Hannah Passes in Novice

Hannah has her second pass in Agility Novice after a great run at the Gawler trials. There were a couple of moments when things did not look too good, like the way she clung to the Table with her toe nails to prevent her slipping off because she hit it a bit too quickly, but she made it and even got third place overall. The pic shows Hannah doing her warm up exercises before the run. Her Jumping Excellent class was good too, just two faults on a very difficult course. The faults were on the easy bits so she did do the serpentine and the 200 degree turn into a blind tunnel, but there was just those two little drops in concentration that cost the trial. I was in masters, but I was not feeling all that well, and was ill last night. I hope I am fully recovered for next week end in Wanrnambool.

Mount Gambier Trials

We were trialing again last week end, at Mount Gambier, where the world famous Blue Lake is. The pic shows Hannah clearing the last jump in her Jumping Excellent trial. She did very well, until she went to see the judge and lost the plot after that. In her Agility trial, a magpie flew right across her nose as she was approaching the dog walk and that was the end of that trial too. I did not do much better. I got a fault free round in Jumping Masters, but we lost time because Keith got in the wrong position for a Threadle, so we lost a few seconds there which meant we were over the time limit. In the Agility I went sniffing and dropped a bar too so we did not qualify again.
We left the caravan at Mount Gambier because we will be going back in two weeks on the way to Warnambool for more trials.

Tollers RN

We have another title to add to our list of accomplishments  We are now Rally Novice dogs, with the letters RN added to our names. Keith said we could get a job at the local hospital, but Maggie's mum (a Registered Nurse) said our RN was not the same as her RN.
It was an exciting day. Kathy was judging so Keith took both of us in. Tiffany went first and did well, covering for Keith when he did a Weave instead of a Serpentine. He called a Retry, and got away with losing 3 points, but still passed on 91. Then it was my turn. I usually work with Kathy, and play with Keith. It was very strange having Keith give the commands, especially as Kathy had disappeared somewhere. Anyway, I did my best trying to work out what he meant with his funny ways, and we got through with 87. I much prefer to work with Kathy.

Home

We are back home. After visiting NSW, Queensland and NT, we are back in SA ready for more fun and action.
The pic shows us at the Devils Marbles, near Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. We stopped there for a break. There are lots of rocks piled up on top of each other, looking like a giant pile of marbles, hence the name. Dogs were not allowed in the area, we thought it was a bit discriminatory, but a closer inspection showed we were not allowed in there because of all the broken glass from the smashed beer bottles, jagged edges from drink cans and general rubbish that had littered the ground, left behind by messy humans. No wonder dogs are not allowed in there, we would cut our feet to ribbons.
We will be home for a while, but KnK are already planning the next trip, and we have lots more adventures to come.

Hot Time in the Alice

The pic shows us having a run at Alice Springs. We have been at the dog trials here, but we had to stay out of the way because we were not competing. After the trials were over we could have a run, and we made the best of it too.
KnK were judging the trials on Friday, Saturday and today. It was the hottest September day ever recorded at Alice Springs on Saturday, so we spent most of the day in the caravan, lying on our cool mats with the air conditioner blowing on us. We were dragged outside for a "water walk", and as soon as we had done it we went back in the van. There is a song about mad dogs and Englishmen going out in the midday sun, well we are not mad dogs, and we were not staying out in that heat for anybody. It was really handy to be camping next to the dog grounds.

Barkly Homestead

Where else could two dogs stop but at the Barkly Homestead?
We were traveling down the Barkley Highway and needed a break so we just had to stop here. I have been here before, after my trip to the Tip of Cape York (that is the most northern point of Australia, not the Cape York rubbish dump). The video of my adventure is still on the video links. I showed Hannah all the interesting points across the Barkly, there were not many and we slept for a lot of it, just a long straight road through the scrub. We did not even see any animals to bark at, just scrub.

Two Headed Dog

I had something in my eye at Charleville, a grass seed they thought. I went to the vet there, she stuck a needle in me and I went all sleepy while my eye was cleaned. Anyway, we could not travel that day while I recovered  but the next day we went to Longreach. It is hot here.We found a shady spot in the morning while KnK went to look at some old planes, then went to see a lagoon, then came home to lie under the air conditioner. The pic shows us lying on the bed right where the cool air blows. It looks like we are one dog with two heads, but we are both trying to get in the breeze.