Games Tollers

WE PASSED!!!
The Games trials at Gawler were on today, Hannah passed her first Gamblers Novice trial, we were in Strategic Pairs and we Qualified in Novice Strategic Pairs, and I was in Excellent Gamblers and I WON IT.
The pic shows us with the dog blanket I won.
We nearly passed in Snooker too, but Hannah missed a colour on the Scramble, and I missed a colour on the Dog Walk, which was the last obstacle of the course. So close, but no cigar.
The week has been strange. We have not been to training because of heavy rain which made the grounds too slippery for us to work at the Agility Dog Club or at home, we did not do our Tuesday training either, so we were lucky we even got round the course. The humans forget what to do if we don't put them through their paces regularly.

Hannah's Passes

Hannah has two Novice Jumping passes after the weekend in Barmara. She nearly got her title, but she knocked a bar after leaving a tunnel into bright sunshine so got 5 faults for that, and was a bit over time in the other trial. The pic shows her with her sash and qualifying cards.
She was in Agility too, but had some trouble with the weavers, and dropped a bar or two, but she is well on her way to passing Agility novice.
I had some good runs too, with some bad ones thrown in. I was 0.9 of a second over time in a Masters Jumping, and I had stopped to look at a dog with a bell round its neck for a couple of seconds. We got nearly all the way round the Masters Agility, but Keith ran out of breath with just one obstacle to go and could not call me in time to steer me on to the right obstacle so we got a DQ. Overall it was a good weekend with some good results for us in the trials and a great time playing with all the other dogs on the grounds.

Hard Luck Hannah

We were in trials again last week- end, Hannah was trying in Novice Agility and was doing very well until she missed a tunnel entry because a UFO flew over and distracted her. We have it on Video, look at Hard Luck Hannah under Video links. Its a bit grainy because it was taken on a phone. (All UFO sightings are grainy by law). She did not get a re-run, so she failed.
Sometime during the day Hannah hurt her neck and was not working too well. We thought it might be the SRMA back again, but by Monday she was back to normal.
Dopey Dad sent me over the wrong jump in Masters so we failed that one, and then I found some yummy bits of meat on the ground on the way to the ring, and then threw up halfway round the course. Keith panicked when he saw me with froth round my mouth after doing a fast section, but it was just a bit of junk  that would not stay down. Anyway, no passes again, but we are failing at a much higher level!

SuperToller at the Games Trial

More powerful than a HO scale locomotive, faster than a spent bullet, able to leap 400mm high jumps in a single bound,  is it a bird? is it a plane? No; its SuperToller. The dog of alloy that has the amazing ability to leap over any coloured contact area on dog walks and scrambles. She missed three of them yesterday to record one of her most spectacular failures in Gamblers Excellent. The pic shows Tiffany flying over the bars in the distance section, but all to no avail because she missed out on points in the points accumulation section.
We were in Strategic Pairs too. We were going well until we started playing on the dogwalk. Both of us were on the top of it while KnK were going spare trying to get us down, that was a lot of fun for us and the spectators. We were voted the Most Entertaining Pair of the day!
I had my first go at Snooker and was doing very well, until I saw Grahame who was doing the timing. He always gives us pats, so naturally I went to see him. That was where things went pear shaped and I got disqualified shortly after.
They are called Games trials, so we played games. What has qualifications got to do with it?

Hannah's Birthday

Hannah was 2 years old yesterday. We were staying at the Berri caravan park for the trials at the Riverland. I took Hannah for a run on the oval next to the caravan park just after breakfast, then we went home for a biscuit and a lie down. Freki was next door so we all went for a long walk in the bush along the river before he had to go back to Adelaide. In the afternoon we had a sleep and then went to a training session with Chocolatedog at Barmera. It was late when we got home and we all collapsed in a heap and went to bed.
Hannah had a good time for her birthday. We were worried about her health ever since she was a pup, but she seems fully recovered and fighting fit now. She has passed lots of trials and has CCD and CD titles in obedience,  2 passes in Rally-O Novice and we will be trying for our second pass in Strategic Pairs agility on the week end. Add the Champion of her Breed in the show ring to the other titles, and you can see why Hannah is such a special dog.
The pic shows us standing by the Murray River near where we went for our walks.

Barmera Trials

We both got a pass in the Rally Obedience at the Riverland yesterday. The pic shows me doing the three step backwards with Kathy. Kathy has to walk backwards and stop after one step, then two steps and finally three steps, and I have to sit in front each time she stops. There were 15 stations altogether and this was just one of them.
Tiffany passed with Keith, and so did all of our friends with their handlers, so it was a good day all round.

State Championships

We were at the SA State Championships on the weekend, I was in Masters and Hannah was in Novice Jumping. The pic shows Hannah as she just landed after the last jump. It was a long weekend, we were in the Saturday afternoon and the Sunday morning trials (Keith was judging on Saturday morning so we could not enter). Hannah ran very well and was a bit unlucky to knock a bar off but then she got over excited and started to nip at Kathy's jeans and missed a jump. She still got round the course, but did not qualify. Keith got lost in Masters Agility when we went the wrong way after the fifth time through a tunnel, and I got a bit excited and took off too quick for Keith to keep up in Jumping so it all went pear shaped very quickly. Still we had a nice week end out with our mates, and we had a go at the championships too, even though we did not qualify for the Finals on Sunday afternoon.