Rally Advanced.

Yesterday we were at the Gundog Club Rally Trial. We were in Advanced class, and we both passed, TWICE. The pic shows Hannah doing the 1 Step, 2 Steps, 3 Steps Backwards, and I am doing the  Send Over Jump, Handler Runs By station.
In my first run, Keith went the wrong way in the Spiral and had to call a Re-Try, but I managed to salvage the rest of the course and got a pass in the eighties, then in the second trial, Keith got it right and we made 90 points. Hannah got her 90 points in the first trial, but was feeling a bit tired after being out all day and lagged a bit which dropped her score into the eighties, but was still a pass, we need to get 70 or more to qualify.
Two passes each mean we now need one more Advanced pass to get our Rally Advanced title.

4 Yesterday

I was 4 yesterday, and I had a 2 day Birthday Party. KnK went off playing in the sand with the Navara, while Hannah and I went to Mac, Billy and Gracie's place and had a ball. Its Mac's birthday today, so it was a double celebration. We raided the toy box and played chasy, pinched some of Jessie's biscuits, frightened Ziggy when we sneaked through a door we were not supposed to go past and had a great time.
When Knk came to pick us up each night we were so ready to go to bed we hardly had time to lick them. Thursday night was supposed to be Agility training but we were too tired and so were KNK. Today is a rest day, we managed a token bark at the postman, but that was about it.

Strategic Pairs Games

We did it!. We were in Strategic Pairs in the Novice Class and we needed one more pass to get our Title. We are now Strategic Pairs Dog (SPD) dogs. Hannah usually runs first in Strategic Pairs but at the last minute we swapped and I did the first section. It paid off because we got through without a forced change and got second place too. See the video under Video Links on the left side of the page.
Hannah had a good night because she also passed in Snooker Novice, just one more pass for her title. I was doing well in Snooker Excellent until Keith lost count of how many reds we had done and sent me over the wrong jump.
Gamblers was a bit of a disaster for both of us, so we wont talk about that.

Lavation for Tollers

Its B-word time again for us. We get stuck in the laundry trough to get soaped up and rinsed down. I howled about it, but it did no good, Tiffany and I still had to endure the ignominy of a dunking in the trough. We get rubbed down with towels until we are almost dry, and then we get our revenge.
I went running amongst the dirt, dead leaves and general mulch in the garden until I could get back some of my Redolence of Canine, while Tiffany ran everywhere with her ball, trying to get KnK to catch her.
In the end we both collapsed from exhaustion and had to put up with the grooming brushes and combs, just so we would look nice because training starts this week.
Still, we get to meet up with all of our friends at the dog clubs again, so it is not all bad news.

Hot Dogs

We are hiding under Keith's desk because it is January and hot. The last few days have been OK but we expect more heat soon. There are fires in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia, so touring in the van is out of the question. Training at the clubs is in the off season, because of summer and being too hot, so there is not much for us to do apart from light training and playing in the evenings. KnK are getting out of condition and it will take us ages to get them back up to speed, lot of work to do when we start back training.

44 degrees Celsius

It was 44 degrees on Friday, hotter than Hell on a hot day. It is supposed to be 40 tomorrow so we are due for another hot one. 44 Celsius is 111.2 in the Fahrenheit scale for the readers in Fahrenheit countries. What could an Arctic bred dog do on days like that?
Well, we slept on our cool mats, or we slept on the tiled floor, or we slept under the air-conditioning ducts. If we had to go outside, it was very quick. When the sun went down, KnK brought out the Clam Shell. It is a plastic shell that we can fill with water and we play in it. See the video link, "The Pool" on the left side of this page and you can see what we thought of the idea.

Boxing Day

We spent Christmas Day at Audrey's kennel. Molly came with us and Kevin was there too. A little later, two of Audrey friends, Lochie and Gracie came, so there were 3 Scottish Deer Hounds (Audrey, Lochie and Gracie), 2 NSDTR's (us), Molly the Tenterfield/Jack Russell and Kevin the Suburban terrier. There were a lot of humans there too but they don't count.
After lots of games, food and drinks we all went home and vowed to meet up again next year. We were exhausted when we got home and slept like babies. Molly went to bed and we have not seen her since.
Today we got stuck into our Chews. I got a pig's ear and Hannah had a beef hide roll so that should keep us quiet for a couple of hours.