FUN!!!!

I'm wondering, is it possible to have TOO much fun?? I guess the down side is, you just never want it to stop and everything else that happens after, doesn't quite compare..... OR could it be that it sets off a chain reaction and everything else feels just as awesome and you can't believe your luck!

Having someone come to stay is always fun :-) But when that someone, also has the same addiction as you, you know that an awesome time is going to be had by all! My friend Simone (who I met at one of Ann Braue's Camp's 18mths ago) came over from QLD to tryout for the Aust Team going over to compete at the World Agility Open. She stayed for 4 days and BOY did we have a BLAST!! Between Jules and Simone I don't think I've laughed quite so much or been lead astray quite so often!! :-D It was great to see her young dog Kye in action and Edge fell instantly in love with her :-P

Our weekend was jam packed full of good food, adventures into Fremantle and the Perth foreshore, as well as a shopping expedition which ended with a totally awesome video camera and the revelation that Simone is a pretty SWEEEEET negotiator!!! :-D

The tryout's themselves were great fun and I had entered both girls.....though had the reality check that Liryk had actually only ever done a full size seesaw a fortnight previous, and the day after when I tried it in competition, she flew off into space and that was from a stop about a metre in front!! So at training the friday night before tryouts, I put her over again, and this time made it part of the sequence and she did GREAT! SO..... I thought, hell.... why not try :-) And even though some were pretty... well.... unconventional..... she got them ALL!!! Awffy chuffed with her :-D And considering she's only 22mths I'm sooooooooooo proud of how she went on all the courses.... yes we may have got a DQ in pretty much all of the classes :-P but she ran like a trouper!!! That's one thing I LOVE about my girls :-) they give it their all, yes both are VERY different speed and stress wise, but they are the same in how much they both do the very best that they can! And as long as they think they've just done the most awesomest run EVA!! I'm happy too :-)

The other thing I did was try a new trialling method...... actually, it's Jules' method..... and it seems to work really well for her.....you drink... and you keep drinking! LOL Now the downside is, the runs are now a bit of a blur and when stepping up to the start line there was the dreaded thought of .... what's the course again?? But somehow it ACTUALLY works!! :-D Not sure I'll take it up on a regular basis, but it definitely completed a fantastic weekend, that was totally stress free and full of laughter!! And the bonus of all the FUN is .... we got on the Team! ARGH!!!!

I put together bits and pieces of the runs the girls did over the weekend. Awffy proud!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq3Rf-lIH2c

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

What A Week!

Last weekend we had the last ADAA trial of the year. We had some knocked bars and wrong courses but both the girls and I had a BLAST!!!



Epic gained her AAD title and a HUGE rosette :-)



My first run of the night was with Liryk in Combined Starters Agility and it was one of those runs you'd like to run over and over it was so much FUN! I don't know what it is about ADAA but I just don't seem to dwell so much on what to do with the obsticle after the d/w, and it's not like it was a jump "straight" after it either, there was enough of a push to the jump to require you to be up there to handle it. And I managed to get there and she NAILED her contact!!! It's sooooooooooooo exciting to run when it works!! :-D Unfortunately she tried to jump the second last bar with one stride from the previous jump and it didn't go well. DOH!! One bar but EXTREMELY happy with how well she ran!! Thanks to John for videoing!!!

Tuesday I finally managed to put together a video of Edge's tricks so far. At one point I really felt like we were going to fall WAY behind in Silvia Trkmans course, Edge really struggled working out how to pivot and even walk backwards, but we got there in the end :-) and now we get to move onto new things!!

His legs are forever growing and he's getting much longer in the body now too, we've definitely reached that gangly stage!! He's not far behind Liryk in height now, and at only 17wks it'll be interesting to see how big he actually grows :-)

Edge has SUCH a smiley face!! Poor Liryk looks discusted that she has to sit next to him LOL



Wednesday I got to pick up my new car!!! Having four dogs has been a little tricky to squish into the old Hyundai Wagon and Clint finally relented and said we could upgrade :-D It's a 2006 Commodore Station Wagon and I really, really can't believe how much room there is!! It easily fits three crates as well as a passenger in the back......or a 4th dog!! LOL Jeddy LOVES that he's the only one NOT in a crate!!

Then Wed, Thurs and Frid we've been renovating our bathroom. It's been going on for the last 3wks or so, a day here and there. But I have a friend coming to stay next weekend so we really needed to get our butt into gear so she wasn't going to be bathing in the dog pool!! 3/4 of the tiling is done, just the floor and shower to go, then in goes the new vanity and shower screen YAY!!! I can't wait!! And I really need to say a HUGE THANKYOU to my dad, uncle and husband who have done an AWESOME job so far!!!

Jack and the Beanstalk

Okay so there is no Jack ..... just one mighty BIG beanstalk growing daily before my eyes! In the last two weeks Edge seems to have doubled in size, his legs are soooooooo much longer and I can't believe the length of his tail!! I won't mention his ears because at the moment they too seem to have a life of their own! They currently look like they may have beagle in them!!

He's currently 3 and 1/2 months and I'm hanging out for the next several weeks when his pointy little baby teeth start falling out, because I'm currently getting eaten ALIVE! I'm LOVING his toy drive but SERIOUSLY! Why is it ALL of my dogs go for the bit of toy closest to my hand!! It doesn't seem to matter how long the toy is, they always want the top bit :-/

Aww Mr Longlegged Piranha Pants is sleepin



His tricks are ...hmmm interesting :-D I'm currently trying to get him to cross one paw over the other, the hiccup appears to be, that when he brings his leg "over" the other leg the rest of his body tends to follow and he ends up in a dead dog position! :-P Silly baby dog!!

The other news is, that Liryk gained her Novice Jumping title at the last trial :-D She's sooooo much fun to run!! Novice Agility was a little better for us,  I was considerably more confident going into the ring this time compared to the last few times,(amazing what some training can do!!) even though there was a turn off of the d/w and into a tunnel. She got her d/w (though it was quite high) but she missed her Aframe. Thanks Karen for videoing and sending it through!!







So our issue continues to be turns after the dogwalk....... She's much better if I'm up there and able to "handle" the turn, but she really struggles if I'm caught behind. So...... I'm off to put some video together to send off to the guru Silvia Trkman. I guess as a last resort I can have her do a 2o2o if I get caught behind her.... hmmmm it's just not as much fun.... and it really bugs me that I can't get it :-P

Looking forward to this weekend with Liryk's first Excellent Jumping, hopefully it's not too over her head!!

Either way this is our last ANKC trial of the year (I forgot to enter the Dobe Trial DOH!!) so I'm sure she'll be ready in the New Year :-D

Tricks and Trials

To get my butt into gear with Edge I've joined another of Silvia Trkmans ecourses :-D
Puppy Tricks! Her classes are so interactive and rewarding, and sending in video's gives me the shove in the right direction to get started, instead of oohing and ahhing over how cute he is!

 Oooooh but he's JUST so handsome!!

Epic is happy in the fact that SHE is the prettiest :-)

Liryk unfortunately is getting some pretty tired eyes trying to keep up with one MENTAL puppy :-)

And Sweet Ole Jeddy is FINALLY getting some sleep around here!

                                                                                                                                                                                                              

The last couple of weeks Liryk has had her first introduction to ANKC trials. After only just being in an ADAA trial the weekend before it was REALLY noticable at how very different the two organisations are. While walking the Novice Jumping course, I felt like every second bar should have been taken out, it felt so close together :-P Liryk was a superstar however and gained a pass with a second place :-) She was 0.2sec off Frank's dog, Jag's, time. So EXTREMELY happy!!

The agility had a slight conundrum, with a tunnel discrimination at the end of the dogwalk. It wasn't an "obvious" discrimination but I guess when you have a running d/w it kind of open's up new things, that maybe weren't an issue before :-) Anyhoo it was an issue for me because I haven't trained that yet! LOL Just like at this weekend's trial there was a tight 90 degree turn off the d/w.......hmmmm haven't nailed THAT kind of turn in training either yet! LOL I'm discovering my list of "training challenges" is coming around alot sooner than I was expecting! I don't mind, I just thought I wouldn't be "seeing" those sort's of things in Novice to be honest. And with one of the crucial ingredients to a running d/w being confidence, I really felt bad about her not having that skill, because how I attempted to handle it created a miss on the d/w, as well as her missing the bar, all confidence knocking things for a baby dog :-(

There WAS an upside of this weekends trial. Liryk gained her second pass in Novice Jumping and won! YAY! :-D



Thanks so much to Graeme and Jenn for videoing!! :-D

I Like Me A Little Bit Of .......CrayZee!

Edge has just turned 11wks and from the moment I picked him up, he's made me laugh!
He's just so happy and crazy about EVERYTHING!

 All training with Liryk has pretty much gone out the window (which I had an incling it might!) And it's been replaced with me sitting on my butt and watching them all play and just getting up to mischief! Hole's that had once been filled in from Liryk's puppyhood have again become craters, magazines can no longer be safely left on the coffee table :-P And contact equipment has found a new purpose....... satisfying a teething puppy!

All in all he's JUST a sweetheart! We had to do some emergency "crate games" when he first arrived. He was somewhat traumatised by the lack of service on his flight (no movies OR lunch!) and after sitting in his crate for almost 13hrs, SERIOUSLY did not want to EVER go back in there AGAIN! Thankfully he now happily goes in there for meals and will even voluntarily go and sleep in there PHEW!!

I'm so glad he's come to be part of our family...... the next issue at hand is...... how to fit all the dogs in my car!

OMG, OMG, OMG!

Liryk gained her VERY FIRST passes today :-D Three just to make it even MORE exciting! and I'm sooooooooo over the moon I couldn't even wait to make a proper wee movie or put it to music LOL.

Two first places in the agility and a fourth in the jumping.

I'm EXTREMELY proud of how well she did! Some of her Aframes were a little high, but I'm not worried. It must be hard for her to work out her striding when she trains on an ANKC aframe that is lower and the ADAA one is quite a bit higher. I'm sure she'll figure it out though :-)

The only "coulda shouda woulda" moment I've tossed around in my head is her fourth place, where she did a bit of a wide turn. There was only a second between first and fourth and I did have the thought..... ooooh I wonder what would have happened if she hadn't been quite so wide :-P The other bummer is that, that run won't bloody download! DOH!

All of the courses all weekend were just AWESOME to run, it's soooooooooo refreshing to let your young dog blast her way around a course and you as a handler having to run FLAT OUT! It was GREAT!

Epic was a superstar too! Winning a medallion stakes round :-D

Can't wait for next weekend when it'll be Liryk's first ANKC trial :-)

Livin On The Edge

Well I will be soon I'm sure!
But you don't get anywhere in life if you play it safe right?

So the big news is........

There's a new addition coming into the family :-)

I'm having a minor "freak" at the prospect of having two baby dogs 17mths apart in age, but I'm hoping it'll work out just fine. (fingers crossed!!) And I LOVE puppies so that's got to make it easier right? :-)

The bummer is I have to wait a few more weeks before I get to meet him in person, he has a bit of a hike from New Zealand to here. But at least there's no quarantine which is a bonus!

Each week I hang out for photo updates of the 'little hooligan" (as Chelsea his breeder likes to call him!)

He sounds like the perfect trouble maker! Looks like Liryk will get some of her own back LOL

So here he is - "Cliffhanger Livin Ontha Edge"

                                                                   "Edge"  6wks :-)

Isn't he CUTE!!!!

The Baby Dog's Debut :-)

She's 18mths!!!
It doesn't seem like an important milestone for most dog owners, but for an agility dog and her handler it's just like reaching that moment when you're finally old enough to get your licence or be able to drink :-P

And this weekend was that moment when Liryk was finally allowed to play with the big kids :-D

I'm not sure that I had any expectations coming into the weekend, I know I was worried about her d/w performance particularly as she is still high in training on the ADAA equipment (which is longer than the ANKC d/w and so challenges the dogs to extend their stride even more to get the contact). But I think above even that concern I was just really, REALLY excited!! Geez I was even counting the sleeps on Facebook!! LOL

I made a minor boo boo, as my plan had been to just enter the Combined classes. That way she was only jumping one height for the weekend (550 or 22in) but I inadvertently entered her in an Intermediate Jumping class on the first night! Doh!! So she jumped 22in in Agility first up and in the next ring she tackled the 26in height class and like a wee superstar she kept all her bars up!! We had an unfortunate back jump of a bar (something we need to work on!!) but other than that she did AWESOME!

Extremely happy with her running contacts for the weekend, all d/w's and aframes were in :-D  We've come away with things to work on.... like start lines! Liryk back jumping jumps after a wrap, and a certain tunnel suck issue :-P LOL!!!

It's about another month before our next trial (another AADA comp) and can't wait :-D

VALIUM PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!

In just three and a half weeks.....................

Liryk will have gone from this adorable, floppy eared puppy, to being old enough to enter her VERY FIRST TRIAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Literally 18mths to the day and Friday the 16th Sept will be her introduction to the trialling scene.

ADAA (I'm hoping) should be a nice place for her to start. Being able to do NFC if you want, take toys into the ring and big open course's are extremely appealing :-)

If you're wondering about the "valium", well I'm just soooooooooooooooooooo excited, I think I might need something to calm me down JUST a smidge :-P

From the moment I picked Liryk up as a puppy, she's been a BLAST!!

A couple of months ago I was desperate for her to be old enough ........ and now it's just around the corner, and I'm hoping she has the skills she needs and the confidence, to make the ring an awesome place to be.

I'm still debating about entering her in agility, I'm not sure her dogwalk is solid enough to handle a trial environment yet. But maybe I'll enter and just see how she goes. :-D

But regardless of if she happens to go clear, or does zoomies in the ring, she is such a AWESOME little dog that I'm SOOO lucky to have walking, or should I say pulling me on the end of the lead!

Finally!!! We Made It :-)

Liryk is now onto a full sized dogwalk!!! YAY!!!

I was so excited when she did her very first session at home that I had to video :-)

As she gets more comfortable she tends to go deeper still, but I'm happy with this, particularly as it's still deeper than her original criteria.

My goal now is to get her on as many different dogwalks as possible. I've tried to proof as much as I can at home, at each height, but it's still not the same as new environments etc.

We've also started working on turns now, which is a whole new bag of fun :-)

This is what they look like at the moment....

 

Changing Criteria

Running contacts are fun..... yes! yes! yes!..... but man are they CHARACTER BUILDING!!!

I think the problem is, that Liryk is my first dog to do a running dogwalk with, so I'm going to be competely honest and say I didn't have THE BEST plan when I went into it. In hindsight I should have taught turns from a lot earlier on, and I should have also taken into concideration that the other agility organisation that we have ADAA, has a smaller contact zone than ANKC.....

Because........ the way that Liryk currently does her dogwalk, she will only get 1 hind foot into the contact zone in ADAA......... please excuse me for a moment.... ARGH!! I'm just a little angry at myself for my blondeness.... currently rolling my eyes!!

So here are my two current training challenges :-)

1. Get Liryk to change her striding so she gets two feet in the "new" contact zone
2. Teach her NOT to peel off the side when attempting turns.

So bye bye full height dogwalk.....
I've dropped it back down and we're going back to the drawing board.
So far we're having success, and I've posted a video of what she "used" to do (that I no longer reward) and what she is now offering. And I this stage I'm REALLY happy. I guess time will tell if the new behaviour stays while we work towards the full height of the dogwalk or if her "old" behaviour rears it's ugly head.

The other thing that I've been doing the last couple of weeks is training Liryk at the 600 (24in) height. I'm a little peeved that we're unable to jump up a height any longer in ANKC (because to be perfectly honest it's soooooo much more fun jumping this height!!) It's almost like being overseas again :-))
The other reason is that I'll probably end up doing more ADAA trials than ANKC (due to the rule changes) and she'll have to jump 650 (26in)

I can't believe in 2 months she'll be old enough to enter her first trial... WHAT THE??? Where did the time go??

Surprise!

The last few weeks have been FULL of surprises!!
Liryk made it to a full size dogwalk at the end of last month :-)) and then in the very same week broke it after the down ramp at training bounced up while she was on it :-(  After gaining extra grey hairs!! and almost deciding to put a 2o2o to her dogwalk she .......(fingerscrossed!!) seems to have got it back. PHEW!!!
With doing Silvia's ecourse, one of the things we have to do is teach our dogs several tricks.  I LOVE this and have been having some extra fun with Liryk  :-P

The latest trick is teaching her to pee like a boy. That is not "actually" pee just lift her leg like a boy. (Sorry to some friends who were guinea pigs at yesterday's trial to "see" if she'd do it on their legs! LOL!!) I've also been trying to teach her how to do a handstand, this is where we're at so far....

The next surprise we had was on Friday night, one of Liryk's litter brother's was at training :-)) His name is Boss and has come off Sam and Richards farm to live with John and his other dogs Sammy and Skye. Unfortunately the photo below was the best I had. It was either Liryk looking like the devil!! or Boss wandering out of the picture LOL

Awffy handsome Boss on the left and Liryk on the right.

Epic too, has been full of surprises!
The last two weekends she's popped out of weaver 10 !! JUST when I thought we'd got through that issue  !!!! :-P   She's also just started pulling off of jumps that are pretty much RIGHT in her path..... hmmmm.  The upside is that she's REALLY happy :-D

  

 The last surprise of the day, is it's just one more sleep and it's Jestah's 14th birthday!!!

Jestah can't possibly sleep he's so excited! LOL (he REALLY reminds me of Eeyore out of Winnie the Poo)

We had a joint party at training on Friday night (Sally's little terrier Jackson also has the VERY same birthday!) I feel sooooooo EXTREMELY lucky to have him, especially when others haven't had the opportunity to see their dogs grow old.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESTAH!!!! With lots of hugs, kisses and the most important thing of all..... TREATS coming your way :-))



Go Team Australia

Sometimes we experience moments in life, where you look back and wonder .... did that REALLY happen?? Was I ACTUALLY there??

The World Agility Open Championships in Clevedon, UK was just a week and a half ago ..... and I along with 6 other Aussie handlers were lucky enough to be competing there. All of us (except Sherie who is currently living in the UK) ran host dogs.

Dogs that we had met between 5 and 7 days prior to the event. Not long really, to bond, learn new verbals, and in some cases a different handling style to the one we're used to. To work out if our dogs had independent contacts, the ability to send to an obsticle or needed a little more support.

This in itself is a huge achievement for all of us. We were told time and again how impressed other competitors were, with the fact we were there running other peoples dogs that we had never met before. For us though, we were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to just be there and be apart of it :-D
We went with no expectations and determined to enjoy every moment. Which I guess is why we were so excited with our achievements :-)

The only down side to the whole event was that we all bonded SO well with our dogs we didn't want to say goodbye :-( The generosity of our dogs owners was exceptional! To let their dogs go and live with someone they only knew via emails was mindblowing!! And all of us were incrediably grateful for the trust they put in us to care for their dogs.

The event itself was fantastic :-)) To walk into the main arena and see our flag alongside all the others felt like a surreal moment! Let alone walking courses with people like Susan Garrett, Karen Holik and Linda Mecklenburg!! Or walking up to the board to see our names progress up the running order before entering the ring.

My lanyard and name for the running order board

The courses were challenging but achievable and it was great to watch competitors from around the world handle their amazing dogs with precision and speed.

For me walking into each ring to the cry of "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!" made the moment more memorable and by the end of the 3 days of competition I think the Scottish team may have been louder with our chant than we were!!

Special mention needs to be made of my host dog "George"

A Patterdale Terrier x Working Collie who may have been small in stature, but his abilities in the ring were amazing!! Only just measuring into the 550 height his achievements this weekend were mind blowing! Without George and the fantastic training that he has had, he and I wouldn't have come 4th overall in the Individual Biathlon Event. Which I'm STILL stunned about!! I'm so grateful that he and I meshed together as a team and so grateful to his owners Linda and Gary Cummings for letting me run him!

I've put together a video of some of our training and runs that we had at the WAO.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuZKrljYhXw

I can't believe it's all over... sniff, sniff :-((  Especially when it feels like it only just began!!

Catching up

So much has happened since the Team Tryouts....

I've decided to compete individually at the WAO, which is exciting but a little daunting, seeing as we don't REALLY know what to expect in regards to our host dogs. But I get to catch up with friends from America so I'm looking forward to that and also to making new friends :-) Seeing Susan Garrett run Encore and Feature will be a highlight, her dogs are just inspiring and I cant wait to watch them run :-))

We're frantically fundraising with sausage sizzles, raffles and seminars, so by the time that horrendous 24hr flight comes around we should all be exhausted and will sleep well :-))

Last weekend we had our State Agility Trial.

Saturday in agility Epic scraped through with a pass (and into the finals) after a rather interesting start.

Jumping she took an off course tunnel..... BUT we had Masters Strategic Pairs in the afternoon and the girls took out 1st place!!!



Epic and Diva!!!

                                                                                                                         

Jules and I with the superstars :-) Awffy proud!!

Unfortunately on the Saturday evening Epic pulled up lame :-( I still went down on Sunday to watch the trial in the morning and finals in the afternoon, but scratched Epic from the days events. She seems sore in her toe, so fingers crossed with a few days of rest she'll be up and able to run around again.                         

With Liryk turning 13mths I've started teaching her weavers, small sequences and the Aframe. In addition to  this I'm also doing Susan Garrett's ecourse (5 min formula to a brilliant recall) after Ann Braue couldn't         say enough awesome things about it, and I have to agree!! We're into week 4 and the games are just great!! Liryk and Epic both LOVE them :-))                                                                                                         

I must be a glutton for punishment as a couple of weeks ago I signed up for another online course. It's Silvia Trkmans running contacts, which start on the 24th April. Can't wait for that to start!!! :-)) 

Liryk has also just been registered with the Working Sheepdog Association and the Canine Association.

So I'd like to present ......

MAC'S DINIDOTHAT

Preferably said with a scottish accent if you can ..... and yes interesting name, I know :-) But it sums up our first year together perfectly. I'm pretty sure the words "Liryk, don't do that" were said at LEAST a few times a day and seeing as Jules helped picked her out I had to put a scottish twist to it :-)

This is where we're at in our training.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajk_KFXW2Z0

The last thing that has happened since coming home is the new ANKC agility rules......

To say I'm disappointed with some of the changes is an understatement. I'm not going to blab on about it, but I'm just wondering..... how are we supposed to aspire to greatness in our sport, if the bar just keeps getting lowered??? Rolling my eyes and stomping my foot just for good measure :-))

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!

WAO - Team Tryouts

Before I left for America, I entered Epic in the three day team selection for the World Agility Open. Which is to be held in May ALL the way over in England.

There were 15 dogs over the 5 heights, trying out for 4 places on the team (the 200/300 height was combined) The 500 height had the most dogs with 8 entered. So I really went into the weekend with no expectations and even with the view of scratching her if she looked like she was struggling to do so many runs. Particularly after having a month off.

Well it's seems the time off did her the world of good. Even now I can't believe how well she really did. On Saturday night we were told the placings so far, I couldn't believe my ears ...... Epic was 1st in the 500 class.
WOW!!! my consistent one bar dog, had just managed to get three out of four clear rounds that night.

So going into Sunday I wanted to keep things in perspective. It wasn't just another 4 rounds to go ... it was approximately 80 obsticles .... ALOT!!! Anything could happen.

The first round she went clear ..... 60 obsticles to go.....
The second round she went clear ...... 40 obsticles to go .....
The third round she knocked a bar ..... (but the dog hot on our heels also got a refusal) ...... 20 obsticles to go .....

And here is how the fairytale ending goes ........

She took an off course jump and was disqualified :-)
LOL!!!

I know I shouldn't laugh, and I know I should be a little disappointed ..... but I'm not. REALLY!!! I'm soooooooo proud of Epic and her achievement of even getting that far!!

I had an amazing time. Even discovered how much Epic LOVES International courses. I'm pretty sure I haven't run that fast for awhile!!! (Other than in America) Some distances between obsticles were 10metres!! And still incrediably challenging.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! to those who have made it through. Technically it's still unofficial as to who's made the Team. But I think an announcement will be made on the 1st April :-)

GO TEAM AUSTRALIA!!!!!! :-) I just know you'll have the time of your life!!!

Home Sweet Home

Well I've arrived safely back home. The good news is!!! I get to see my dogs!!! :-)) 4 weeks is a LONG time to be away and I really missed the incessant squeaking of toys, tumbles of dog fur rolling along the floor, and the pushy puppy that just wants to play!play!play!

Speaking of THAT puppy ....... it was Liryk's FIRST birthday last Wednesday!!! OMG! where does time go?? Thankfully we arrived home the day before, so we didn't miss the milestone!!

We were greeted with barking, squealing, jumping and kisses :-) The welcoming was just what was needed after such a LONG flight!!

Jestah and Epic looked in great condition!! Liryk did too ..... she just didn't look like the little puppy I left behind. It seems she's done some "bulking" up .... not fat, just... well.... SOLID is probably a good word to discribe her :-)

Now to the bad news ......

We're not in Florida anymore :-(

I've done quite a bit of traveling in my time, but this trip far outweighs any other. The people, the dogs, events and experiences were just so much more than I could ever have imagined. And to put it quite simply, it left me wanting more .......
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL6EM2nO5Dg

It seems in my last blog entry my runs with Scream didn't come up, so I added my Standard run into the clip above. For some reason my computer wouldn't download my Jumpers run, so I'll try and repost the link of the video Gayle took :-)
www.vimeo.com/20512481

Looking back on the videos, I can't believe I was there! What a chance of a lifetime :-)

Pinch Me I Think I'm Dreaming

Two weeks ago I was getting ready to leave Perth for what I hoped would be a trip to remember.
We spent our first week in England and were fortunate enough not to see any rain .... Though it was a tad bit cold!!

Clint and I did the touristy thing and went to Harrods .... Where I was stunned to find we could buy a chihuahua for 2500 pounds!!! What the??? We also went to the Tower of London (one of my favourite places) I love all the history that England has.

Just over a week ago we arrived in Florida and are lucky enough to be staying with a very generous man by the name of Mike. We couldn't believe our eyes when he was showing us around his house, which is situated on the water and has it's own dock. The first morning I was upstairs on the balcony looking out over the water and there were dolphins swimming in the bay!!!! This area is abundant in wildlife and is the perfect place to come back to after a day of trialling or camp.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to compete in a three day trial. I arrived Friday morning and met Gayle York and her husbands dog Tax Man for the first time. Gayle is just lovely and Tax is unbelievable!!!

Now there are a couple of things different here at trials, compared to home. The first one is they only have two rings set up and the trial goes all day. Yes it's longer ... BUT you're able to see so many other people run their dogs, which I thought was really nice.

The next thing is, at this event they have a MASSIVE undercover arena and the surface you run on is a clay/sand mix. We definitely don't have anything like this in Perth and I was excited to run on something completely different.

The other different thing is, they don't have a mass of practice equipment for people to do last minute training on. They have a single bar jump to the side of each ring and you share this with everyone else. And its not a small competition there were easily 800 runs each day.
Now I'm no opposed to the single practice jump, BUT for someone who has just met their "new" dog only an hour prior to going into the ring .... It was a little daunting walking up to the start line not REALLY knowing what kind of dog Tax Man is.

My first class was Standard, a nice flowing spread out course. The first three obstacles were tyre, d/walk and tunnel. I left Tax on the start line wondering how fast he might be .... well in the split second it took to release him off the start I discovered that he is INSAINLY fast. No really!!! His speed is JUST MENTAL!!!! He was a good boy and did his contacts, there was a pin wheel that I did a front cross in to pull to the table ..... BUT he zoomed past and took an of course jump. As I came out of the ring Gayle came up and said " Oh, I forgot to tell you ... He explodes out of his front crosses!!) LOL that was our only penalty so was extremely happy with our first attempt.

Jumping With Weaves (JWW) was a little more challenging and he missed his weave entry.
We didn't manage to get a qualify over the weekend, but we came so close several times, it just left me wanting more :-)

On Sunday, Ann Braue arrived. I haven't seen her since she came to Perth in Dec and I was excited to catch up and also be able to see her run her dogs..... except she asked if I'd like to run Scream!!!! I have run Scream at Camp the last two years... But this is a COMPETITION!!! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Of course I accepted!!!

One thing I love about Ann is her personality and just after I said yes to running Scream she said " not to put pressure on you... but for the last 6 trials Scream has had 6 double Q's" OMG talk about pressure!!!

Standard was a nice flowing course but had an enormous stretch of jumps at the end with a potential off course tunnel entry. So I released Scream off the d/walk, sent to the spread and ran!!!! YAY!!!!! We went clear :-))

JWW was a little more challenging, a tunnel discrimination and the potential for off course jumps to be taken. But we DID IT!!! Double Q!!!

What topped it off though ..... we WON both classes!!!! OMG!!!! What an amazing way to end the weekend :-)) you can't wipe the grin from my face I'm so excited!

These are my runs with Scream. Thank you so much to Gayle for videoing and sending them to me.

So Much To Do ..... So Little Time

Well in less than two weeks I'm off again overseas. This time my husband Clinton is coming and we'll be away for four weeks. And our trip will include the UK and Florida.


For me, most of my time in Florida will revolve around doggie things :-)) I'm going to a three day competition and straight after I'll be attending a 6 day agility camp. Again I have a working spot, though this year I'll be handling TaxMan, who I introduced in a earlier blog entry last year.


The other thing I'm REALLY excited about with this trip is, on our way back home we stop back into London for 3 days. AND TO MY SHOCK!!!! AND OVERWHELMING EXCITEMENT...... Crufts will be on!!! :-D We have brought tickets already (there was NO WAY I wanted to miss out) and we'll be attending on Saturday 12th March. I wanted to go on this day, as the International Agility will be held, and Daisy Peel has been selected to represent the US. This is exciting for me because she has a running dogwalk with her dog Solar and I can't wait to see what it looks like for REAL rather than on a video :-))


There has been some essential shopping prior to our trip ...... I've just got an IPad!!! Which is sooooooooooo much FUN!!! and the plus is it weighs barely nothing, so for traveling it's ideal!!! And I still get to see my dogs via Skype while away :-))


Clint has got a fancy new camera that takes photos AND video :-)) Yes you can see where this is going right?? An agility persons dream :-))


The other thing that has been ordered is ....... my......brand ..... new ....... DOGWALK!!!! Hopefully it will be ready by the time I get back home :-))


Through all the excitement though, in the back of my head I'm FREAKING out about Liryk not having any dogwalk training for up to 5 weeks. I've put so much work into it I'll be slightly disappointed if she's forgotten everything by the time I come home. Which I'm sure won't happen, but it's an inner fear all the same.


The other thing that's happened is I've put my name down for selection for the Australian WAO Team. I have no expectation's about how Epic and I will go, particularly as I'll only have been home for a week before the selection trials AND Epic will have had no training for 4 weeks, so fitness will be a BIG challenge. BUT WHAT IF???? Wow what a chance of a lifetime. So I've entered :-))


I'm still addicted to Windows Movie Maker :-))
So on the off chance Liryk's running dogwalk goes down the gurgler, I've put together a video from when we first started training the plank to her amazing training session a couple of weeks ago on a full size baby dogwalk.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=7de6ANjnBPY

Soooooo much fun!!!!

Last night I had the GREATEST time at training......

I tried Liryk on her very first full length baby dogwalk :-)
And couldn't believe what a good girl she was!!!

I was sooooooooooooooooooooo excited that I decided to try and make a little video clip with Windows Movie Maker .........

SO after spending most of the day trying to work out how NOT to make the clip blurry (computers and I REALLY are not a match made in heavon!!)

It's not superb ......
But this is how it turned out :-)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRqHoRNMMF4