Atherton Trials

We both did well at Atherton. Hannah passed in Open Agility and Open Jumping then went well but without a qualification in Masters. I passed in Masters Jumping with a 1st in my height and also in Open Jumping. I messed up on the weaving poles in Agility so no qualification in that.The pic shows us with our prizes, 3 dog toys, a storage box and a solar lamp. KnK can have the last two but we will keep the others.
After Atherton, we moved down to Hull Heads for a night and then on to Townsville. KnK are judging on the weekend so we will not be able to run.
When the trials are over we will start heading back home, so this looks like the last few days of our holiday.

Far North Qeensland Touring

We are having a look around Far North Queensland, not right up to the very top, just around Atherton Tablelands and Townsville.
The top picture shows us at the top of Castle Hill in Townsville, looking over Townsville to Magnetic Island. It was a long steep climb all the way up, we were grateful the Toyota got there without us having to walk.

Later we were traveling past Crystal Creek where we have stayed before and the humans wanted to stop at the Frosty Mango for refreshments, Good idea because we were ready for a break too and we always get the end of the ice cream. There was a Big Mango there, so we had to have our picture taken to complete our set of Big Whatevers that we have had taken. Look back through the blog, there is a Big Koala, Big Olive, Big Lobster, Big Banana, Big Orange, Big Sheep, Big Sheep Bale, just about everything big you can imagine.
We are competing in Atherton this weekend, so we have to go and practice.

Tiffany JDM

Tiffany has finally got her Jumping Dog Master qualification. It happened in Cairns on Sunday in the rain. The course was a little unusual with some challenges that we had not seen before, but Tiffany took  it all in her stride. There was one heart stopping moment when Tiffany went towards the wrong end of a tunnel, but she quickly corrected and finished the course with 6 seconds to spare.
The pic shows Tiffany  in mid-air heading towards a tunnel while Keith crosses behind ready for the next section..

I had a good run in that masters class too except I went to have a chat with Judge Jody that cost me too much time. I would have made time had I just done the course.

We are on holiday in Far North Queensland. Yesterday saw us in the Daintree Rain Forrest. KnK thought it was wonderful, but it was just lots of damp trees. We slept through most of it. Lunch time was good because we were allowed to sit in the garden at the Fan Palm Café, and a cassowary wandered in from the forest and through the garden. We just stared at it, but the humans got excited and took pictures.

More trials in Atherton soon, more things to see and do now, so we are back to being tourists for a few days.

Lots of things

Lots of things have happened since the last post. Hannah has had her Birthday, she is now 6 years old and the highlight of her year was getting her Tracking Champion to become a Dual Champion Tracking.

I also became a Dual Champion Tracking the week after Hannah's birthday.

We are on the road again, going to Queensland to compete in trials in Cairns and Atherton.  We travelled on the outback roads  through some remote locations.

One place we went through was Aramac. It was the starting place for Henry Readford who, in 1870, took 1200 head of cattle 2000km down to Adelaide via the Strzelecki track and did not loose any of them. There were a couple of problems: a) they were not his cattle, b) one of them was a prize white bull imported from England. c) they were taken to SA because Henry thought no one would know he was a cattle rustler. Well someone recognised the prize white bull and he was taken back to Roma in Queensland where he was tried and found NOT GUILTY because the jury was impressed with the skill required to pull off the drive and released him. Henry Readford's droving feat was the role model for Captain Starlight in the novel Robbery Under Arms.

The pic shows Hannah tracking, me tracking and both of us posing in front of the replica of the prize white bull in Aramac.

Dual Champion Hannah SDX

Hannah is a Dual Champion now. At the last Tracking trial, Hannah passed her Track 8 with a Good rating and is now a Tracking Champion. She was already a Conformation Champion, so now she is a Dual Ch.(T) We went tracking a couple of weeks ago. I got my Track 7 so I am just one track behind Hannah. The Championship tracks are not easy. We have to find the track from among a lot of other smells created by people milling about at the start, then we have to track 1.2 kilometres with several acute angle turns, find 3 socks and the t-shirt at the end. Add in the kangaroo and rabbit tracks, the wind, rain and cold weather and you can see it is not just a walk in the park.
The photo shows Hannah doing a practice track wearing her Tracking Harness as she leads Kathy round the track. Underneath are Hannah's 3 certificates she was issued with, all on the same day. The certificates are, her Dual Champion title, her Tracking Champion, and her Snooker Dog Excellent Title. Hannah got her SDX at the Agility Nationals but we only just applied for the title.

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.