbits and a kangaroo running about near that point. I got a Good rating,
Somebody did not turn up for their trial, so there was a track prepared with no one to use it. The organisers then put everybody's name eligible for that track in a hat and Hannah got picked out to use the spare track. She had to track an unknown person for Track 3 which she had never done before. She had a bit of trouble at the start, but once she worked out what to do she followed the track, found the track layer and the articles and was rated as Very Good. The pic shows Hannah on the closing stage of the track with about 50 metres to go as she qualified for her Tracking Dog Title. Keith took the pic with his telephoto lens on his camera from about 100 metres away..
All in all, we had a good weekend.

Tracking Trials

Hannah and I both passed our first Tracking trials today. Hannah went first so I had to stay in the car with Scruff, (he is visiting with us for a few days while his mum is away).
Keith went off and hid in the bush, then 20 minutes later, Hannah went off and found him. The sock vanished somewhere, so Hannah could not find it, but she still passed.
Then it was my turn. This time Kathy hid in the bush and I was sent to find her with Keith trying to keep up on a long lead. When I found the sock, I pounced on it and threw it up in the air just to make sure the judge knew I had found it. We carried on and I found Kathy hiding behind a bush.  I had a bit of trouble on the turns, but I worked through that and finished with a "Good" rating.
The pic shows us lined up with some of our tracking friends, after the trial.

6 of Each

I passed 2 trials at Warrnambool, 1 Agility and 1 Jumping. That makes 6 passes in each class, and I need 1 more in each class to get a Masters title in both of them. The pic shows me doing the weaving poles in the Masters Agility with Keith trying to keep up. Judge Sue is watching on but the flag masked her face from the camera. I got 2nd in my height category in Agility and 3rd in Jumping.
We went very close to getting the final passes for my titles too. On a Jumping course I dropped bar number 22 on a 24 obstacle course, and in an Agility trial, I missed a Tunnel mouth and got everything else.
Hannah did not have many runs as Kathy was judging. The courses she ran she did well with only 1 or 2 faults, but we won't talk about the obedience.
Maggie and Minty were there but Maggie could not play because of her shoulder injury. (Maggie's Mum took the photo.) We did find lots of our other friends to play with at the trials, especially a border collie pup that was up to mischief with everybody.

The Off Road Kennel

The pic shows us trying out the new off road kennel. We got as far as Keith before we had to stop for the night. There was some delay in starting out as Keith had to buy some fuses that kept popping, whatever that means. Anyway, we got here, put the camper up, and had dinner. Our first night in a new kennel is always exciting, especially as KnK were trying to work out who forgot what, as there are some bags that got left home with some vital bits in them. Our food and beds are here, so what else could be important?
Tomorrow we go to Warrnambool for dog trials so we have a busy weekend ahead.

Our new Off Road Kennel

The top pic shows us in our new Off Road kennel. Hannah is testing out the bed while I am checking out the chair in the breakfast area.
The next pic shows how the new kennel looks when fully erected, with the annex up but we will just have the bed and the living area up for an overnight stay The bottom pic shows how it looks while we are traveling. Our photo is on the spare wheel, so no one can mistake who we are. Click on the pic to make it bigger.

The caravan is still at home, waiting for a new owner to buy it and take it away. We have had some wonderful trips in it, traveling to all mainland states and territories in Australia, but the time has come for us to get off the bitumen and see the remote areas that are off the beaten track.

KnK are planning to see the Gibb River Road and we will be traveling with Maggie and Minty so the four of us will have a wonderful time. The first trip away will be to the Warrnambool dog trials in February so we can get used to living in the new kennel before we start off on the big trip.

Happy New Year

 Maggie and Minty stayed over for New Years Eve and we had lots of plays while the humans sat around eating, drinking and talking. We were pretty tired for New Years Day so we had a quiet time recovering. Yesterday was as hot as the inside of a really hot thing, 42 degrees C they said. We hid indoors under the air conditioning for most of the day, but when it cooled down in the evening we got out the blue shell, got it filled up with water and played for an hour. The pic shows us biting the water to make it come out quicker. Kathy tried to water the lawn, but we chased the water jet until she gave up. I jumped into the shell and started digging at the water while Hannah chased the splashes. In the end we had to have a rub down with the towels, a quick drink and a long lie down before we went to bed.