A bit of agility

Not much sheepdog trialling for a few months, while everyone's busy with seeding. But that's meant I've been able to sneak away from the farm and enjoy spectating at an agility trial or two. In this case, the WA State Agility Champs...

Jaqui Howle and her youngster, Cuba:

Jaq's eldest agility dog, the very zippy Jade:

Sue Hogben and Gwaerfeyn Dan:

Emma Papworth and Noonbarra Phoenix, winning the Novice Agility final:

Mac's DiscoDiva revealing her secret weapon (is this what we'd term "performance enhancing"?):

The Great Scot

People talk about "heart dogs", the dogs that are so much a part of a person that it's hard to imagine one without the other, the dogs that change someone's life forever. It's one of those corny Dogpeople terms that make me squirm a bit, like the "Rainbow Bridge" idea, but unlike the Rainbow Bridge, the concept of a perfect human-canine partnership makes perfect sense to me. I know exactly what is meant by "Heart Dog". It's Jules with Samroc.

Way back in the early 2000s, I turned up to agility training at Perth to hear Tom raving about this Scottish girl and her dog, both just arrived in WA, and OMG, this dog is so amazingly fast that Tom was literally jumping up and down with excitement. Not only was this dog fast, but they could do things that we'd only just started to think about. Distance handling had just started to appear on our radar. We were watching the FCI World Champ videos and seeing these handlers directing dogs at top speed from half way across the course. Jules and Samroc weren't exactly at World Champ level, in fact they were fairly new to agility even in the UK, but they did have a solid system of directional commands and Sam was like a huge black and white guided missile. Jules could just aim him at a sequence, launch him (and sometimes he'd self-launch) and he'd blast over every obstacle at full speed. He's a big dog and solid power, and I've lost count of the number of weave poles that have snapped under the force of his massive shoulders driving through, but he could turn on a dime and take jumps and find weave entries at angles that seemed impossible for any dog.





Of course Sam also has a fairly effective auto-pilot function, which had a habit of flipping on whenever Jules was at all slack in her handling. But the brilliant thing about Jules and Sam was that they always had a good time on course. No matter how brilliant or bad a run they'd had, they'd come off course the same. Even today, they argue like an old married couple- Jules tries to boss him around, he flicks his ears back and does what he wants, she puts her hands on her hips and swears at him, and then they're both laughing about it.



It must have been something to do with the time they've spent together, since the day ten years ago that Jules looked over the litter of little working sheepdogs and picked the pup with the pink stripe on his nose, and then leaving behind everything they knew to travel across the world together, but I swear Samroc understands every word Jules says, which is more than I can say for most people! And he talks back, more communicative with his facial expressions and body language than I'd believed possible. Sometimes I'm sure he isn't a dog at all, but an opinionated Scottish bloke in a dog suit.



One classic Samroc moment for me was April 2006, when he and Jules came down to the farm to have a look at some pups (and ended up going home with Diva, but that's another story). We took Sam to have a turn on our training sheep. At the age of 8, he'd only been on sheep a couple of times before. He had a good idea naturally, balancing up fairly easily, but being Sam was rather pushy and was constantly up the sheep's bums, so Richard got out his Parelli carrot stick and tried to widen Sam out. After 3 or 4 well timed flicks of the rope on the ground where he was coming in too tight, Sam started to respond, but it wasn't the response Richard was expecting. Samroc shook his head in exasperation, gave Richard a "look", and grabbed the carrot stick rope, pulled it out of R's hands and flung it on the floor. After pausing for another glare in R's direction, he stomped off after the sheep again, this time on his own terms.



Samroc is an elder in the tribe Dog. He never fights or squabbles, he doesn't need to- Sam has "Alpha male" stamped across his forehead. Puppies absolutely love him, following him everywhere like tweenie girls behind the Jonas Brothers' tourbus. He takes this responsibility seriously, tolerating most things with a longsuffering expression, but cracking down on hooliganism with a hard eyed stare, and if necessary, a quiet rumble from deep in his chest. He's more effective than a stint in military school for bringing wayward puppies into line.





Sam was always a star in agility, a natural showman and athlete, the dog everyone stopped to watch. He was at his best for the big events and seemed to turn it on for the crowds, but he never gave less than 100%, ever. Unfortunately this drive became a liability in 2006, when he threw himself over a jump and into a tight turn and injured muscles in his back. After extensive investigation, therapy and rehabilitation, he started to get back into activity, but it wasn't until 2008 that he was able to get back to trialling, and by then his age was starting to take the edge off his speed, although not his enthusiasm for the sport. They travelled over to the Nationals in Melbourne this year to enjoy one last big event together, and the worst possible scenario occurred- Sam misjudged a tyre, which was unpegged and tipped over as he clipped it, landing on his back. He spent ages in hospital, and it looked for a while as though he may never walk again.

But once again, Samroc does things his way, and after months of rehab, he's on the move again- not as freely as he was before, but he's back to the most important things in life: being Jules' best mate and the canine leader of the pack.

I wish (as always) that I'd taken more video of Sam running, but this is all I've got:

Agility Archives

A few random agility videos from the hard drive clear out:

Midland club trial, 2006

Karen Phillips' Riot running an Open jumping course:


Simone Tolhurst's Raven on the OJ course (this was pre-lymphoma, but I'm happy to say she's just as fast and happy to be out there now she's officially a Cancer Survivor):


Kriszty Cumming's Terra (Bill and Fred's great-aunty) running (I think!) Novice Jumping:


Tom Weir and Brynn, also Midland, Open Agility:


Ash Poli and Bailey at the Canine Centre, 2005:



Ash and Bailey at Northern Suburbs training, 2005 sometime. Nice weave entry, Bailey!



And the Flyboys' aunties show how it's done, ? early 2008:


Terra's earliest trialling days:


Boylee Ceilydh, May 2005:

After agility...

We don't really do agility any more, and I'm getting more accepting of that recently. I'll probably muck around with it now and then, I'll keep dropping in on training when I'm in town, and I might even enter the odd trial here and there, since Bill and Zig really enjoy it. But I wandered off the agility path a while back, and it's probably too hard to get back on that track now- it's heading into uncharted territory for me. I'm OK with the basics of fast dog training, the sending on and directionals and targetting and independent contacts and weaves... but the handling, the person's job, is something I never really did well, and living way out here in the bush, no club, no training group, no motivation, no time, realistically I'm not going to work it out any time soon. I do miss agility though, it's a great sport. Second to working a sheepdog, it's about the best activity you can do with your dog.

I've been thinking about it a bit recently, because some of the greats of the agility scene from my day have been moving on. Some of them are nearing retirement age or having it forced on them through injury. Others have sadly passed away, and it's bringing home the reality of my boy Jack's advancing age and impending mortality. He was twelve this year, and feeling every year of it. The deaths of dogs like Rod Stockdale's Bundy and Di Rose's Taylor, dogs that were there in the ring with us when we started agility almost ten years ago, pile heavily on my heart when I hold Jack's grey muzzle and look into his cloudy eyes.



Agility is very impressive these days: so many fast young dogs driving around demanding courses, precision and speed hand in hand. I love watching today's sport, but I'm also glad to have been a part of it "back in the day", especially during those exciting few years when the old style agility, with its left-side handling, "heelwork with jumps", point/shout/pray contacts started to open up to the concepts of independent contacts and weaves and dogs working on both sides, even (gasp!) away from the handler. Agility competitors these days would laugh at the idea that a dog could be "too fast" for agility, and while I was incredibly frustrated at the time to be told I needed to slow my dog down to have any hope of success, I'm proud of having stuck with it and been a very small part of such a huge change in the sport in our area.

So when I go to an agility trial now, I'm thrilled to see so many incredibly fast dogs doing things that would have blown us away. But it always seems wrong, somehow, that so many of the dogs that were WA agility for so many years are missing.



Photo- Tim Abidin, Your Dog Photos





Ash Poli's Bailey, a greyhound-kelpie cross, really was Mr Agility for me- I've never seen a dog so perfect for it. An insanely driven agility dog, he knew the possibilities of the sport long before any of us did, and set out to realise them, dragging Ash along for the ride. They started training at Northern Suburbs not long before Jack and I did, and right from Day One Bailey threw aside suggestions at heelside control and took off running. Fortunately Ash had long enough legs to stay close behind, and together they negotiated their own style, with independent weave poles, running Aframes and some of the tightest turns over jumps I've ever seen. At their peak, they were the team to beat here, and won at the top level across the country. Since injury forced Bailey into retirement (forced being the operative word) there's been a big lanky Ash-and-Bailey shaped hole in the WA agility scene.




Photo- Tim Abidin, Your Dog Photos

Emma Smith's Major was another dog I'll miss incredibly. Maj started agility around the same time Bailey did, and obviously they'd read the same instruction book. A stocky little kelpie cross, Major threw himself around a course like a cannonball, barking the entire time. Presumably he did take a breath somewhere on course, but it didn't sound like it.



Photo- from Tom Weir's website

Tom Weir's Paisley was really the dog that ignited my interest in training, when I took Jack along to our first PTODC obedience class and Tom and Paisley were practising tricks in front of the caravan. She was barking out the answers to maths questions, I think, and I decided that I would teach Jack to do that. She and Tom were an even more impressive team on the agility course. They ran like they were connected by an invisible elastic band, always knowing exactly where the other would be as though by instinct. I think Paisley won just about all the big events, and towards the end of her career topped it off with the inaugural Agility Dog of the Year title.

And where's Andrea Carde's Wicket, the ballistic Beardie? He was the permanent puppy, never taking agility that seriously (why spoil a good excuse to go fast and loud?) but he was always the most fun to watch. I don't know where agility dogs go when they die, but wherever it is, I'm sure Wicket and Major are barking the place down.


Photo- from ? Tim Abidin at Simone's old WestOz Agility website

There are so many great dogs missing from agility now, whether they're at home with their paws up or gone away forever, and I'm getting all misted up thinking about them. Rod Stockdale's Bundy and Frank Fitzpatrick's Harley, true masters of the sport, Karen Phillips' Soda, who jumped like a little rabbit and was just as quick, the Rhoden's big Max, a GSD in a border collie suit, Megan Bell's Jester and Tracey Wansborough's Jake, the start of the border collie ring domination in WA, Di Rose's Taylor, who competed with Jack at our very first trials and stayed in the sport almost until the day he died. There were lots of others, and I think about all of them from time to time, looking at rare photos or even rarer video clips. It wasn't that long ago, even though it sometimes feels like another planet in memory, but the shadows of those dogs still fall on the agility field for me.


Photo- WestOz Agility


Photo- WestOz Agility

And then there's Val Meyn and Guinea, who are both hugely missed from WA agility even today- although sometimes when I'm watching a really great run I'm sure I can hear a familiar "WhooHoo!" from somewhere not too far away...
They really deserve their own article, but sometimes there just aren't the right words.

That's a rather long-winded prelude to me posting a bunch of video clips from agility- not featuring many of those dogs, unfortunately, because I didn't get a camera until 2005. But if I ever get around to editting some of the videos I have on tape, then you'll all be for it!

The prodigal pup

Wee Harry is home again.

He went away for a couple of weeks to visit his Auntie Jules in Perth, to adjust his slightly bolshy attitude and learn about his Scottish heritage from Jules and the Great Scot Samroc.

Apparently he had a lovely time, sleeping on the bed and couch, terrorising his half-sister Diva and her bestie Mini, and just hanging with Samroc, who is the coolest of dogs. Jules worked her usual canine magic, and Harry is now housetrained, sits on command and woofs with a wee accent. He wasn't all that thrilled to come home with us but he's getting used to it, with a little TLC. As we speak, Harry and his brothers are happily trashing my back verandah. Aw, sweet.

The FlyBoys are doing well. JJ switched on to sheep while Mike/Tig/Badger were here, and he's been mad for them since. He works like Fly, so far- all head-down/tail-down concentration. Elvis was completely uninterested at his first exposure, and Finbar was interested but unsure.

Personality-wise, they are all gorgeous, friendly pups. They love toys and will tug and fetch balls until their little legs fall off. JJ is a competitive little sod and a bit of a resource guarder, while Elvis couldn't care less about status or stuff, he just wants to run!!! Fin is somewhere in the middle.

In structure, El is going to be a whippet, all legs and ridiculous crossover ears, while JJ and Fin are more solid, and Harry is still the biggest and tallest.

If/when it stops raining, we'll take them back out to the training sheep, and I'll try to get some footage.

In the meantime, check out Jules' blog for Harry's holiday snaps:
http://www.discoroc.blogspot.com/

and from Jules on Youtube, here's the Flyboys' big sister Diva doing a spot of agility:

More Royal pics

On the Sunday between the Saturday and Monday of the Show (yes, I know how obvious that sounds but it makes sense to me), Farmboy, JackTheDog and I headed down to the river. We were meant to catch up with my brother and his fiancee, but we missed them, so the Js and I just enjoyed the foreshore:


And an icecream:


And wet pants:


On the Monday, I took some photos of the agility.

Mac's Disco Diva, with our mate Jules:






And a close up of that crazy blue eye:


Cathy Snook's Guirmere Snazzy:

Post-Royal

Another Royal Show over and done with. Officially, there’s still one day to go- I’ve entered some agility on Saturday (Open Agility/Jumping with Muddy and Bill) but I think I'll have to give it a miss.

I love the Royal. Processions of woolly alpacas, brewery carthorses, pramfuls of toddlers on the verge of meltdown and teenage clusters of emo culture warring with armfuls of fluoro sideshow prizes, oil-translucent bags of hot donuts, gritty with sugar (best not eaten though), wailing cat boxes and farm produce as art. The exhibition halls seem to be filling up with commercial stands selling everything from chinese massage to home loans, but there is still some of the agricultural show remaining if you know where to look.

Dashing back and forth to the agility rings is pretty stressful- I'd rather be hanging out with R and BabyJ and enjoying the show. If there’s a next time (fingers crossed for Charlie and Bella in the yards, at least), that’s what I’ll do. And I’ll take the week off from work, so it won’t matter which days he’s rostered on.

So I think that will be our last Royal agility, and probably our last agility altogether, now that I'm knuckling down to reality.

So the Royal in summary:
R ran Charlie and Fred in the yards- Fred was still pretty sore and struggled a bit on the truck, so R just helped him out. Charlie was not himself at all- I think it was a hangover from the whipcracking incident last year. The whipcrackers were still in their position beside the yards, and Charlie really was not into backing the race. Fred also had a run in the 3sheep on the main arena on Monday, and despite R being extremely nervous, Fred being sore and the weather being hot, they did OK and penned for an 80, which took them into the lead (at least until Tuesday, when John Charlick scored an 80-something with Gael). Fred was alternately fizzy and stiff and just not quick enough as the run went on, so not his best work, but I’m proud of them anyway.




R also used Jake, Bella and even Jim in the yards as demo dogs, and apparently they all went well. Jake was pretty controlled- maybe he’s finally growing up!
The “come-for-the-ride” crew (Bonnie, Tom and Trim, Tess) had a ball. Tom was a bit shy to start with, but soon chilled out, and Trim loved the attention. The Maggots got a bit of socialisation and Girl Maggot headed off to her new home (as Mac’s PrincessFlick, apparently!)

I enjoyed watching the agility- Terra and Kriszty, Jules and Diva, Sue H's young dogs (esp Dan- smashing young dog), and some other promising young dogs, like Di Rose's Flyte. It is amazing how much agility has improved since I started with Jack (must be 8 years ago now), I can't imagine what it will be like in another 8 years. The Royal agility is great as a spectator, because there's only one ring so you get to see all the classes, and the level of distraction tends to lower expectations and chill people out (as much as they can, given the restricted shelter, gate entry squabbles and having to arrive at 4.30am to get a space).

BabyJ had a ball. He was babysat by a variety of people during Saturday (thanks Michelle!) but on Monday my brother and his fiancee took him off to enjoy the show. He patted a pig, visited the Baby Animal Nursery, went on his first merry-go-round, and scoffed down all sorts of junk. And tried out every single quad bike on display!























Marianne and Coco doing a yard demo:












Nigel and Yarralonga Delta fill the force:

Royal- oops!

Off to another Royal- and this time I think I've outdone myself. I've not only entered Bill and Muddy, but also Ziggy and Queani. Queani has had exactly 2 agility lessons in her life, only did the tunnels once (for the first time) a couple of weeks ago, and Ziggy thinks agility is mostly about running around obstacles, grabbing random tug toys, and has also only had one tunnel lesson.

I'm debating whether to scratch them or whether to give them a go and be thrilled if I can get a few jumps out of them... I think I'll run Bill in the Open Agility, despite the seesaw (which he's never done), and just pull him off that obstacle.

"Woof" and other things

Slightly interesting things that have happened recently:

1) Farmboy is talking! His vocabulary is now up to: "Up!", "Dad!", "Woof!", "tug", and he does sound effects ("Rrraaagghhh!" for living things, and "Rmmm rmmm rmm" for vehicles). Oh, and "Sssssh!" to shush the cats out of the kitchen. And he says "Mum-mum-mum-mum", but I'm not sure if that's a sound effect or a word. And he says "Nyang nyang" for breastfeeding, but he's said that since he was about 6 months old.

2) Jim can catch a frisbee. He's been chasing and grabbing them for a while now, once he realised life isn't all about the ball, but just lately he's started getting some serious airtime and usually beats Muddy to the prize.

3) Tom's metaphorical balls have dropped. Overnight he went from that incredibly annoying shrill little yapping to a deep, resounding macho bark. The first time I heard it I had to look twice, it was so unusual for him. Little Tommy is all grown up now.

4) Bill can do a serpentine. I started our yearly agility training on Wednesday, motivated by the sheer terror of having entered the Royal Show again (why? why? why?). Bill hasn't forgotten much. Wednesday we worked on him not biting me so much when excited, Thursday I rested and applied antiseptic, and yesterday we did a serpentine and some weaving. I wish I had proper weave poles. The serpentine was cool, he got the hang of it very quickly, but I still can't figure out what I'm doing. Half the time I was using the near-side arm up and down, the other half I was doing the evil-arm thing. The near-side arm seems much more natural, but then I can see how using it for turns away can lead to that random flipping out thing dogs do on straight lines, if their handler starts to wave their arm at all. I'm quite prone to random arm waving, especially when trying to run. I've also just realised that I entered Bill in Open Agility, and he doesn't do a seesaw. We have one (thanks to Jules) that just needs a little TLC, but I'm not sure if I should risk ruining Bill's dogwalk by introducing the SS now. I know it will freak the hell out of him, and we don't have a real dogwalk, so I'm worried that he will assume anything with a long upramp is a seesaw, and bail. Maybe I should just run around the SS in the trial.

5) Still no puppies. That's not at all interesting, just really frustrating,

"Ruin"

Time to update.

So, the State Agility Trial. It was OK. I'm not sure why I was a bit disappointed, but I was. We actually did better in terms of results than I'd expected or really wanted- Muddy got clear rounds in Novice Agility and Jumping, made both finals, and I think that makes him AD and possibly also JD (will have to check that one). Now I have to cough up for titles before we can enter Excellent, which he will hate, so yay.

Muddy actually did some nice runs, most notably an Open Jumping run which was fantastic before I stuffed him up, but as per usual he lost interest towards the end of the second day and just couldn't be arsed in the finals.

Bill was initially great, but then went away into girlie-land, for the first time ever. So even he wasn't that much fun to run, which sucked because the courses later on were fantastic.

It was nice to see Lilli (Fly's sister) winning a State title, and some other cool dogs in action.

One problem with the States was that after floating along in the fantasy clouds of total-novice-hood for a while, where its all just fun and enjoying your dogs, I clunked back into the reality of competitive humanity. All the critical analysis of everyone else, their dogs, the way they look, the way they handle, the way they bring up their puppies... Now, a bit of analysis and criticism of handling and training etc is cool- sharing opinions and ways of doing things and such. That's how we learn. A bit of bitching is also to be expected- that's human nature, its everywhere. But SO much unnecessary slagging off! Who cares if someone is holding off on agility training until their pup is fully grown??? Just playing with youngsters and teaching them the basics of obedience until they are 10 or 12mo seems to work just fine for lots of people, not everyone wants their baby puppies toddling over baby walks and wobble boards. If you do, that's cool, but is it really necessary to be predicting "ruin" if someone chooses to do something different to the masses? No wonder some people start to crack under the pressure of expectations around the agility rings. And what is with calling other people's dogs ugly, to their face? Maybe my sense of humour had leaked out of the hole left after my head exploded from hearing about how dogs that don't get on equipment before 16 weeks are ruined...

Vent over. It was an OK weekend.

Other news:
Richard started cropping with a permanent headache. His first week of spraying and seeding seemed to get progressively worse until this weekend when
-the quad bike broke down,
-Richard crashed the tractor into the truck (fell asleep at the wheel),
-used Tama in the yards for a morning's drenching where Tama caught his toe in the grating and ?broke it,

and culminated in The Great Combine Caper, which involved an auger rope breaking, Richard falling off the top of the combine, and his ankle breaking in two places. The big fool got back in the tractor and tried to finish the paddock before getting rescued and we spent the day shuttling between hospitals. He's all plastered up and stretched out beside Tama on the couch, and after using up all his profanity collection yesterday as he realised what a terrible time of year this is to be injured, he's settling into helplessness and starting to enjoy his situation. Even if the Eagles lost and the Dockers are winning...

Jack is walking! Only a couple of metres here and there, but he's definitely walking. Look out world!

Dogs are all a bit bored, and it will only get worse, since we have some sheep work coming up (3000 ewes to preg test Thursday, crutching, shifting mobs around before lambing) and now Richard's out of action it will be me and the trusty mongrels helping Garry out.

I'm starting to worry about Bart- he's SO sensitive, you can't even raise your voice at another dog or he'll be off to his kennel to hide. And he's starting to be reluctant to go around the sheep, and when he does he seems to be really short on the head. He does have a natural stop like his mum, though. I really love Bart, but I'm wondering if he'd be happier with one quiet owner and no other dogs... We'll give him some time and TLC and see what happens.

Sybil is as perky and pestiferous as ever, Basil (my next training project) is getting regularly bashed by Fly for biting but doesn't seem to learn a thing, Pinky is going to be ready for the State 3sheep if I can learn to keep my trap shut, Ziggy needs to learn to walk up- she's weak as dishwater but too strong on the head. Fly is going OK, needs more regular work and casting practice, and Queani continues to work well for me. Bill still needs to learn to bloody stop. And a get off, actually.

I'm going to be super-busy trying to run the dogs morning and night while Richard's out of action, plus getting some training done. Richard will be puppy-playing from his lawn chair, so Trim, Tom and the Bs are his problem. But so far, GP work is going alright. I'm starting to get back into gear, even if its not 100% my cup of tea, and will be getting pretty slick at pap smears in the near future, I'm sure.

"Ruin"- not a bad name for a dog. Bit like "Properdog". Or "Vandal". But I think I'll stick with Esme for my future Fly pup.

Oh yeah, and we're getting married...

A week of anticipation

I'm just on the edge of my seat this week. Maybe its the smoke in the air, maybe its starting work next Monday, maybe its just hormones.

I've been hitting Murtagh, cramming on hypertension and girly bits and rashes, in a feeble attempt to ease the sheer terror of having to see my first patients on my own next Monday. Its not really working. I feel like I have a huge exam coming up, and have done absolutely no study.

I am also inexplicably excited about the State Agility trial this weekend. Dunno why. I've done absolutely no practice for it, so as far as I know my dogs are still completely untrained, but then I'm not expecting to do well. I'm even hoping we don't- the last thing I want is for my boys to progress towards Excellent, its much more fun here in Novice. A repeat of our Western Classic runs would be lovely, fast, fun, enthusiastic dogs, with one minor hiccup here and there, and Diva winning stuff ;)

At the WC Michelle and someone else (?Jules) were talking about how much more fun agility was back in the days of our first Novice dog. No expectations, no involvement in the politics or competitiveness of the higher levels, just out there having fun with our dog and hoping, maybe, for a clear round once or twice.

I guess I'm back there now, and it really is fun. It doesn't have the terror factor of sheepdog trialling (I'm pretty sure no-one will die in the agility ring, and there is no equivalent "walk of shame"), yet I'm still a nobody, with no pressure on me or the dogs. No-one stops to watch our runs, we have no chance of being in the prizes, and I don't care if we mess up. Its just a fun weekend away with the boys.

Its stubble burning time- cropping is on its way. R has buggered his knee climbing in + out of the ute. The air is heavy with smoke and the evenings are a spectacle of glowing treestumps against blackened paddocks and violet skies with a burgundy sun. I should get out the camera.

Here's the kelpie pups (mum Sally is Capree bred, dad is Badgingarra Jake):

Blue (the boy), Betty, Bindi and Buggles (I think...)

Royal Show Summary

The Royal Show is over for another year...

Richard had Fred and Charlie qualified for the yard section on the first weekend, and while it would have been nice for Fred to repeat last year's wins, it was a bit much to ask, especially running on the first day. He did pretty well, scored a 90 but lost too many points with some shabby racework. Charlie was a bit unlucky- the whips at the neighbouring horse demo started cracking just as he was getting started, and he lost a bit of concentration. But R thoroughly enjoyed himself anyway, and it was great to see another Boylee dog (Andrew Gorton's Ella) take it out with Tony and Pepper (Fred's dad) one point behind in second.

it was a great socialising experience for the pups- they must have been handled by 200 people of all shapes/sizes. And on the puppy front, Nigel Armstrong's 7 week old Yarralonga kelpies (Darky-Maggot pups) were awesome in their first time on sheep. Wish I'd had my camera.

I entered the agility mainly to give me something to do while R was busy, but we had an absolute ball. Our last agility trial was last year's Royal, and we've hardly trained in the last 6 months, so I wasn't expecting much. It was Jack's retirement trial, so I was thrilled with how much he enjoyed himself. Jules stepped in to handle him in Strat Pairs, which was a godsend because I had no idea what I was doing, and Jack + Muddy ended up with a win! Muddy was as half-arsed as ever, but actually ran one a few occasions (especially enjoyed Strat Pairs), and finished his AD title with a 2nd place, plus a SP win with Jack. Bill was a star- he learnt to weave straight poles the night before the trial, and performed like a pro on the day. He remembered how to do contacts, and if he jumped like a every jump was a sheepyard panel, who can blame him? He even started to go on ahead, but I do need to get faster to keep up with him. It's just fun to have a young dog that loves agility again.

It was also great to see Jules + FredxQueani daughter Diva running in their first Royal- it seems like yesterday that she was our wee Daisy, and now she's the ferally fast DiscoDiva, with an attitude as big as her name. She won Novice Jumping, had a very near miss in Novice Agility (flawless run, dropped last bar) and was generally pretty impressive. We'd like to take some credit for it, but I suspect it's mostly to do with Jules' training- after Samroc, I can't imagine her with a slow dog. She also looks like being one of the better dogs from that breeding on sheep, with Fred's stocksense and distance and maybe Queani's cast without the swipe. R is not a little peeved that we sold her... hopefully Jules will go on with the sheepdog training too.





From Tim Abidin's fantastic photo website (http://www.yourdogphotos.com)

Current Events

So… what have we all been up to in recent weeks?

Jack-

He seems to have been feeling really good- fighting fit. Charging around at the farm, swimming, swimming and more swimming at the river, keeping the masses in order.

The highlight of his life is still being at the farm, where he rides in the front of the ute (of course), plays his own version of the silly sheepdog games every evening (I think he calls it “Bite the Border Collie”), and sometimes gets to work sheep. Richard is so soft with Jack and lets him have a turn in the training paddock, and last session actually had him stopping and sort of thinking about balancing. Its really not his forte, though- he much prefers a big mob, where he can run back and forth to his heart’s content. I was trying to help load lambs the other day- Muddy dicked his knee, Bill was too sore from other farm work, and the stupid stupid little crossbred lambs just would not cooperate. So I got Jackie out, and he was actually useful- at least his gentle hocking got those lambs shifting much better than my feeble “yah yah”. We know the hocking was gentle, because occasionally as he went around a pen, he’d hock me or Richard.

We’ve been doing the odd bit of agility, between work and farm, and he ran a recent 500 course pretty quick for his old legs. I’ve still been planning on “one day” getting back to finish off his JDM, and just let him enjoy trialling while he still can. And maybe I’ll eventually get around to that UD… just not enough time.

Last few days Jack’s probably overdone it a bit- he went stiff on his bad shoulder after a few days of vigorous walks and Frisbee, and having just recovered from that, we turned up to agility last night and he had another episode of that hunched posture that flared up before the Royal. Seemed very sore in the groin/abdomen, didn’t like being touched there. Is it a pulled muscle, or something more sinister? Today he’s recovered, but I’m still watching him like a hawk.

Muddy-
His usual barky self. Poor lad’s been a bit neglected recently, not much time on sheep, not much agility (because I’m worried about his knee), and I always seem to be cross with him. But he’s fattened up a little bit (finally), and seemed to really enjoy agility last night. He weaved pretty well, and even went full-tilt on the wide open section of the course. And we managed a few tricky turns/pull throughs, without him shutting down too much.

News on the knee- last week at the park, he twisted and held it up, as per usual, but when I went to him, I flexed/extended the knee. He squeaked, there was a palpable clunk, and he could put it down and run around normally. It must be a patella subluxation or similar- the cruciate story just isn’t fitting anymore.

Bill-
Truly the bottom of the pecking order around here. Even the girlies boss him around.

But he’s still my boy, and keeps surprising me. He’s not had much training time on sheep either, and still doesn’t have much style, but I love to work him, he just never lets me down. I hate to admit he works much better for Richard, who gets him to settle and stop nicely.

He’s loving agility training, and I just love working him. I’ve given up on the spazzy jumping, it just doesn’t seem fixable, although perhaps its slowly improving as we run longer sequences. Maybe he’ll figure out that its faster to jump normally once we start doing proper courses.

Last night he did some longer sequences (I ran him around bits of a Masters-type course- just jumps/tunnels/walk) and he’s so much fun- just wants to blast around as fast as he can. He didn’t drop many bars, did some normal jumping (and some massive spazzy overjumps), and even some pretty efficient serpentines.

I was so excited with his first time on the full-size dogwalk. He’s been doing groovy quick 2o2o contacts on the baby walk, and last night he transferred that beautifully to the full size walk, even as part of a sequence. He was a little cautious the first time, but I wound him up and after that he was just bolting over, skidding down the ramp and trying to hold a 2o2o. On one occasion he went on at too much of an angle and came off at the top, and once he was just going too fast down the ramp and couldn’t stop, just slid down and went tail over tits onto his head instead of a 2o2o, but the great thing about Bill is that he just didn’t care. As long as I tell him how great he is and give him his treat, he’s still raring to go.

Bill’s other incredible talent is his ability to get tangled in computer cables. It doesn’t matter where I put the computer or how carefully I tuck the cables out of the way, Bill will lie down somewhere and in 5 minutes he’ll have the phone cord wrapped twice around his body and the power cord looped around both back legs. And when he leaps up to follow me to the loo, everything will come crashing down. Its uncanny.

The Girlies-
Feral. They’ve hit adolescence bit time, and every day one of them responds to a recall or a request to sit or get in the car with a “Make me!.” Generally they are still pretty well-behaved, but we’ve instituted some new manners rules, and we’re trying to do some obedience work every day.

Both are starting nicely on sheep. Ziggy works a lot more like her mum, without so much eye (a good thing), while Pinky is still a bit puppyish. Zig blew me away the other day when we had to move a couple of hundred sheep from the training paddock to the other side of the hill (maybe a kilometre?). I took Mr Relia-Bill and Ziggy, and for her first time on a mob she was great. When they came through the first gate, the first half of the mob started breaking up the hill into the rocks, and Zig came through the fence and cast out nicely to head them off and bring them back down. She got the hang of wearing back and forth behind the mob with Bill, only occasionally coming around too far.

Fly-
Being a farm dog at the moment. I think she’s hanging out to get back to town and do some agility- I certainly am. But she is going nicely on sheep, tries her guts out. And Jim is finally getting his act together too.

Me-
Feeling rubbish. Bollocks to that stuff about second trimester glow. I hurt, am dog-tired all the time, can’t get comfortable anywhere, and move like a hemiplegic whale. I think I have SPD- agility training on Tuesday night leaves me completely unable to move on Wednesday, my groin feels like its been pulled apart.

Little Jack keeps kicking me down low, and is twisting and jumping all over. I don’t mind if he does his acrobatics now, as long as he ends up head down (oh, and sleeps like the perfect baby come March).

Wish we had a house though- I think I have my heart set on this double story job from ShedCo, but I don’t think R’s convinced and really we can’t afford it. I just love those verandahs…

More Royal Agility Pics

More Jasper (Ob Ch Brynbank Dangeros Liasion ADX JDX )... and no, its not just the effect of all that hair, he is moving quick:



Karen Phillips' Murphy (Lucratif Original Chill CDX ADM JDM ET), the old master at work:
Amanda Houston and Ben (Daheim Lucky Star ADX JDX CDX)- and yep, that's the same Daheim as Queani:

Sue Hogben's Nifty (Guirmere Nifty Lad ADX JDM ADO JDO GD SPD), who doesn't seem at all slowed down by all those big letters dragging along behind his name:



Young Riot (Hotnote As Good As It Gets AD JDX PT), who like Nifty + Terra, seemed to amp up for the crowds



What is with all these tricolour border collies? Anyone would think at least half the agility dogs in WA were tricolour border collies... and that's probably not that far off!
Terra (Bellview Foxy Lady ADX JD ADO JDO), another very quick young dog with lots of letters, who only seems to get faster:
Kriszty, left behind in Terra's dust, tries to regain her confidence by showing the crowd some snazzy moves from her last dance production (Saturday Night Fever, I believe):
More Terra, because she's so good looking, and because there just aren't enough photos of tricolour dogs on this blog already...
Giving someone a piece of her mind:
Kriszty and Terra have developed a new contact technique- not 2o2o, not 1RTO, no- this is FAITA (Fluffy Arse In The Air):