Hannah's Rally Excellent Title

Hannah is now a Rally Excellent dog, with RE after her name. KnK were judging again in the Sunday Double Rally trial so Kathy took us through in the  morning when Hannah passed, but I didn't because Keith was in the next ring and I was distracted. In the afternoon Keith took us in while Kathy judged and we both passed. Hannah was looking for Kathy but she stayed with Keith well enough to get a pass. We could hear Keith singing the "Bat Dog" song which always gets Hannah excited, but it worked on the day and Hannah got her third pass, and her RE title. The photo shows us on the throw rug Kathy bought with Hannah's prize money from winning on Saturday.

Hannah Wins Rally

Hannah was in her first Rally Excellent A class and won it. She got First Place after completing the course with only a few faults but got more points than any of the others. The photo show Hannah doing the Honor exercise where she has to stay while the next dog completes its run. I was in it too, but I ran out of points because I was too interested in the lovely smells that were on the ground and was not paying full attention to Keith.
We have another trial tomorrow but KnK are judging so we will have Kathy taking us through in the morning and Keith in the afternoon. Should be interesting to say the least.

Whyalla Long Weekend

What a week end we have had. We started at Crystal Brook with runs along the creek bank with Meeko, Jedda and Obi then we went to Whyalla for the trials where Dippy and Willow joined us. Keith judged on Saturday morning so Kathy put us both in the trials, then on Sunday Kathy was judging so Keith put us both in the trials. We had some good runs and we nearly qualified but just little things went wrong. Hannah got a 2nd and a 3rd on her runs and is wearing her sash in the photo. Today we came back to Crystal Brook and had another run along the creek and now we are ready for a sleep.

Wet Trials

The humans sent us out in the rain to do the trials on Saturday. They got us up before dawn, took us to the trials and expected us to run round the ring as though we were happy to be out in the freezing rain and wind when we could have been tucked up in bed with a dog chew to gnaw on. Tiffany did quite well under the conditions with only one or two errors in her morning master runs but by the time the afternoon trials came up she was on strike. My excellent runs were hampered by Kathy having a sore leg so she could not move too well, but the big problem was the smelly tunnel. I don't like smelly tunnels, and the one I had to go through was higher than a midden on a hot day. The photo shows me clearing the broad jump on the run home, just to show we can do something right.

Rally Advanced.

Another title for "The Intolerables". We both passed Rally Advanced on Sunday, which was our third pass at Advanced level. We now add 'RA' to our names. The pic shows us with our Rosettes in our collars. It was tough. Keith was judging in the next ring and I went through with Kathy. I could hear Keith but I stuck with Kathy and got a good pass. For Tiffany's turn, Keith had just finished, Tiffany saw him, got excited and wanted to go to him. He had to hide while Kathy tried to get her under control. In the ring Tiffany was in a playful mood, wanted the decoy in the Offset Fig 8, thought Kathy was not serious about doing the trial, and barked at her when they were doing some of the stations. In the end Kathy managed to get Tiffany under control enough to just sneak in a pass with 4 points to spare.
Saturday was good too. Tiffany passed Masters Jumping and was doing well in Masters Agility until Keith went on the wrong side, tried to correct it and dragged Tiffany on to a wrong jump. I did 2 clear rounds in Excellent, but was just outside the time limit both times. We are both getting closes to passing so expect more titles soon.

Red Cliffs

Hannah and I are spectators at the Murray Valley dog trials. You can see Kathy judging in the background. We got here on Thursday, after a bit of excitement when the spare wheel and the bumper bar fell off the caravan, (see the KnK travel blog link on the left) but since then we have been having a good time going for walks around the three ovals here at the park.
The dog trials are next to the caravan park so we did not have to get up too early in the morning, just wandered over about lunch time and did the trials. Lots of new dogs and old friends to play with and then lots of time to have a mid afternoon siesta. Same again tomorrow, just starting at 10 am instead of 1: pm.

Retrieving

Here I am doing what a real gundog should be doing. I was at the Retrieving Ability Test for Gundogs on the weekend and had two days of running about in the bush looking for dummy game. I had a great time, I found 5 out of 6 of the dummies, I did a lot of running, sniffing and meeting the other dogs then went home and slept like a puppy. Keith was not all that happy though, in my excitement I tried to catch the dummy so I did what is technically called a "Break", which means taking off before being sent. It costs 10 points, so on two retrieves per test I lost 20 of the 25 points I can lose just on those breaks, so once again no Qualification, but I still had a great time doing it.
Hannah stayed home as puppy sitter to two Weimaraner puppies that have joined Mac, Gracie and Billy's family. They were too young to be at the trial so Hannah and Kathy looked after them. Hannah said it was nice to have them for two days, but it was nice to send then home too. They played a lot, pruned plants, dug holes and chewed anything that would fit in their mouths. By the time they went home Hannah was more tired than I was.

PS. I just found out I got Equal Second Place in Novice Snooker in the  DogsSA 2012 Games Awards. Jess the Border Collie won on 62 points, and Dippy the Tenterfield Terrier and I scored 60 points each.