Nationals and more

We have been very busy since the last post, but Keith has been too slack to update, so we had to bite him. Latest news, Hannah has passed her Track 7 in Tracking and is 1 off for her Champion, she passed in Snooker Excellent at the Nationals, and I have a TDX title. We have got a new Kennel on an acre of land so now we have room to run and play.

The top photo is us with our certificates and sashes.  Hannah got her Track 7 at the first tracking trial, but I failed my Track 6 because I went kangaroo hunting. Well, they were just sitting there looking at me and they jumped across in front of me, what's a red-blooded dog to do?
At the next tracking trial, I got a good rating for my Track 6, but Hannah was not in such a good mood, she was tired and lost interest so she did not pass.

At the national Agility competition, we had some bad luck. Both of us got a tummy bug and had loose toilets that did not help. It seemed that when I got everything right, Keith made mistakes, and when he got everything right I made mistakes. We had some good runs but no passes.
Hannah and Kathy had similar problems until they got to the Snooker Excellent class when they went through without a mistake and qualified. I popped the weaving poles with just 1 more obstacle to go so no pass for me.

The middle photo is me at the Nationals, and the bottom photo is Hannah at the Nationals.

Strategic Pairs Excellent Pass 1

Our first pass in Excellent Strategic Pairs was gained yesterday at the Agility Dog Club trial. We tried a new technique that KnK hoped would control our urge to play when we are competing. It slowed down the transitions, but we got a pass and in 3rd place too. The pic shows us with our qualifying cards and sashes.

I went first, up to the tunnel at Jump 6, then as soon as I came out of the tunnel, I dropped to the ground and lay still. Hannah then took off on the next section which finished on the Dog Walk (Hannah is good on the dog walk) and she dropped as soon as she was clear of the colour. I did the next section which included the weaving poles, which I nailed, and as I did the last jump and dropped, Hannah started her last part and she dropped as soon as she was out of the tunnel at the end of her section. That was my cue to start so I took off on the final section involving a tricky turn from the Scramble onto a Broad Jump and we finished with 10+ seconds to spare.

Our secret weapon was the drop at the end of each section. Usually, when one of us sees the other one running, the fun starts and we play chasey. Sorry to disappoint all of our fans that turned up for the entertainment, but this time we got a comfortable pass.

Murrumbidgee Again

We are home at last after our 5 weeks away. We stayed at Darlington Point on the way home, a little place at the edge of the Hay Plain, where I had stayed before in January 2010. click this link to see that post.Murrumbidgee in 2010
I took Hannah down to the river where I had a picture last time I was here, just to show her where I had been. The water was a lot lower this time and it was hard to find the original photo spot, but I think this was it.
The trip was great. We had lots of walks and plays with lots of dogs from different places. We ran in trials, only one pass each, but lots of fun. We have seen lots of places, been to the highest town in Australia, and now we are ready for home and a bit of a rest.

The Big Trout

We have seen the Big Lobster, the Big Olive, the Big Koala, the Big Bundy Bottle, the Big Banana, the Big Ram, The Big Bulls, the Big Ant, the Big Pineapple, the Big Hay Bale, the Big Galah, the big Orange and now we have seen the Big Trout. It is at Adaminaby near Lake Eucumbene in the Snowy Mountains.
We had a day touring in the Snowy Mountains. KnK enjoyed the scenery and the old towns and history, but we just had a long sleep in the car. We had to stay in the car anyway because a lot of it is National Park and we were not allowed outside and had to stay on the main roads. We were allowed out at places not in the Park, and we had some walks around lakes and reserves. Tiffany wanted to swim in the lakes but KnK would not let her off the lead.
We were glad to get back to the Cooma caravan park to get our dinner after a long day out.

Canberra Dogs

Tollers at the Houses of Parliament in Canberra. Hannah and I posed for this picture outside this huge human kennel where the nation's chief barkers congregate to decide who is in charge. Seems like a lot of trouble to go to, dogs just piddle on a stobie pole to let everyone else know who owns the territory.
We stayed at the dog club where we met lots of dogs and were able to go into paddocks where we could run free, play with other dogs and chase balls to our hearts content. Kathy wanted us to do some work, but Keith was judging in the next ring, so we went to say hello. Not what Kathy wanted, but it was just a day out for us.

Gundagai

 We were On the Road to Gundagai, along the track leading back to a......., oh you know the song. We have been where the dog sat on the tuckerbox a couple of years ago, had our photos taken there, so we did not go there again.
Instead, we took a tour of Gundagai. It is a historic town full of interesting things for KnK, but not for dogs. We found this park where we could have a walk, sniff, mooch and attend to our toiletries, but in the corner was a sculpture of Dad, Dave, Mum and Mable who were famous for living in Snake Gully. We did not know them, but it seem they were on the Radio, whatever that is, and they got into lots of comical situations. Anyway, we posed for the photo then went back to  mooching in the park. It pays to keep the humans happy sometimes.

Ettomogah Pub 3

A long time ago before we were born, a magazine produced a cartoon about a fictitious pub at Ettomogah. It became so popular that people built a copy of the pub that didn't exist in the real world, as a tourist attraction. Then more people built more copies of the non existent pub so that now there are 5 of them. We have been to the one in Queensland, the one in Western Australia, and now we are at the one in New South Wales at Ettomogah near Albury. The cartoonist lived in Albury so this is as close as possible you can get to the original. Don't think too much about that last sentence or you will get a migraine.
Anyway, the top pic shows us outside the pub, but we are so small Keith had to magnify us in the inset and put an arrow to where we were. The cartoon pub had been faithfully reproduced. There was the truck on the roof, the writing on the wall, the crashed plane, the wobbly construction and Bandit the Dog's kennel. They had filled in the rabbit warrens and traps for safety reasons.
The bottom pic shows us trying to talk to Bandit. We heard him bark but he would not come out. He was not very smart, he just went "Woof" if you tapped on his kennel. Eventually we began to think he was not real, just a machine that made a noise like a dog, but we kept checking just in case he was real.