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.

Tiffany ADM.

Last night Tiffany passed her 7th Agility Masters trial and qualified for her Agility Dog Master (ADM) title. It was a cool night, a good flowing course from Judge Brian and Tiffany was very keen to run. Keith, however, was a bit under the weather suffering from dizzy spells if he turned too quickly. During the walk through, Keith worked out a way that he could run without doing spins. Round the course Tiffany was flying, while Keith was doing his 'avoid spins' path. It worked because Tiffany came third overall and second in her height class (to our dad Rio) and gained her title.
My run was not as spectacular as Tiffany as I got a couple of jumps wrong, and had to repeat a jump too. The good news was that with all those errors I was only a couple of seconds over the time.
The pic shows us at home playing on the practice jump doing 'Synchronised Jumping', it will never take off as a sport.

Hannah's First Masters Agility Pass

Hannah has got her first pass in Masters Agility. It was at Whyalla nearly 2 weeks ago, but Keith has been a bit slack in getting this posted. We have moved house so we are not sure where we will sleep as we keep going back to the old house to get things.

Hannah did a beautiful run, holding her line well and only briefly barking at Kathy during the run. There is a video on the left side bar under video links so everyone can see how well she did the course. Did it with time to spare too.

The pic shows Hannah in the Weaving Poles, zigging and zagging through every gap.

Royal Games

Hannah passed her Excellent Snooker class at the Royal. She took it steady with Kathy running a controlled course and Hannah just kept going at a steady rate and got round within the time. To qualify Hannah had to get 15 points in the Point Accumulation period of 45 seconds, and she got 19. Then in the Closing round she went through as steady as a rock with no mistakes. The photo shows Hannah clearing the last obsacle, which was the bar from the Tunnel/ Bar combination.
I was not so lucky. I did my run first and showed everybody how to get 19 points without too much stress. Lots of people followed my plan. Then in the closing round I got all the way round to the "Pink" obstacle and headed for the last "Black". There was another bar in the way and I jumped that one trying to get to the tunnel quicker. Keith usually directs me, but this time he was a bit late turning and I was already commited to the bar. Well within the time, but no pass.
We did Gamblers too, but it was a very difficult Gamble that nobody passed, so we did not feel too upset about failing that one.

Adelaide Royal Show

The family at the Royal Show Agility Trials
Hannah, Tiffany, Rio (dad) Murphy (uncle) Karri (sister).
We had a great time with everybody at the show, Hannah barked at the judge, the crowd and the camera person during her runs and got distracted by the noise and excitment of the show so did not do her best in her runs. I did a good run in Jumping, clear round but 2+ seconds over time. I did get within 3 seconds of Rio and 6 seconds of Skye (who is very fast) so I did not do too badly. In the Agility I was doing well untill I missed a weaving pole. I had just come out of a tunnel into the light and I could not see the poles, Keith saw me blinking and squinting as I went towards the poles. The rest of the course was a training run and I finished well inside the time.
One more night to go, doing Gamblers and Snooker, tonight.