aussienut

Camping, trials and so much more....

2010-02-28T22:53:00.003+11:00

So the new agility year has officially begun with our K9 twilight trial that was last night. As always, it seems to prolong into a late night, so we didn't get home till 1am.

Prior to beginning agility again, we've been showing our guts out. Crazy thing is I've struggled for 3 years to get points on Kinta, and yet, this time last year I think Miss K picked up about 50 pts, and she's done it again picking up about 45 points on our summer stint of showing. She really is maturing nicely.

Kinta gained her Australian champion title on the valentines weekend which was a nice birthday present. Naturally, since then she's also picked up an extra 20 points... always the way isn't it!

We are now going to take a bit of a break from the show ring. Zara needs to mature and grow into her legs *vbg* and Kinta can have a well deserved break. Exciting news is that the VCA have since developed a NEW title by the name of NEUTER CHAMPION so you can guess which spunky boy will be going for that once July hits and this becomes effective! I can't wait!

Agility trial last night - no passes but working on speed and motivation. I was pretty happy for their efforts. Silly handler made some mistakes, which tends to happen when you have 3 courses running AT ONCE!
MJ - Leo - under time (!!!!) but 2 bars down and a handling error where I almost took the wrong jump...
ExAg - Kinta - not bad, just a few poor handling errors. Should have FC before the weaves instead of RC..
OJ - Leo - missed the distance challenge (tunnel was WAY too tempting!) which put me in the wrong spot fo the weaves, so that slowed him down.
MA - one good, one an absolute dog's breakfast!

here's the vid:

So - how goes obedience? Lets see - on some levels.... great... on others... falling apart yet again! Kinta is doing well training for her Open and Leo is progressing in his UD, yet we still struggle with the seekback... gah! I'm sure we'll get there in the end, but it's more the lack of training than anything else! Gotta put on the training boots again ;-).

On another note we will be going to Warrnambool for an agility trial next weekend which will be my FIRST ever camping trip (woot woot!) I can't wait! Am nearly all ready for thist (rather expensive!) venture and had a test run putting the tent up with Laura today.

Going up was no issue:
Yet the packing up prooved to be a little more difficult:

luckily however, after several attempts we finally got there!
Our little palace should be plenty of room for me and the furries to relax and stretch out in style! Can you tell I can't wait?!!?!?

Been pretty busy otherwise with dogs, work and house hunting, two of them fun, and one becoming extremely frustrating!! Sooooo hard to find a place that seems to fit everything I'm looking for..... Gah - soo frustrating!

The new training year.... 2010

2010-02-01T23:21:00.003+11:00

Ok so our new training and trialling year has begun. I'm very excited about this year, not in the way of gaining titles or anything like that, but more on improving on our foundations and learning so much more about training. What's more as I (sort of) have a new dog to train. Zara is coming out of the cupboard ladies and gents.... at almost 10months old we are beginning to step up her training. Initially I was going to leave this to dad, but with his Foundation (agility) class starting soon, and given this club is full of people who have started agility and competed years before with multiple dogs, I figure a bit of a head start won't hurt!

I've also started some obedience work with Zara and I'm really impressed at her beginning stages... Not bad for a 9 month old pup and only 3 short sessions!!

first session:

third session:

I think I might pull her out and do obedience afterall if we have time!!!

Leo and Kinta are doing well and have already had 2 'mini' trials this year. Kinta also has only 6pts left for her Championship title, so I hope to get that soon! Leo has 2 masters agility passes and Kinta 2 excellent jumping passes :). Go the Pawsitive dogs!

Anyway here's a vid of their most recent trial:

I was pretty pleased with their efforts. So what are our aims this year?!

To get Z geared up for agility - we are going to work on some foundation stuff such as circle work, nose touches and driving towards a toy before we even begin on the equipment. I want a dog that really understands to drive ahead. Some exercises so far include:
*nose touches to a target
*circle work a la greg derrett style
*drive forward to a toy/ lead out then get toy
*run around a cone.

I am excited to see how she will develop in this area, as this is the first dog we will have done it' right' from day one LOL!

I would also like to use more toys in our training and develop that a little more with the older two, as well as continuing to work on our distraction training.... including for obedience.

All in all - I'm mostly out to have fun, but I'm also really looking forward to what lies ahead!

Hopefully I'll also be a little more reliable with updating in here!

New years resolution - tape more runs and training sessions so I can keep tabs on my errors!

Our Parisian Experience

2010-01-30T19:57:00.002+11:00

Ok so it's been a while.... so how my memory fares on this topic will have to be left to fate I think.... well that and looking back at a few photos to see if that jigs my memory!

But as promised - I can' continue onto future posts until I post about Paris... because that wouldn't be fair... right?! All of you... 3 or 4 people who still read my blog will be hanging off every word to hear about what acutally happened in Paris!

6 days in Paris was perfect. Enough time to really soak up the atmosphere I think... especially seeing as there really is SO much to see. Up well before the sun was we caught the 6:20am train from Munich to make our way to Paris. This generally involved a little bit of sleeping and a whole heap of reading and ipod listening. The book I was reading on this trip was just fascinating, so I certainly would recommend "The Book Theif" by Markus Zuzak to anyone. Absolutely loved it.

Our location within Paris was ideal. After much talking up by Scott and Lily about the wonderful location and how modern this apartment was we were all pretty excited to see it. Situated on the Rue Saint Martin, just a few blocks down from the Center Geroges Pompidou or "Inside-out building" as we liked to call it, we were pretty central to everywhere you would want to be, while still getting the very local feel on Marais.

Upon entering the apartment, we all looked at each other wondering if we were in the right place. Even Scott had to ask the guy who let us in if this was the same place that was in the ad. Apparently 'comfortably sleeps 6 people' to Parisians means something a little different than it does to us Australians!

Let me paint you a little picture... to the Right we have the bathroom.. which basically means that you have to reverse into the toilet to use it... no possibility of moving around and stretching out in there! then we are welcomed with a lovely frosted glass door to the 'change room/ shower'... but more about that later!

Right infront of the front door (so next to the bathroom) was the kitchen, which yup, didn't leave much room, and then the living room, which would only seat... 3-4 people at most... Yup - you guessed it - sofa bed to fold out at night. Next room was bedroom #1 which had one of those fold down beds that you always see on cartoons where in the middle of their sleep someone is shoved back into the wall as the bed springs up... you can imagine the dreams we had about that!

Next room at least had a 'real bed' but there wasn't room for much else! Alas - our humble abode would do - I mean who sleeps in Paris! Too much to see and things to do!

Now... back to that apartment story... Yes, it was small, but one would not think that you could get THAT aquainted with your family as we did in this place. We all became experts at getting changed descretely *in* the shower (after all, if you didn't then EVERYBODY would be able to see your birthday suit!)... the toilet however was another story... yes, it wasn't all that foreign to use, the flush button may have been a little difficult to find, but boy was it tempermental! We found that this toilet was perhaps not best suited for a 'comfortably sleeping 6 people' appartment, as it just couldn't deal with the pressure and would often go into over-drive. If nothing else, it certainly made for some great toilet humour, a great way to 'get to know everyone' and of course made for some exciting breakfast entertainment.....

We spent most of the first day wondering around the Marais and enjoyed the sights and sounds of Paris. We were lucky enough to fine THE BEST crepe servery every in Marais, and all through Paris were yet to find one that compared. yumm!!!! Even their savoury crepes were delicous... much more than you would expect from what initially looked like a pretty ordinary, shabby little place..

One thing that amazed us was the size of the queues during the winter. We certainly didn't expect queues quite that big! I mean who in their right mind will queue for HOURS in the freezing cold just to see one teensy tiny little landmark.... loads of people I guess.

After a cosy night in, we went the next day toward the bastille, after scaring ourselves that we would need to pre-buy all of our tickets to the important museums, to save time on the queues. In the end it didn't really work out all that effective since we had to walk in the opposite direction to get these tickets. After finally picking all of these up, we went ahead to Notredame. The queue to go up to the top was huge, so we figured we would see enough of Paris from the other main monuments and sites for views. Notredame was absolutely beautiful, so little photographer in me snapped out her good ol camera for a few snaps around the place... that was until I was 'told off' for using a tripod... ah well!

Ater notredame, we had discussions about whether or not to head to Eiffel tower seeing as the weather was nice, but decided the queues were too long. So off we head to Musee d'orssay to see some of the famous artwork. Spent most of the afternoon wondering around and taking in some of the magnificent pieces of art... some tasteful, and some..... not so tasteful ;-). Lets just say... some of those coffee tables in your living room would certainly spark discussion.

I have to say also that our meals out in Paris were certainly delicious! While perhaps not good for the waist (just how do those Parisians stay so thin?!?!) they certainly were good for the tastebuds! And of course, you would go to Paris for a delicious Belgian meal of mussles right?!?!?!

The next day we went to see the Opera house which I think was Mum's highlight. This Opera house is the basis of "Phantom of the Opera" so mum really was in seventh heaven. It really was gorgeous and I think we all enjoyed it more than we thought we would. Once again, little photographer me had a lot of fun here!

On from the opera house to Galleries La'Fayette where we spent our millions.... or perhaps not...

since it was late in the afternoon now (gotta hate those early setting sun in winter!) we headed up to Sacre Couer and even though my legs were exhausted (we even did a detour past Moulin Rouge) we still climbed those steps as the cable car was just much too long a wait. The view was fantastic as it was a nice clear day and as always it is fun to try and guess what you are looking down on.

Next day we all have a lovely sleep in (for some on this trip, this is particularly hard!) and headed to the Eiffel Tower for a lovely 3hr queue (in the freezing cold.... I couldn't feel my toes anymore!)... or there abouts! now - 6 years ago when we went to Paris, we couldn't see squat from the top, as it was clouded over... so again.... yup you guessed it clouded over! Seeing as the weather was only going to get worse, we decided that we might as well go up now rather than later. So once again, I have a trip up the Eiffel which results in seeing nothing from the top... (well the pedestrian crossing looked like stairways to heaven, but...) Next time - I'm going in summer!

After a bit of a siesta we head out once more to enjoy the sights and sounds of Paris New Year celebrations. Walking down the Champ Elysees which presented quite a nice atmosphere, but interestingly, nobody really was stopping to relax. We make our way down to the Eiffel tower (which by now you can see the top of!) and amazingly we can get a pretty decent view. We decide to stay to watch the fireworks.

11pm comes and the tower does it's hourly 'night sparkle' this happens while we settle ourselves down, and wonder if we'll last an hour seeing as the temperature is dropping quite dramatically. White christmas or not... at least in Australia you can stay outside without turning into an ice block!

11:30pm comes and the tower begins to get a little bit more exciting and starts to sparkle and dance... wow! we think.... this fireworks display is going to be pretty amazing!

11:59 comes and closer and closer the new year of 2010 comes. the tower begins to 'count down' (a la light display) and then... 'hourly sparkle' comes on, before the tower goes completely quiet. We wait. (all the while cheering Bonne Annee or 'happy new year') nothing happens.... other than a few 'amatauer' fireworks. We wait some more.... still nothing.

Yes, that's right ladies and gentlemen.... all we got for new years was a sparkly tower! that's it! no fireworks or anything! But what of the atmosphere? I hear you ask... surely the atmosphere must have been somehting! Well as soon as midnight came, everyone packed up and went home! I kid you not!! So while it was an experience, it certainly didn't rate compared to what we are used to at home!

The train ride home was 'interesting' to say the least. Nothing orderly or organised about it. The officials just 'shoved' you on and hoped for the best. Lets just say - I was glad the people 'next to me' (or was that ontop of me!) were not p!ssed enough to spew all over you as that certainly wouldn't be pleasant.

Another sleep in and we head out again for a wonder around the lourve area. By the time we got to the Lourve it was SO cold that we couldn't feel our toes. By this stage it had started snowing, so we decided to slowly head back and try and de-thaw.

Victor Hugo museum was another site for us to visit. We didn't really know much about him, but it certainly was interesting to learn more about one of France's more popular authors.

All in all a great (albeit busy!) trip to Paris. After catching the eurostar back to London (Yes! It worked this time!!) I spent a few days back in the UK before heading home and once more the weary traveller resides in her Australian home!

The Europe trip

2010-01-04T05:55:00.003+11:00

Ok.... so I failed.... miserably!

I promised all I would keep this blog up-to-date with the latest happenings of our trip and I left you in the lurch!

Firstly it wasn't as easy as it seems to find some internet locations, secondly, when we did have internet connection, with 4 other people wanting to use the same computer, and limited time before we head out on our next adventure, a 2 second update on FB was FAR easier than writing an essay..... and I am sure you are all aware of how much I can chat and write!!

I think it goes without saying that eventually.... yes, we did leave London and got to head off on our round-a-bout Europe trip, so I will try and wrap it all up as much as I can in one blog for you all to sit and read ;-)

Getting up at the break of dawn after my last post, we arrived at Gatwick airport ready and raring to go. All seemed to be going to plan, the airport was open for one, the planes were delayed but going. A few hair-raising moments where all the screen said was 'please wait for more info' and some gruelling hours sitting in those remarkably uncomfortable airport seats while listening to the 'Gatwick x Factor' (think karaoke at the airport) with some great singers and some.... not so great... we FINALLY were able to board the plane and jet-set off to Salzburg.

We arrived to a land of white. In a world, Salzburg is spectacular. Right up my alley with lovely mountain views and a nice country feel. Very 'Austrian' atmosphere. Our apartment was covered with white, and seeing as the temperature the previous day was -12degC (despite the fact the weather was currently +15deg C) we were still relatively confident we were going to get our white christmas.

The Salzburg Altstadt (Old town) is really lovely. With the backdrop of the fortress and Christmas markets to wonder around, soak up the atmosphere and practice our German (not to mention the challenge of trying to order something authentic yet having not idea *exactly* what it is!). There was a lot to see in Salzburg. The Untersberg Mountain/ cable car which is to give some spectacular views of Salzburg was great, although we HAD to go up on the only cloudy day where we couldn't see a thing! The Sound of Music tour, where we got to see where they filmed all of those famous scenes. I have to say our tour guide on this one really made it all.. She was fantastic and made the trip really enjoyable. The funny thing is that we later found out after the trip (thanks to my wonderful detective skills!) that we actually were staying NEXT too the actual Von Trapp house.... hows that for ironic :p. The fortress was also magnificent, giving you spectacular views of Salzburg itself. Another highlight, which we didn't get to enjoy fully were the Mozart Museums explaining more about his life while in Salzburg.

Now here's a cheeky conundrum for you. We initially chose Salzburg as a destination place because of the lovely views and that it was pretty much destined to be freezing cold and heaps of snow. I mean, where else would you go for a lovely white Christmas as a bunch of Australians who will never get to experience such a thing at home... Why is it then, that each day we were in Salzburg, they days got warmer and warmer, the snow melted more and more... so that when we awoke on Christmas day, there was scarcely a drop of snow to be found!!

No matter we said, we shall head up to the ski villages for surely there will be snow there... We can go for a Christmas sleigh ride and enjoy the sights, the village and have a lovely christmas lunch. So we book our tickets on Christmas eve to head up to Schladminng for perhaps some taboganning and some snow fun.

Imagine our surprise when we get there and not only is there NO snow, but the only snow on the slopes is FAKE snow!!! I kid you not, when I went up to Buller earlier this year, we had BETTER snow!!! Now when would that ever happen!!! So with not much to do at this ski resort, we head down for a lovely lunch. Continue with the irony that when we were driving away from Schladminng, yup you guessed it, it was snowing a gale.... thanks..... one day late!

Still.. we were able to enjoy our snow moments in London (where it seldom snows), we were able to *see* lots of snow, and we still had an enjoyable Christmas! Just.... not exactly the way we planned.

Onwards now from Salzburg, to a 2hr train ride to Munich for our next stop. Munich we were to spend only 1 day as a quick stop over before heading on to Paris, our next destination. Munich was a pleasant surprise. Unsure what exactly we would find here (other than beer halls!) all of us found that this charming place exceeded all of our expectations with what the city had to offer. In the morning, we went on a rather.... informative Third Reich Tour which told us about the beginnings of Adolf Hitler and WW2. You can't really say it's enjoyable, but it certainly was interesting and informative to have this little piece of history told. I'm certainly glad we went. None were more surprised than our parents, who upon travelling to Munich 20 years ago found that there was very little information they could find about the war or about the concentration camps etc, whereas now they are all very open about it. In the afternoon we explored the city and all of it's haunts.

I have to say though the highlight of Munich was in fact the beer halls. The first night we of course went to 'Hofbrauhous' the most popular of all beer halls. To paint a picture, this place is like.... a mess hall or a massive cafeteria. There is no waiting around for tables, it's grab-it-where-you-can, sit with who you can!!! The food was ok, the beer fantastic, while my brother, continued with his age-old challenge of trying to get me drunk. I must say that after 1L of beer (a stein in Germany is the 'normal' size of beer and is 1L) and feeling none the worse for wear, he was a wee bit impressed thinking that his conservative sister 'doesn't really drink all that much ;-)'.

Enjoying our experience so much at the Hofbrauhous, we decided to visit another beer hall for our final night in Munich, but instead, going for a more 'local' feel. We certainly succeeded, finding a Beerhall a little out of the way, but certainly filled with locals, good beer and great food. It was great getting recommendations from our neighbours about what was 'good food' there and also trying the local cuisine. Consuming just as much beer for a second night in a row, I think it's safe to say that I might be a converted woman.... might be.....

So Munich got a definite tick on our list of places to go, and we head off in the early hours of the morning, for our 6hr train ride to Paris.

Looks like it's almost time to head out again though, so I might continue with our Parisian adventure at another time.... so until then....

Au revoir!

Let it NOT snow

2009-12-22T03:07:00.002+11:00

So things are still looking a little bleak here.

Eurostar is still grounded so, we abandoned ship on that idea. The next plan was to catch the ferry to Calais, but again, we abandoned ship on that idea. Lucky we did as it's absolute mayhem down there with everyone who has been unable to get to France via Eurostar, now trying to get across with the boat.

So our plans are to fly out tomorrow to Salzburg, spend a few days there and then train back to Paris on the Eurail via Munich. Lucky for us, we got the last 5 tickets on *that* train ride!

Now all we have to do is sit and wait... and HOPE for good weather so that we can fly out tomorrow! PLEEEEAAASSEEE everyone join us in hoping for fine flying weather to Salzburg tomorrow morning. Perhaps not looking definite since it is snowing, as we speak... at this very second outside!!!

I just hope we can get there as I have always wanted to go to Salzburg and this will be my last chance for a while!

On a 'positive' note, the snow here is like nothing I have ever experienced before! It is SO soft, fluffy and just all around gorgeous! Certainly makes you feel lovely and christmassy!

Off to see Avenue Q tonight in what we hope will be our last night in London for a few weeks.

Update - am downloading photos to post on here, and it seems the road outside is not blaketed in snow :(. Noooooo!

More advenutres of the unlucky traveller.....

2009-12-20T22:07:00.002+11:00

Well it seems regardless of when or where we travel, bad luck always finds us! It always seems to be centred with ME too since everyone else in the family without any hitches.... is there a greater being trying to tell me something?!?!?!?

As luck would have it, we got our wish - a white christmas and some lovely white blanket of snow around London which was exactly what I ordered.... only.... I ordered it NOT to interfere with our travels either.

After a lovely christmas lunch with my uncle and family at their house in outer-london, blanketed in snow (it was like a postcard) we find that the Eurostar which we were set to be on NOW has been cancelled due to the passengers on Friday being stuck in the rail underground for SIXTEEN HOURS! Sounds pretty scary since some of their warnings was not to breathe too heavily as they may run out of air :-O. Not exactly what you want to hear!

Anyway, because of that our train is/ was no longer leaving today and we don't know when the Eurostar will be back and running.... which, means we are stranded in London.. Not that bad it may seem, but now our hire-car for Europe has fallen through... as not only will they be unable to hold our car, we didn't know that in Austria you need mandatory snow tyres or winter tyres.

So now.... while we may be able to get to Paris tomorrow (either with the eurostar back up and running, or catching the boat from Dover to Calais (including me getting travel sick :o) ), we don't know how to get to the REST of our trip... which included Germany, Austria, Salzburg, Munich and then back to Paris.

To say we are disappointed would be an understatement, but what can you do right?!

The other plan is to base our travels in Paris/ Salzburg, but obviously with it being Christmas/New Year weeks, finding Eurail tickets at a reasonable price is next to impossible....

But fingers crossed that it all works out in the end.

Maybe this is a hint for me that I should keep my feet firmly planted at home and not travel... seing as every time I have set my feet overseas something bad has happened!! This is SO not fair!! Ah well - stories to tell the 'grandkids' one day right?!

so everybody keep their fingers crossed that everything works itself out in the end!

A photographic expedition.

2009-12-18T05:46:00.022+11:00

So it's now day 2 on our Europe expedition and since I haven't been suffering too much from jet-lag they have been action packed. Beware - this blog is also 'action-packed'.. so make sure you're comfy!

I arrived at 6am on the 16th December, after around 24 - 30hrs in transit. Needless to say, I was happy to be moving about and not cramped on an airplane anymore. Arrived at Scott's place safe and sound, and then, feeling pretty ok, decided to head down towards Oxford St for some retail therapy. Didn't find much that was of interest to me, but it was nice heading up and down the streets of London browsing the stores. Naturally it's pretty cold here, but I seriously don't remember it being this cold 6 years ago when we were here for Christmas in 2003. It's absolutely freezing! Thank goodness for my ski jacket... that's all I can say. It's certainly making sure I'm staying nice and warm.

Whilst wondering around shopping, I was able to experience my first real snowfall yesterday. It didn't stick on the ground, but hey, it was an experience all the same. I was like a little kid smiling to myself as walking the streets, and I was half tempted to tap the passerby's on the shoulder and say "hey do you know it's snowing... like actually SNOWING!!" but I figured I would probably be looked at with some pretty strange expressions so I kept it to myself :).

By the time it came to head over to the Battersea animal shelter, walking 15mins from the tube station to the shelter in blistering cold with snow blowing on your face, the fascination had worn off. Add to that nearly slipping a few times whilst walking, I was trying not to think of the 35deg temperature that you all are having back in sunny Melbourne!

Battersea was fantastic. Similar and yet different in so many ways to the RSPCA. I had a great time asking a million questions and having a look at every aspect of the shelter. Needless to say I am a little jealous of their 16-man behaviour unit, compared to my one man behaviour unit!

By this stage (5pm) my jet-lag was setting in, so I called it an early night and headed back to the Scott and Lily hotel for an early night in.

****

After a good 12hr snooze (and then some ;-) ), I woke up late and decided to complete some walks from the book "Walking London" that Dad had gotten from Scott and Lily for Fathers Day. I wanted to see the main sights of London today and try and take some photo's, practicing what I learnt in my recent photography classes. Some I wanted to be a little 'different' (ok... well not really) but some I wanted to be the key landmarks. All the while, doing this walking around London and soaking up the atmosphere. I think I'll say here is that BOY am I glad that I decided to buy and bring along with me a nice little lightweight tripod! It's really made all the difference (even though I do feel a little like a fool setting up my tripod here there and everywhere!). Either way... you better appreciate these photos. Need I mention how COLD it was?!?!?!

I think it must be said here that my sense of direction is squat. That's right... you can always count on me to make every wrong turn possible. If ever there was a person in mind when the GPS was invented it would be me! Now before you all sit there and pity me, or say HOW can you get lost when all you have to do is head right out of the station and head down this road, keep in mind that there are like a zillion exits to one station, and yup, it would have to be ME that takes the wrong exit.... every time! I guess it add's to the experience... right?!

So - after finally heading in the right direction, first port of call was a walk along the Thames and the Christmas markets there. Was nice to have a little wonder around here and begin to feel a little 'Christmassy'. With all that's been going on of late, and organising to come on this trip, it left us little time to actually get organised and feel anything like Christmas... let alone a little under one week away!

From there I also tried to take one of those "Merry go round" photos where you get the blur of all of the lights, but to no avail. I couldn't get it quite right, so we'll leave it out of this entry as I sure have plenty to share :)

Here we also saw a variety of buskers. One that caught my eye was this guy here who was dancing with a 'dummy' or manequin, whatever you want to call her. He made her look quite life-like and it was interesting to watch :).

Now of course, walking along the Thames also meant that I had to take the token "Big Ben" picture right?! Well talk about taking a million and one of the one bl**dy building as I just couldn't quite get the exposure right... too light, too dark, too... something! With the sky being quite overcast, it did make it quite difficult at times to snap a good pic! But... here of course is a sample of some good ones I actually snapped.

This one here is to try and show you the quick change in weather. It went from just 'cold' to 'bl**dy freezing, so windy I can barely breathe, hailing in my face' in just a matter of seconds! Naturally.... as soon as I found shelter the hail ceased..... *sigh*

And some of the clocktower (just a few minutes after the hail storm.... and they pick on Melbourne's weather!!!)

Thankfully... getting a decent shot of the London Eye was a little easier... otherwise I'd never have been able to finish off my tasks for the day ;-). Oh and this was also taken about 5 mins before the hail-storm!

Next up was Westminster Abbey... I got a few different shots of these, as I love the slow shutter speed and the effect of the cars on the image... gives a nice effect I think!

This here is your token "London phone box" photo, but I love the effect of the tourists stopping to take in the sights while the busy Londoners walking by... hehe - yes I became a little 'obsessive' about the slower s/s!

So from here, the only natural place to continue my walks was through the "Central London Parks".. so basically St James Park, Green Park and Hyde park.

This was a lovely little cottage I saw in the middle of St James Park... so yes.. a little random..

Another random here... well, I am an animal person, and I couldn't help snapping this. Said squirrel would come up to everyone, including climbing on my shoe and stick his nose in the air to see what you were up to! Gave quite a few tourists a fright! Unfortunately most of the time he was moving way to quick for me to respond with my camera (hmm... I'll blame it on the gloves....)
A few more 'random's in the park' trying to practice my photographic expertise... with minimal success... not *exactly* the 'feel' I was going after... but I still like them!

And of course... this also meant a stop-over for a quick visit with the Queen... I mean, we were literally walking by....

Naturally we couldn't stay long with the Queen, as we had many things to do! So onwards we travel, with the next logical stop being Wellington Arch and the Australian War Memorial...

Onward to Hyde Park, where lo and behold there is another Christmas market! This one a little more exciting than the last. Feeling a little weary and hungry, I stopped here for a bite to eat and some delicious Hot chocolate, which I got to enjoy while standing outside and watching the ice skaters go by on the outside skating rink. Something I've always wanted to do is skate outside in winter.... especially around christmas time! I was however, too chicken to go by myself. Perhaps while in Europe I can con one of the family to come with me!?!? But, Kylie, just for you I have included a snap in here :)

By this time the sun was beginning to set (yes, at some ridiculous hour of I thinkabout 3:30pm!! How do they live like this?! So I begin to make my way out of the parks and head towards the warmth of Harrods...

Along the way I came across this lovely sight of Christmas decorations... not sure what hotel (at least I think it's a hotel!) is, but it sure does look pretty!

After NO wrong turns, I make it to Harrods which of course leads to the token 'harrods' shot outside the store... mm... green lights.... have they always been green? or is this a christmas special?!

It seems Harrods have their own version of the 'Myer Windows' with these year's theme being the "Wizard of Oz"... not sure if this is just for Christmas or not, but it was quite amusing, given that there was very much a Harrods 'plug' in each of the windows, ensuring that each part of the story entailed that all the Wizar of Oz characters were extrodinarily happy with their "Harrods" goods! *vbg*!

By this stage I was getting pretty tired, so with only one stop left to go, I headed on my way to Trafalgar Square for a happy snap with their Christmas tree in place. Have to say, I was a little disappointed with the tree as it wasn't really much to look at! I remember thinking this also back in 2003, but I figured that was just because the tree in Lucerne was just so impressive... but still... thinking this time the tree was not much chop!

Once again, I found these photos a little hard, trying to get the exposure *just right*

Oh and of course I had to play around with the effects of the fountains too! You can also see how windy it is in some of the pics with the direction the water is falling!

After that I hung around the Square for a little while, soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the sound of the carollers. By this stage the wind had picked up again, so I decided to call it an early night and head on home!

Phew... that was a looongg post! Don't expect another one like this in a hurry! Might need to break it up a bit!! LOL! Can't see myself doing this again for a while. Photos, yes, blog yes, but marathon blog?! I think not!

Supposed to snow tomorrow! Hopefully this means good news for a white christmas at Salzburg! Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Travelling again

2009-12-15T13:46:00.003+11:00

Well I thought since the reason I started this blog over 3 years ago was because I was heading off jet-setting, it seems only right that I re-start the blog with my next big travel.

Lets hope I don't let it slip by the way-side again ;-). Facebook is taking over :P. but then so many of us are blaming facebook for everything these days!

Well I only have 7 mintues left as I sit here at the Melbourne Airport waiting until it's time to board. Where am I headed?!

Basically we are crossing our fingers for a white christmas. A first for me!1 LOL! I'm heading to London and staying there for a few days where I hope to get the opportunity to have a look around the Battersea Animal shelter for work purposes (and general interest!), then heading off to Europe. Where exactly, I am not sure as I'm mega- lazy at planning things, so I'm just 'going with the flow'. Big Brother & co. have organised it all so I am sure it will be great and I will leave it in their capable hands.

All I know is that we will be in Salzburg for christmas day and Paris for NYE. Sounds nice doesn't it!! LOL!

Not looking forward to the long flights and sitting for around 24 hours on a cramped plane..then having to go through a whole day in London before rest (I arrive at 6am!).... should be interesting!

Well - I'll keep you all updated! My time is almost up, but keep checking back, I'll keep posting with my travel-stories!

Yeh Gods....

2009-11-07T19:19:00.002+11:00

Can it be true?! Is it really happening?!?! THE BLOG LIVES!!!!!

Has it really been that long since I've posted? I guess life has a thing of getting in the way doesn't it.... either that or Facebook....

Still I miss writing about our recent happenings, and I think most of you know them by now anyway :).

Dogs are all doing well. Zara is growing like a weed and we've told her she can slow now and concentrate on fixing up her little faults PLEASE! At nearly 7mths old she's all legs and no substance, including a SHOCKING rear end which is making me shudder every time I see it. Where it came from I have no idea seeing as her lines shouldn't be producing something like that. I mean her 3/4 sister is Diva, a gorgeous, gorgeous blue girl who won BOB at the Melbourne Royal! I swear I got the short end of the stick :o. Alas, we shall wait and see how she develops.

Kinta is absolutely ROCKING the obedience ring since her return with a lovely 198 and high in trial at her first trial back, followed by a 191 the week later. Fingers crossed we can get that title in the trials before the year is out. She has really matured and is looking nice for the show ring, so fingers crossed those 15 pts come soon. With two passes also down in Novice agility, one would hope we can pull off the last one for that too, but hey, lets not ask for too much ;-)

Leo is also doing well :-). We've done one UD trial now and I was RAPT with how he went. This boy is just so awesome... just when you think 'ah you're nothing special, he pulls off something amazing'. Agility is also going really well for him to and hopefully we can finish of his ADX shortly.

Looking forward to the summer break though where we will spend the majority of the time at the beach and just having some fun in the summer sun, rather than training ;). I'm sure the dogs will love it (just don't tell them I'm going away to London for 3 weeks over xmas!).

As for me... I'm loving work and that's keeping me very busy at the moment. Am actually house-hunting now which is quite stressful trying to find something that I like and meets all of my criteria. In my (spare) time I'm just lazing infront of the tele! Nothing overly exciting!

Lets hope I get some new piccies soon and can innundate you all with new photos from the continuing photography experience :)

Photography... and other stuff!

2009-09-06T13:49:00.007+10:00

So my camera has been having quite a work out lately especially because of my photography course no doubt :). I think I'm slowly improving, getting a better 'eye' for subjects and things I am familiar with (read dogs, portrait type shots of flowers etc), but I still SUCK big time at landscapes and also at portraits and 'casual' shots of people. You know how people can just 'snap' photos of the most mundane things or moments and just make the photo look absolutely amazing?! Well I certainly am not one of them! LOL!

Well last week I had a meet up with my little (now almost FIVE months old!) puppies! Minus Kinta of course, who is still sporting a 'woe is me attitude' and having to stay at home due to being in season. Gosh life is tough for some mistreated animals.

It was a great meet and to see how my pups are growing up and developing. I'm SO pleased with them.

Anyway - some piccies of the little ones ;)

Yesterday I went to the State "Top Dog" trials to see the top 10 dogs of the state competing for the top agility/ jumping dog of the year title. There were many great runs made by many great dogs ;). Once again I practiced my photography skills and tried to snap some shots of the dogs doing their runs. Rather than post heaps in here again, I will post the link instead!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28061120@N02/sets/72157622251867974/
If you watch it in slideshow it's much easier/ better ;)

Today I took the dogs down to a park near us to see if I could get some happy snaps of them as well. Now and again I do these challenges on an 'online forum' to practice your photography. This month is 'landscapes' so it was a good place to practice.

I managed to snap some good shots of the dogs too - so here are a bit of both ;)

Over the coming weeks I have a few trials coming up, but when one of them will be obedience I have no idea!!! LOL! Nothing much else happening at the moment... well worthy of writing about really ;)

New Look!

2009-08-27T18:12:00.004+10:00

Yuppers - I have a new do!!! LOL! Was about time! My hair grows ridiculously fast and thick but it's also really healthy, which means I can go for quite a while between cuts and not have a huge amount of ugly hair on my head :p. Usually it's the length and the thickness that kills me more than split ends!

Anyway - I wanted to try something new so I now have highlights :). No colours, she just bleached my hair a little to 'tint' it or lift the colour. Let me know what you think! I like it, mum HATES it which of course has made me a little more skeptical ;). Please ignore the horrible pics - do you know how hard it is for you to take a half decent shot of yourself!! Soooo over-critical!! My hair actually looks 'lighter' in person - the highlights came out much darker on the photos :(

So where have I been you ask?! Basically life has been BUSY! No time to blog away and I've also been trying to limit my computer time coz I think I spend waaay to long on here ;)

I've started a photography course which I am loving.... and learning heaps! But it's almost becoming to the point of 'overload' now because there is just SO much to learn and not enough time in the week to put it all into practice. I now have a better understanding of shutter speed, aperture and also how to use lighting to your advantage. That has been invaluable. Here are some sample shots I've been snapping lately - although surprisingly I don't like them as much as I do for the ones I did for the photography challenge, or some of the more 'random' shots I have taken of the dogs - like the one I have of leo sitting on the rock. Either way - some examples of playing with lighting etc.

Now before you ask... NO I don't have extra dogs!! LOL! Well not anymore ;). I looked after a friends' dogs for two weeks so it was a busy household... but fun! I've looked after them before and the 4 dogs get along pretty well (zara stayed at home with dad... her owner :P). YES, before you ask - Zara has grown like a weed and is HUGE! At 4.5mths, she is almost as big as her mother!!! Everything is still going along swimmingly... Kinta in season again (grrr) but I guess it's better now than at the Royal eh?! Kinta is as naked as they come - barely a skerick of hair on her! which basically means, that royal entry I so 'optimistically' put in... looks like we'll be scratching. At least you don't have to be pretty to do agility!

Now for some other shots I've been playing around with - Kinda random really... just after a session on 'lighting'
I'm not really sure what to make of them ;)

In the trialling front, the dogs are *still* in break mode coz I've been too lazy to do much else! Yeah - apparently you have to be 'organised' to get your entries in! LOL! We've got a few coming up and I *would* have had an obedience trial with Kinta, but well... seasons do get in the way of things ;-). Leo's UD is still slowly coming along, but now that I've pulled my finger out I hope that we'll be ready sooner rather than later!

Phew! I think that's about it! Perhaps it won't be so much of a novel if I come here more often eh?! LOL!

Surprises...

2009-07-20T21:51:00.005+10:00

Aren't surprises just the best ever?! Both giving and receiving!! LOL!

I decided quite a few weeks ago, after much begging from 2 close friends that I would trek up to Sydney for a weekend. The dates being decided as this weekend just gone :). Now, I told ONE friend, but I didn't tell the other and we swore to secrecy... just trying to organise a lunch between the two of them (and not me). I wanted to surprise said friend because I had promised for ages to come and visit but of course that never eventuated. Given all the last minute planning, I was *sure* that she suspected, simply because I'm a hopeless secret keeper :p. It took all of my strength NOT to blow the surprise :o. Now those who know me well, must know how hard it is to keep a surprise like THAT! hehe.

After a comedy of errors (trying our best to make it to her house, while trying to cover up the fact that we were walking and had been to her house and nobody answered.... was her parents place LOL!) we finally met up and the look on her face was priceless :). Was a fabulous afternoon with a superb lunch cooked for us all!!!! What a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. My only complaint was that it wasn't long enough!

The rest of the weekend was fab, catching up with Lily's parents and co, checking out the wedding church and reception place for my brother and all the same old same old with our Sydney friends :). Back home on Sunday night and then off to pick up the dogs again tonight!

I am SO excited though! Our first agility trial in a long time is this weekend and in short... I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!! I doubt we'll do well, but who cares!!!! LOL!

Now - seeing as said friends are (of course!) doggy people, one with a new pup, photos HAVE to be in tow... so without further ado...

and of course - Zara has grown this week... HEAPS!!! Soooo.... Piccies!

Introducing....

2009-07-11T23:21:00.004+10:00

Ok well not really.... but Miss Zara had her first show today, so it kinda made it official!!! I'm just tickled pink with this little girl (yes, even though she's not mine) and I hope that the judges can see past her tail and see what she really is like ;-). Man this little girl has spunk! I'm finding it very hard to keep my paws off her, especially seeing as Dad has trekked off to London, leaving her in my care :). She's taking like a gem to some training, although standing still is not her forte!

It was her first show today and we got dumped, but meh, that's the way the judging was going! 3rd out of 3 LOL! Bit hard for the judge to asess when the munchkin won't stand still for more than 1.5 - 2 seconds!!! LOL! At least we gaited (MOSTLY) around the ring keeping four feet on the ground, which is more than I can say for outside the ring where we were probably closer related to a kangaroo than an Aussie!

Anyway - some pics we took on the day.

Introducing Pawsitive Prime Attraction (Gr Ch Dykinta American Express (IID) x Ellagant Full of Antics JD HT) .... and yes, it did give me a kick to see her name in print ;-)

Kinta is officially 'miss nekkid' so we won't be seeing mug shots on her here for a little, unless it is to point fingers and laugh at her nekkidness!!!!

Have had a run of bad luck lately too! Took Leo to agility Thurs night and he refused to jump for me! Now while he can be 'slow' at times, it's NEVER to the point where he doesn't want to do it, or will do one jump and refuse the rest!!! Had a good check over and could find nothing. After a while, checked him over again and I'm pretty sure it's his wrist... not that HE cares, he still wants to run like a hooligan, just not jump! I hope it all heals soon though... wait and see I guess!

Today was driving home from the show and my car packed it in! well not totally but I was presented with quite a dangerous situation!!! LOL! I've previously had troubles (NB my car is 2 YEARS OLD!!!!) with this 'engine malfunction' light coming on. Take it to Holden and they say nothing is wrong! So today, driving along the freeway, the car just shuts off!!!!!! completely!!!! AS in I can't press on the brakes, I can't accelerate, NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about scary!!! it was as if someone lifted the handbrake and took out my keys!!!! I was SO lucky I wasn't travelling at 100kms/ hr, there wasn't a car close behind me and I was slowing down to go around a round about! Freaks me out to think of what *could* have happened! So now on monday we take the car back to the dealers and DEMAND they fix it! We are not taking the car home till it's fixed!!! It's just too scary otherwise!

Not much else other than that really..... LOL!

AWOL

2009-06-16T08:57:00.003+10:00

OK - so it's been a while......

Lots has happened that's for sure ;). My puppies have all flown the nest bar 1, and we have kept one who shall be named Zara ;). My families are all really pleased with their new additions which makes me soo happy that I made the right decisions! Now I WAS going to innundate you with photos, but it seems that I have now not got a hard drive problem, but a laptop problem, once again with the risk of LOSING EVERYTHING off my computer! Not a happy camper at all! I remember backing up not that long ago, but certainly not after the puppies were born. It's times like this that you are glad you gave all your puppy buyers a CD of their photos from birth onwards, and you upload HEAPS of pics onto photobucket and the ilk... at least I'll be able to salvage them somehow, even if I can't save the computer!!!

Other than that I honestly have no news to tell. My life has recently been consumed with puppies...... they really do take up a LOT of your time ;)

Never taught not to play with cars ;)

2009-05-14T23:01:00.002+10:00

So - had a few dramas earlier on this week!!! Went for a run Tuesday morning along our usual Mullum Mullum track. I wanted to extend the run as I was working late, missed my weekend run and have to train for this 10km race by the end of June.... So that said, I don't exactly run this circuit very often. Had Kinta with me who takes great pleasure in running with me, though I think a little out of shape as she's not as far ahead of me as she usually is (on lead, always find it easier).

We get to the street - pretty simple, just cross over to get to the track again and continue our jog. Being 8:30am though it's pretty busy, so I had to try and find somewhere good to cross - thought crossing at the little 'designated' area would be good as I could cross 1/2 way, then stand on the island and wait for the other side until it was free... good in theory right?!

So I look and the left lane is totally banked up, the right lane seems clear, so out I step and walk across the street. Next thing I know, I hear screetching brakes, I hit the ground and the dog is skidding and rolling on the ground. Yup - we got collected by a car. Now luckily, the car had almost stopped so both dog and I walked away with just bruising. Scared the life out of me though! Apparently where I was crossing is a blind spot for pedestrians and we don't see the cars coming around, and I guess it didn't help that the car I crossed in front of was a big 4WD. I still have NO idea how it happened really.....

Still can't get over it... how did I miss the car, what was I doing?!?! How lucky were we to be able to get up and walk away... even to have the driver see us, and slow down enough not to cause more injury.... one word for it I guess... just plain LUCKY!

On a side note - puppies are 5 wks old now and growing like weeds - hope to update some piccies soon... I know! I've been slack!

First Outing

2009-05-02T22:17:00.007+10:00

Another fun-filled week of work and puppies ;). Pups are growing fast and got to play with my new lens outside today. Was very happy with it (and the pups) with how they went today. Little Miss K was pretty good with Leo's introduction to the babies -didn't seem to phase her too much.

Anyway - as always - photos and videos!

Was quite happy with these shots today. I thought they turned out quite nice. For those interested - the new lens (upon recommendation) is the 50mm f 1.8. Great little lens for the price and quite versatile too!

Attack!

Lacey pulling a face:

Snack time!
Lacey again:

Misty (what an expression!)

Ollie!

Panda trying the tunnel on for size:
Piglet & Ollie
No seriously! I'm soo much better looking than YOU!
Mum & Polly
Polly Skateboarding
Gee that was tough!
Resting
Tell ya something!
Twins

We are siamese:

Escape Artists already?!

2009-04-27T22:55:00.004+10:00

I think I'll have my hands full in a few weeks time :o. These babies are Norty!!!! We have found our voices and started growling and barking at each other, which is highly amusing as they sound SO violent about it all ;). Anyway - we gave them a bit of dinner tonight (enjoyed by all), popped Kinta back into the pen, went to clean up and came back to puppies escaping from their box!!!!

What more can I say other than a picture tells 1 000 words.

"Ok - so this is what you gotta do...."
what - you mean like this?!
Misty - Oh wait! I missed it, how did you do that again!
Lacey testing out her vocal cords (and crying for mum to come back)

And naturally, a few extras:

Done!

Ok, an update time!

2009-04-26T20:20:00.006+10:00

Ok, so I've been a little slack ;) :o. What can I say - once you go back to work, the time to write on your blog is severly cut short as there are so many hours in the day, and most of that needs to be filled with puppy gloating around other necessary stuff ;).

Everyone is all going well here. They have now opened their eyes and ears, are a little more steady with their walking and starting to interact with each other. Fun times ahead I say ;)!

But - important things first! After my 'first fun run' that never eventuated, I actually made it to one today ;). A 5km run around Princes park - near Melb uni. My plan was to finish it comfortably (note not collapse at the end) and to finish it in under 35mins if I could. Well all went pretty well, I loved the experience (small run that it was and FREEZING temperatures that we had!) and managed to complete my run in 30min40sec!!!! WOOT WOOT! Am very happy with myself, and can't wait till our next run which will be a 10k at the end of June - the "Run to the G". After that who knows, but crazy or not, I am toying with the idea of a sprint tri (really short swim, medium bike ride and short run).

Ok now to the important stuff.... video's first.

This we took during the week as the puppies started to walk about - it's amusing enough ;). Take particular note just after I shoot on Kinta - piglet falls over and watch what Panda does :)

Second is of their weaning today - first meal - delightful mush that it was, they seemed to enjoy it! I have NO idea why Panda screamed like that though - I mean, the way these puppies have been mistreated :O....

And now - some piccies of them.... see - far more exciting than before right?! Panda featured a bit today, because she was so active!

I was nt doing ANYTHING!

SHH!!! It's sleepytime!GIRLS rule and BOYS drool - you got it?!

One Week Old Today

2009-04-15T18:39:00.003+10:00

Yup - It's hard to believe, but these little 'squishies' are all 1 week old now, and all have names ;). They are growing like weeds. Kinta is a great mum, but protective streek has arisen since the first few days. Visitors are still welcome, but not too close to the bubba's please and *careful* how you hold them thankyouverymuch!!! I'm still incredibly proud of what a good mum she is and a little in awe of instinct and how quickly that sets in!

Well - I guess to mark the milestone I guess pictures are in order :)

Tri Boy #1 aka "Ollie" - The piggy of the litter weighing in at 600g! Future agility dog seeing as he is already climbing *over* the pigrails if he gets stuck!

Blue girl # 2 aka "Misty" - a real sweetie - still questionable on markings, but the two girls are just..... sweet, with picture perfect colouration.
Blue girl #1 aka "Polly Pocket" - the smallest of the litter, but not by much! So far she has the most striking markings - strong copper (which was a surprise!) and just beautiful merleing. Perhaps a little quieter than the others?!

Tri girl #1 aka "Lacey" - aptly named because she was the closest marked to 'mum'. Pretty little thing. Full white collar and some nice rich copper coming through now.Tri girl # 2 aka "Panda Bear" - aptly named due to her markings. She's another one always moving about and her markings seem to attract everyone.
Tri girl 3 aka "Piglet" - started off the smallest, but quickly caught up with the others. Very pretty girl :)
And a few more :)
Motherhood is really tough yaknow!

Enjoy it while you can

2009-04-11T21:53:00.003+10:00

A lot of you know that once a girlie has a litter, when the pups are around 6-12wks old, Mum's coat goes on sabattical in a BIG way and tends not to return in any great rush. Now for those of you that know *Kinta* knows that she thinks having a good coat is 'optional' and has only been considered in the past few months. So all through this pregnancy I have thoroughly enjoyed her coat, but also lamenting the fact we weren't in the ring raking up those final 15pts! I thought I might post these pics - 3 days after major surgery and popping out 6 pups, we have gone back to 'sentry' duty, ball chasing, Leo razzing and in general making sure #1 is well looked after :). I snapped these photos while she was having some fun around the yard, seeing as her coat was so shiny... I mean I have to enjoy it while I can, coz soon there won't be *anything*!

I was also thrilled to today FINALLY fix up my webpage. We've been having some formatting issues, so after deciding enough was enough, I deleted the page and started again. Wala! It's working properly once more! So please, check out our page - we have lots of lovely piccies of the bubs on there etc :)

Now - so that Leo felt that he was still loved, we took him with us when we went to the local farmers market today (fairly low key, not much there).... I spied a good place for some snaps (the downside of getting an SLR means that you will take it everywhere with you ;) ).. here is what we came up with:

Mum - you still love me.... don't you?!
Did someone mention FOOD?!?!?!
Living up to my name and looking like a 'lion' on a rock ;)

And lastly - just to show you I haven't forgotten ;). All the bubs are going well - gaining weight and just looking plain gorgeous *gloat*

That's all folks :D

Perfect little time wasters

2009-04-10T15:57:00.005+10:00

THEY'RE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yup - after much angst, stress and waiting, Kinta has finally popped! She has given us 6 beautiful babies - 5 girls and 1 boy in the following :

3 black tri girls
1 black tri boy
2 blue merle girls

They were of reasonable size - smallest being 320g and the largest 400g!! Unfortunately delivered by c-section due to Kinta's temperature dropping on Sunday night and with still no action on Wed I decided to get her prog tested to see where we were at. As to whether she would have started labor later that night or not is questionable, but we obviously didn't want to risk it. Hindsight is a wonderful thing as it turns out the 400g whopper (breach) would have gotten stuck thus ending in a cesarian anyway.

Mum and bubs are great - Kinta is awesome with them. she is a doting mother, yet seems quite happy with the cat and leo milling about (but not too close) and after a bit of a bark, is happy with visitors (in other words, no different to usual). She's also quite happy to leave the box when the bubs are happy and full. Good girl!

Time will only tell whether we'll breed again - at the moment, I think I'll give her one more go (she was only going to have 2 litters anyways), but breed closer together and see how she goes. It's interesting as none of her relatives have shown these problems before either. I wonder if it all could be connected to our pregnancy issues also and they all came hand in hand and in other words we were just unlucky this time around?!

But -for now, we are all happy, healthy and ridiculously cute!

Pics because I know that's what you all *really* want to see (rather than hearing me waffle)...

Black tri boy 1:

Blue merle girl 1:

Blue merle girl 2:

Black tri girl 1:

Black tri girl 2:

Black tri girl 3:
motherhood is tough!

And some general shots:

Frankly My Dear..... I don't give a damn!

2009-04-04T11:01:00.005+11:00

she was NOT happy about being stacked!

I think this has now become Kinta's attitude. The poor love is just *so* uncomfortable and is probably wishing this whole debacle over! The countdown has begun! Not much else to tell - everything else has been gearing up for Kinta's impending arrivals. I think we have everything now!!! At least, I hope we do!

Had to go up to Kinglake on tuesday night for a presentation, which ended up being a big flop (apparently our seminar did not win out in the stakes of an impromptu concert with the likes of Killing Heidi, INXS, John Farnham and more...). It is still quite devastating and gut wrenching to drive through. Haven't been up there at all and I can't say I want to again any time soon. There is just so much devastation!

Anyway - a pic of Mr Leo who feels a little put out I think :( Poor kid. I must bet he worst mother ever!!!

and one of Kinta looking pretty. Here's a conundrum, she's never had white ears before pregnancy, maybe a few months before. Don't know where this little white tip has come from!!!

A comedy of errors!

2009-03-29T12:07:00.004+11:00

Ok well I have been gearing up the past few weeks to compete in this fun run around Jells Park - 5km circuit as a 'celebration' and I guess a statement of the fact that I CAN do it for completing my c25k (couch to 5km) program. All was well - had everything planned and checked the webpage last weekend reading that you pick race numbers up on the day etc,etc. During the week I was getting pretty nervous, but what the heck, so long as I don't finish behind ALL the walkers it can't be that bad right?!

So yesterday had a lovely day out in the AM picking up a few things for our impending whelping, and later going out with a few friends to train (well, gasbag and maybe fit some training around that ;) ). I was really pleased with Leo - he did really nicely - we did some GD box work (agility) and did some signals heelwork, gloves and a seekback. Not a bad effort seeing as we had about 5 dogs between us to put through in obedience and 4 for agility!

Came home and thought I better go and find out where we are meeting for this 'fun run' (I'm still questioning the word 'fun'?!) and what time. Go onto website where I got the details from - yup, 29th March... clicked on the link to find out more details (assembly point etc) and THAT website said 22nd March.....hmmmm.... that can't be right can it?!?!!? Continue to look around and it seems that there were results and such up already..... OH NO! Don't tell me I've missed it because some STUPID web page had the wrong date down?!?!!? See - I didn't do the entry as this was a gift to me from a friend but we still had March 29 stuck in our head ;). Anyway after a brief panic, we thought, well they could be LAST years results.... right?! So lets rock up anyway and see.

Had a difficult night sleeping so didn't fall asleep till the wee hours of the morning (read, 3am!) but I had my alarm set and ready to go. Dad comes into my room at 7:15am (wanted to leave by 7:30am) to see what time I was getting up. Huh - why didn't the alarm go off? I'm sure I set it?! Oh - that's because the smart a$$ phone decided to PRE -EMPT daylight saving ending and put my clock back one hour!!! Well THANKS, but you're a week early!!!!!

Jump out of bed, get ready and leave home at about 8am (it's ok - 20min drive, if it *is* on we'll still have plenty of time to get there).... well.... if you didn't think it was off Wellington Rd, instead of Ferntree Gully Rd.... Finally we pull in at 8:50am and dad says to me - maybe it's at the other entrance... but that's ok.... you can drive straight through to that entrance.... so around we go.... hmmm... hang on.... didn't we pass those doing thai chi like 2 minutes ago?! Ok so it seems like we CAN'T drive right through to Waverley Rd then...

By that we decided that we might as well just go for a run ourselves as it didn't *seem* like a fun run was happening today..... So off we trot at a nice jog.... then we can hear someone speaking over a loud speaker and whistles blowing... oh look - there's a cafe, we were meant to meet around a cafe. So I sprint off (haha - 5km run to do and I've just run for 5mins, and am running like heck to see if this is where the start point is and whether I can still join in!) but to no avail - can't see it anywhere... then we find out there was netball playing 100m away and hence the whistle/ loud speaker ;).

Ok - so the run was last week - lets just go for a jog already! Off we trot. Now anyone who knows Dad knows that he likes to try new adventures, and because of that so do I - see you can't run on the same track twice and you have to try and do a circuit. So we go off having no idea what path we are to take... we end up going down these tracks having NO idea where we are or where we will end up (see.... adventure!)... but that's ok - coz it's still a nice run anyway. After about 35mins of running we call it quits. I was pretty happy with our efforts, nice pace and I did a couple of faster jogs up a hill too ;). Leo was enjoying himself immensely (he was to be my cheersquad if it *was* on).... might as well head back to the car now...

Only since we were on an 'adventure'... it seems that we didnt' pay much attention to how we could get back *on* track and to our car. Sure, we got back to Jells park easy, went around the lake, went down a lane.... no this doesn't look right.... hmmm.... where do we go exactly?! See because we charged off to see what those whistles were too, it also threw us off track a bit.... So, after 30mins of walking around, trying to find the area we parked the car (and a few jokes about how amusing it would be for a search party to come out looking for 1 dog and 2 humans who were stupid enought to get lost in a public park and not even in the bush) we finally got back on track and where we wanted to go!!!!

So - a fun morning, but a comedy of errors I guess you could say ;).

I'll book myself into 2 more fun runs soon though. One at the end of April around Melbourne Uni/ Princes park (5kms) then I'll do the run to the G at the end of June (10k)... Hopefully I don't get THESE dates wrong!

Now - just to make sure you were reading through all of that - a prize at the end... Kinta's 7wk belly shot ;)

Leo of course, not to be outdone, thought it unfair for us to always be snapping pics of her belly and therefore *his* belly needed inspecting too!

You are most welcome to guess the number of pups *either* might be having ;)

the sweet dulcet sounds of karaoke..... and a behaviour seminar!

2009-03-22T17:38:00.004+11:00

Ok - so I was going to put these at the end, but it turns out this post will be a marathon, so I will start for some 'fun' stuff for the non behaviour folk :). Went out last night to my cousins place for dinner and an "ABBA singstar" night. Which then of course evolved to guitar hero. Dinner was divine, and the night most enjoyable! Fiddling around with my camera to try and get better at indoor shots - which didn't really work, but thankfully, my cousin gave me some pointers on how to improve this, so we'll see what they are like next time!!! I also got to loan a few photography books to help edumacate myself further (what with reading twilight, breeding books and general life..... I'll have loads of time!).....

Sooo some photos from the night!

A nice snap of mum...
Su Jen belting out the tunes
Ahhh a nice duet between mum and dad - yup that's right, block your ears... dad had a tune or two!!
and of course thoroughly enjoyed himself too!
Even Ah Yee had a song or two to sing!

Well I went to a very enjoyable seminar today entitled “Behaviour at Breakfast – Dispelling the “dominance” myth and achieving control of dog behaviour.”

Naturally I was dragged kicking and screaming along to the seminar and only went for the promise of food *vbg*.

We had 4 guest speakers:

Dr Pauleen Bennett – touching on the human perception of dominance and it’s way of how we interact with the natural world.

Dr Robert Holmes – on using an anxiety or frustration based model as opposed to dominance on modifying dog behaviour

Dr Debbie Calnon – on reconstructing our relationship with dogs with behavioural disorders without ‘dominance’

And finally

Dr Gaille Perry – on controlling puppy classes, teaching control of puppies and learning self control by pups.

The seminar was great – while it covered a lot of what I’ve been discussing and researching in the past 12mths, it also cleared up a lot of grey areas I was unsure about and provide further insight. This is going to be a long post whilst I go through what each person covered, so sit down, grab a cuppa and enjoy ;). For those NOT interested – keep scrolling as I have more stuff, and make sure you check out the piccies of Kinta in my previous post!!

Pauleen is an excellent speaker and really engages with her audience. I love listening to her! Pauleen initially touched on how humans evolved and how most of our communication and ‘descriptions’ of things, emotions and even the way we teach young children is built around animals as that is something that is universal to all of us and we can connect with. Through evolution, human has developed a frontal lobe which is much more developed (we think!) than any other species. This gives us firm grounding for thought, imagination, thinking of the future and so forth.

Pauleen also touched on how our perceptions of one individual (the wolf as an example) has changed throughout the centuries. Initially they were evil, then vermin, then endangered species that need aid, to pets and perhaps even hero’s.. If our perception of one species can change so rapidly in a few short years, then can this also be true for the way that we perceive the way we interact with them?

The theory of ‘dominance’ is often reinforced with us through documentaries such as those offered through National Geographic and such. This is because much of the show focuses on active displays of dominance between other animals in the ‘pack’ or social structure. Often, this is the case that while it only takes up a *tiny* amount of their actual life, it’s portrayed a lot on discovery channels because really, who wants to watch an animal sleep ;-). Often, we see the dominant animals as being those that have first access to food, a greater number of reproductive success and rule over the weaker ‘herbivores’… however, could this perhaps be a little misleading…. When you look in proportion to how many insects there are to herbivores, to carnivores… to actual dominant individuals….. food for thought… similarly, if dominance is always so effective, why isn’t their more of it? Shouldn’t more animals employ this in order to have access to the best resources? Think also of the two ‘dominant’ males fighting over a female for reproduction success…. What’s to say that in the middle of the fight, mr subordinate has not come in and mated with her in the meantime?!?!

Think again to our world “leaders” – is it those that power us with fear and ‘world domination’ or is it those similar to Ghandi and Mother Tereasa who leave a more lasting impact. Sure, we can dominate creatures – we can dominate our children and our wives, show them who is boss through violence – but is that really how we would like to be? Or would we rather live through calm, steady leadership. Think to your favourite teacher – was it one who dominated you and belittled you, or one that was understanding, compassionate and appreciative of you? Should we not offer the same leadership and understanding to our animals?

Robert was also a very engaging speaker. I’ve heard him speak before, but I enjoyed this one a lot more – he seemed more… ‘relaxed’ I guess….

He touched on the fact that many of our ‘dominance’ related behaviours tend to be misinterpreted and thus treated incorrectly, perhaps making matters worse. Therefore, it is better for us to treat the anxiety or frustration behaviours first as this has been more successful and humane towards the animal. It has been drilled into us from as young as we can remember that we need to ‘dominate’ our dogs in order to be good owners – we need to ‘show them who’s boss’ or they won’t ‘respect’ us. I am sure you have heard it all before! However as many of us have discussed, dominance simply means a priority to an access…. But the VALUE of that resource will of course chance dependant on how the individual is feeling at that particular moment….. will the bone in the yard be of the same value to a dog who has just eaten, to one that has not eaten for a week? How can a truly *dominant* dog ‘lose out’ over the bed, toy, or access to the human on any given day?! We quickly find that dominance itself is not a linear graph and perhaps not as set in concrete as we would like to think. After all – we must remember that “dogs work for what works” as well as for what they want right?!?! How can a dog, who’s behaviour is described as ‘dominant’ then be a real ‘wuss’ in the same breath?

Robert then went on to explain the four emotional states:
*Should the event be both controllable and predictable, the animal is optimistic that it is in ‘control’ of the situation.
*Should the event be unpredictable, yet controllable, the animal will feel some level of anxiety.
*Should the event be both uncontrollable and predictable – this will lead to frustration.. (think correction in relation to a fearful stimuli)
*Should the event be both unpredictable and uncontrollable – this will lead to a depression of behaviour (shut down or learned helplessness).

Is dominance therefore – merely an attempt for the animal to control the situation? Usually these animals have poor control over themselves and their emotional state also.

Robert further went on to discuss anxiety and frustration itself and what this entails for the dogs (with the aid of some video’s also). If we can understand this, we can then apply a variety of models in order to help the animal work through / with the situation. He went through a systematic approach to anxiety type behaviours:
• Clinical exam
• Avoid the stressful circumstance (well…. Duh!)
• Calming management – distract, massage, variety of tools to help calm the dog
• Increased assertiveness (don’t like this word, so shall we say control or just teaching a dog to offer an alternative behaviour)
• Medication – reduce anxiety or reactivity in order to aid the training and management of behaviour
• Desensitisation
• Enrichment
• Muzzle if necessary
He also mentioned a ‘six pack’ system which is as follows:
• Avoid
• Distract/ calm (prevent emotional state from occurring)
• Assert (general leadership – let dog know we’ll ‘deal’ with the situation)
• Medicate
• Desensitise
• Enrichment

In conclusion – Robert was trying to highlight the fact that we should rather than always focus on ‘dominance’ look at these type models instead in order to work with the situation.

Debbie touched more on dealing with the clients I guess. (Gee – this is taking a while – I hope people read this, so you better comment!!!! ROFL!). People have certain perceptions and expectations when they purchase a pet – whatever that may be. Usually, dealing with a behavioural issue is not included in those expectations!!! Often these behavioural issues will affect or permanently change the relationship between owner and pet. This is particularly true if the said owner has been told it’s *their* fault because they weren’t ‘dominating’ or ‘controlling’ enough over the dog. Because of this change in the relationship, many owners do feel a sense of loss about that relationship they once dreamed of with their dog. This therefore means that a grief and loss framework may be important when dealing with such clients.

Naturally the ‘dominance’ theory has descended from the ‘fact’ that dogs have descended from wolves…. But now what we realise are that these ‘dominant’ wolf packs are merely family groups, and wolves are no more dominant over their pack than your mum or dad is dominant over you. Do you see your parents as a good leader, or as a dominatrix? Think again to the fact that dogs may infact have evolved as scavengers rather than hunters and therefore don’t tend to form as strong pack relationships. How can we win a ‘dominance battle’ with our dogs regardless?! They are designed to ‘win’ a fight, we are not. Therefore, should we not use our head in order to ‘control’ and communicate with our dogs as opposed to our anger, emotions and physical attributes? Particularly when the serious behavioural issues are often involved with aggressive responses, through which a ‘dominance display’ by yourself could infact (or is that most likely) make the behaviour worse….

While we are ‘dispelling’ the dominance theory, it is important that we do not become ‘permissive’ to our dogs – the rules still apply and dogs still require guidelines. However, rather than being forceful about getting a dog to toe the line… it’s more about co-operation and getting the dog to *want* to do it because they know what is in it for them if they comply. Unfortunately however, dominance is often a self- fulfilling prophecy.

We should spend our time helping clients understand the basis of learning theory and how to bring about a positive change in the dog as opposed to focusing on the ‘dominating’ behaviour of the dogs.

Gaille spoke about puppy classes and how they have changed over the years. Previously the main focus was on ‘socialisation’ and puppy play. Now we are seeing the PPS classes as being an area ideal for owner education on the correct way to interact with their puppies, as well as focussing on socialising, but letting them do the majority of that in their own time in less stressful environments. There wasn’t a lot covered here which hasn’t really been touched on previously or what was ground breaking. It was more about the way that we run the classes and giving the dog something desirable to do, rewarding the behaviours we WANT (rather than ignoring them!) rather than constantly punishing or dominating the dogs. I guess it once again comes down to how many things can dogs do wrong, in order to find out what they can do right?! I liked her way of explaining ‘time out’ as being not a punishment but a management exercise to help the dogs calm down and prevent the behaviour from getting worse. This will certainly make it much easier for me to explain the circumstance to our own clients.

Puppy play is now considered ‘not the norm’ which is fine – although I *did* like how she mentioned controlled puppy play with 2 pups and regular call backs as a good thing to do if the dogs’ temperaments are compatible. This I agree with because what better place than PPS to teach the *owners* how to read their dogs body language and make them more aware of the subtle signs of what the dogs are saying. JMO. Some things I questioned as I felt that we were ‘hindering’ the dogs in some way – I am still a believer of the fact that you can’t, much as you try control EVERYTHING in your dog’s environment. While they *should* know better, you can’t stop a moron, plonking your dog on the head, kids running up to a dog or jumping up and down in front of them, or bringing their half crazed dog up to say ‘hi’ while yours is tied up. Therefore, I *still* believe that we should utilise these situations as a ‘training exercise’ to show the dog how to behave appropriately and be rewarded for doing so.

Ok – so an insanely long post and a bit of a cover from what we discussed today. Like I said – nothing groundbreaking, but very interesting all the same!!!

6 week pregnant photos

2009-03-21T16:43:00.003+11:00

Well we've reached the 6wks mark - i actually took some photos inside last night, but as per usual *they* never turn out, so snapped some more today. In between going out for lunch and then coming home, she seems to have balooned spontaneously - so the first thing I thought of when i came home was "OMG she's bloated" seeing as *that's* the only thing that can cause a rock hard bulging stomach right?! After all the stress she's given me thus far - hey, anything can happen!!! While I am starting to enjoy the experience, I am INCREDIBLY stressed by it all and I will be a lot happer once the little ones are here. There is just SO much to think about and organise. Add to that the constant worry about Kinta's health also - I don't want to do anything that is putting HER at risk either. Fingers crossed the rest goes off without a hitch right?

Nothing exciting happening here lately - we're just having quiet weekends at home. Next Sunday I have my 5km fun run, so hopefully I can at least finish that in ok timing. Other than that, just enjoying the quiet time at home and preparing myself for the impending arrivals ;-).

Ok - Pics!

Photography Challenge continued.....

2009-03-15T19:36:00.008+11:00

Some more shots from today. Am quite proud of some of these :D

Feel free to comment - would love to know what you think :D
C for cat's eyes:
P for Princess

G for green

K for Kitty Cat
N for new life
I for investigate
R for raindrops
M for memories
D for daring
O for Original:

H for Hydrate:

U for Unique

Q for quaint

J for 'just right'

A photo challenge!

2009-03-13T19:26:00.007+11:00

Well seeing as I have a new camera - I decided to enter a photography challenge for this month - I shall post my photos here as well and you can all enjoy my rather poor photography skills!

In no particular order:
A is for apples:

B is for Buddah:

C is for cuddles:

E is for Eyes:

F is for flowers:
L for leaves:

T for tree:
S for Sad:
V for Vase:

W for Watching:

As for the highs and lows since my last post?! Well Leo made the great start for 2009 - I am still awed at how consistent this little guy is.... my boy who I had little or no ambition to do well with and constantly put him down saying 'oh he's not *that* good'.... anyways - he picked up an Excellent Agility pass and a Novice Snooker pass as our first agility trial of 09. I don't think he'll be ready for UD just yet, and trialling for both dogs seems to be pushed back a fair bit for this year..... at least until the 2nd half of the year.

Kinta at her final show before motherhood, picked up a 10pt best of breed and was also shortlisted for best in group. This leaves us with only 15pts to go when we return to the ring. In less than a month, she picked up 40pts, which has left me on a major high!

Unfortunately for ME, our 'pregnancy' hasn't gone as smoothly as I would like. Discharge will be the end of me! Pregnancy was confirmed at 28days with a minimum of 4 pups on board..... back a week later with more discharge which was placenta - so one aborted pup. Tests show everything is ok, so we're hoping it was just a pup that wasn't meant to be and the rest of the puppies will be A-Ok. On the ultrasound, 4 puppies were still viable.... so I guess we just wait another 2 wks before the next ultrasound.... she's starting to look preggers now though (thought not visible on pics really!), which is a huge relief for me! My poor heart has been put through the blender this last week! Will post up photos later tonight :)

2wks preg (keep in mind she is fluffed for a show)
4wks pregnant and not in show pose:

5kws pregnant and starting to show (you can see it in person even if you cant' in photos ;) )

Keep in mind these are HORRIBLE stacked shots LOL!

I've also officially joined the 'twilight' craze!!! Up to book 3 now and powering through!!!! I LOVE them!

A training update amongst other news

2009-02-24T20:38:00.003+11:00

Ok - well it's been ages since I've told you where we are at with our training, so I guess this post is just for that.... mainly on obedience as that is what we have been focusing on :D

Leo:
Leo and I are basically working hard at getting our work together to enter the UD ring in the first half of this year. As usual with UD work, you have your ups and downs, so one minute you think YES everything is going right and the next it falls in a heaps and you wonder if anything you have taught him has sunk in. My main enjoyment out of UD work is Leo's pure enthusiasm and basically busting his gut to get out there and do some more work. The joys of clicker training means that he has basically just built on his confidence and I really hope he carries this through to the ring. Our aim is to have an absolute ball in the ring and the way things are going, I think it's possible.

Ok so now down to the nitty gritty. His seekback is going well - he definitely understands the task, but I wouldn't say we are up to a full trial sequence yet. I need to slowly increase this but I am fairly confident that it won't take long. I am amazed that he pretty much follows my track, MOST of the time and he *really* loves this game! His directional jumping and sendaway only started a few weeks ago really, and he is doing this well. Sending out to the box isn't too much of a problem and I am gradually increasing the distance (lateral) away from the jumps to 'trial' level. Of course these are still taught as separate exercises. Scent work is probably the one we've worked on the most, and probably the closest to trialling level. He can work on a full set of articles but his biggest problem is the metal. On the whole, going quite well, and I'm trying to encourage him to search the whole mat.... it is NOT a race LOL! Signals heelwork - I must say I'm impressed! Happy, peppy and if possible I think it's improved with me keeping my mouth shut!!! LOL! Lastly gloves - going well, slowly moving away from food bowls and to gloves, but at the moment have only glove 1 & 3 out... he will lock in and charge out, but glove 2 does confuse him a bit.

So basically it's slowly, slowly, but it's coming along. Any of you who know me know I'm a pretty lazy trainer, so this seems to be going quite well in my opinion :D

Kinta:
Kinta is also going well but what can you do with a girl who has great foundations but refuses to pass a trial?!?!?!?!?! Her heeling is great and I'm trying to work her in 'mild-moderate' distractions. Not crazy busy (I know this trick and will only watch you mum) and not dead quiet (oh goody, lets do some WORK!). Working on her dumbell and some open stuff and she's doing that really well too! I've been practicing pivot turns with her (moving your rear end and staying in heel position) and she has a great understanding of this which is just getting better and better. Basically I'm really proud of her, but gee I wish she would work as well as she does in training in a trial... just once... PLEASE!

So basically that's it!

Other news?! Had an awesome Muder Mystery night on Saturday just gone - photos are on facebook if you want to see :). Was a whole tonne of fun.

Kinta also has gained back to back challenges after the past two weeks, meaning we only have about 2-3 challenges left in order to gain those elusive 100points and the CHAMPION title. When that will be I have no idea as we have not entered any shows after Feb, and don't know when we will again. Only fate can answer that for us!!!

Since you are probably wondering... although her whites are a little over-exposed.... an updated pic of the girl :D

These two pics were kindly taken by Gayle - great photos, though the one on her 'off show' side she is a bit forward on her front :( I can never get a great stacked shot of her :p

signs that dogs are not mans best friend....

2009-02-17T20:30:00.003+11:00

Don't be suckered by the cute face.... you may want to hug him, but I warn you, it is NOT SAFE!!!!

Ok some of you may or may not know what has been happening here lately - basically I don't want to say too much, but must vent my frustration somewhere!

Dogs are basically NOT man's best friend when they cost you an arm and a leg:

**Problem 1 - Leo had a bout of the runs since last Wed, which after a bit of chick and rice cleared up a little, then went back downhill to icky poops again. Trotted off to the vets Monay morning and now he's on antibiotics and a easy digestible diet which seems to have cleared things up.... including my bank balance....

** Problem 2 - Kinta has had some suspicious discharge from her girly bits and so, just to be safe, I was back at the vets to get this checked too. Bacterial infection/ vaginitis, swab sent off to pathology and antibiotics too!!!

Soo.... hopefully this clears up for both dogs and they are both fine with no serious issues. Leo's scare was a possible bowel obstruction and kinta's is possible (albeit very slim) Pyo.... even the word scares me :P.

I have asked the vets if they just want me to fwd my pay check to them since I have been there so often lately :)

Will let you know how the critters go.

Now.... since I have been told that every 'email' should have something POSITIVE in it...

why dogs ARE man's best friend:

** A certain pretty doggy won Bitch Challenge on the weekend cleaning up with another 11pts!!!! WOOT WOOT! Considering I was contemplating stopping for good 6mths ago, this is very happy news indeed :D

** Another certain doggy was absolutely awesome at the pet expo on the weekend - I think he has suckered quite a few people in on the Aussies that's for sure :D

Apparently this is the only appropriate way to greet people:
'manning' the stand:

Victorian Fires

2009-02-09T21:24:00.005+11:00

Please think of those who are affected by the Victorian fires from Saturday. It is hard to fathom what has happened in a matter of hours... towns completely lost, lives lost and families left devastated having lost everything. A lot of us are still absolutely shell shocked either by what has happened to our friends and/ or family or simply by the fact that it has come so close to home, and so quick.

After experiencing extreme temperatures on Saturday (reaching above 46deg C) and with winds of up to 70-100kms/hr... you can imagine the devastation. Fires throughout Yarra Glen, Healesville, Whittlesea and Gippsland to name a few are still blazing. Kinglake and Marysville are the worst affected with absolutely nothing left.

Please spare a thought for those that have lost.

**
On to brighter notes... Have a look at the house I'm looking after this week:

oh and the dogs -

and some random photos (see I told ya you will regret me getting a new camera!)

Bloggers beware!

2009-01-30T23:52:00.002+11:00

Yep that's right,

BEWARE!!! For photo overload that is ;). I now have my new DSLR. For those of you into photography... I have armed myself with a Canon 450D and two lenses... the basic 55-250IS and the 17-85IS USM lenses. Am very excited and can't wait to learn how to use it properly... until then, some photos to get you by....

Aint life grand?!

2009-01-27T20:42:00.004+11:00

Isn't it nice just to have a lazy weekend now and again?

I haven't done much lately other than just enjoy myself, my dogs and life in general. Still haven't really started training (thanks to the weather) but done a bit of Scent and directional retrieve work with leo to re-fresh his memory. Kinta is aching to work again so we've been doing bits and pieces but basically taking it easy. The dogs are loving coming in to work with me a little more than usual and Leo is just a star pupil in demand - regular 'education' dog for the kiddies and this week is required as first aid dog - to get bandaged, muzzled, lifted and such like a dog that has been injured. It's so nice to have a dog that I can completely trust and know that he is capable of putting up with all of this with a smile and happy wiggle. I am sure Kinta would also enjoy this, but not without a bit more persuading and treats with mummy near by :p

Went down to watch the show at KCC on Saturday (some nuffy forgot to put her entries in) which was nice to watch and observe the dogs rather than compete. One thing for sure is that I am determined to take this year easier and just enjoy my dogs a little more - not so much competing (we'll see how long that lasts)... but I really have missed the lazing with them and enjoying their company, or simply going for walks around the city and different places with them.

Saturday arvo was spent with Kylie lazing about her place and playing around with her camera (photos to follow). Poor Kylie had to put up with me lamenting the fact that I shouldn't be buying myself a dSLR even though I really want to as I can't outlay that sort of money AND save for a house! She wasn't very helpful either telling me if I *really* want it then I should get one. I think everyone knew when I left that I was not going to say 'no' to an SLR and was finding it hard to say no.

So I came home and decided to see how much money I had left over from my training business (which basically is non-existent now... who has the time?!)... I counted.... paused.... thought.... counted again!!!! Yup - I had enough to buy me an SLR!!!!!!!!!! Am still jumping up and down now! So - I think I've pretty much decided on the Canon 450D camera but I don't want the basic kit lenses so am probably looking at these lenses - a good 'everyday' lens and a basic-ish zoom lens this should cover all I want and still give me good zoom to cover my sports shots for agility and such. I figure this is a good way to start out and later can improve the zoom lens as my photography improves.

Am very excited about my Greg Derrett seminars this weekend, but not so excited about the change in times thanks to the weather - 7am start, 1:30pm finish, no breaks :eek:! Hopefully I'll be able to remain awake!!!!!

Well - here are the piccies from the weekend... I can't take credit for them all as some are Kylies - actually I think most are Kylies :P

Love this photo! Makes it look like we are lost in the middle of the country :)

And how can you have a shot like that minus dogs?! LOL!

Of course what do dogs do when they have 2 acres to run on - go mad of course! (I might add they know exactly where the pond, other dogs, sheep and ducks hide too ;-)!)

Kinta focusing in the distance (I took this one)

Lazing with the dogs

And of course it was only a matter of time......
Before Kinta couldn't take it anymore and HAD to have a dip! Good thing we weren't showing!

Lastly some flower shots (my photos again)

On the whole - ain't life grand?!

Still waiting for Kinta to come into season though (looks at watch, taps fingers, reminds self that it's ok she is taking her own sweet time)

A trip to the Yarra

2009-01-18T16:57:00.010+11:00

Well it's been AGES since I've posted pics of the dogs or any of our outings - I've sort of been put off a little - taking photos since I lost a whole heap from my EHDD crash.. and I guess partly because I desperately want a dslr, but figure a roof to live under might be a *wee* bit more important :p. Anyways - we had my dad's relatives down from QLD this weekend, so have taken them out and about.... today was a picnic down at the Yarra:

And what better backdrop to take some snaps of the pooches:

and a few closer up:

Our lunch was most relaxing - had a lovely BBQ followed by a stroll (dad and myself.... and the dogs of course!) around the Tan track. With me fast coming to the end of my c25k program (running program) I want to do a fun run and was going to do the 8km track around the Botanical Gardens.... what I *didn't* know was that apparently Anderson St is quite a struggle.... so we walked it to see what it was like :). Plans have changed slightly and I plan to do a 4-5km run now (end of Mar) and will try an 8 - 10km run later in the year :). The exciting news *today* is that I made my 5km/ 30min mark unintentionally today!!! YAYYYY!!!!

Some casual pics of the picnic:

Of course Leo wouldn't be Leo if he didn't try to stick his head in the photos :)

Some nice "random" photos. Want to try and brush up on my photography skills, but I still find I'm rather dismal at it..... guess I still need more practice, but I just don't have that 'artistic' eye :p

And some happy snaps of the dogs - can you tell that I think Kinta's improved on the eye - more and more pics of her now ;-). Either that or I've learnt to photograph her properly now! Only took 2.5yrs!!!!

Watching the runners/rowers/cyclers:
Happy little girlie

Need I say more - always turning it on for the camera *rolls eyes*

I just like this shot - no caption :p
And lastly - I took this photo *ages* ago - but it's so pretty I had to share (like I said - I think she's really grown up now!)

Ok - well I think that made up for the lack of photos! Not to mention I still have the Pambula shots to go through!!!

It's a sign....

2009-01-17T22:08:00.002+11:00

I think it's a sign when your dogs are reeling out of control that it's time to get back into training :p

Kinta has gone mental - constantly pacing the fenceline waiting till our neighbours dogs comes out or pacing the yard waiting for a possum to magically fall down from the tree... with the help of her JUMPING on the fence too!!! One of my pet hates, as our last dog used to do it too... maybe it's the area we live, but gee it's annoying. Try as I might, management is ok, but it's getting more and more difficult not to get really evil with her even though I *know* it won't work. After finally losing it today, seeing that get me knowhere, then getting my thoughts back and switching to making it worthwhile for her *not* to change the fence, we then had huge success.... in short - the dogs are bored, and time to get out those training tools again ;-). I think I'm getting restless too :p

Leo on the other hand - well you can tell he needs to go back to training in one of 2 ways:

1- he gets rather eager whenever you do something that looks remotely like training
2 - he seems to get dumber by the minute (well you can't be that good looking AND have brains that think straight too! I think he does quite well!)
3 - a combination of both.

I'm sure the dogs will love the return to some work - I have a whole stack of work I want to do, but unfortunately, as always, the backyard is useless for anything other than tricks :-(. I also need to get some jumps too - I think 7 jumps (I have 3) a set of weaves (this I have) and a tunnel (or two) would be perfect.... so better start saving again for the rest of my equipment so I can start working on some Greg Derrett sequences and Susan Salo jumping grids!

So - what will we be working on - in short, i'm not sure with Kinta... just refining things and a lot of agility stuff (so, jumping grids, 270s, entries and exits from weavers)..... I'm just not sure about obedience :)

Leo has a truckload of work - I want to work on all the above (agility stuff) as well as refining some UD work so we can start entering the ring again soon!

Have a Greg Derrett Seminar at the end of Jan - I am sure that will inspire me further... I can't wait!

Can't wait to get started again - bring on 2009!! Gotta get Leo checked out again first though - he seems a little sore in the shoulder... see - more reasons to teach him how to jump properly!

It's all downhill from here

2009-01-11T20:09:00.004+11:00

Well - we've finally done it and crossed the 'half way' mark. Kinta and I are now on the downhill slope towards her Aust CH title (insert cheering here!). Considering we don't show all that often, I'm really pleased with how we are going, as we are usually up against our breeders who are often difficult to beat :). We got a 10pt challenge today - up against her mum, younger sister and a few other dogs.

Yayyy - we might get there yet :)

Pics were kindly taken by Kristie on Sunday :)

Summer tricks

2009-01-06T21:53:00.002+11:00

Well with a break from obedience and agility and not quite wanting to seriously start my summer projects yet (even though we are fast running out of time!) I thought I might re-visit/ teach some new tricks!

Enjoy!

and

Hope your christmas and New year was good - ours was nice and relaxing :D... Dogs had a blast going down to the beach every day :)

Ticks..... and the point is?!?!?!

2008-12-19T22:19:00.002+11:00

Can someone please tell me the purpose by which a tick, namely the paralysis tick serves..... that is other than a lot of stress and heartache for many pet owners who live in the east coast of Australia?!?!?

We are heading up the coast over summer and I am SOOO paranoid about ticks! Never having dealt with them before I am just so worried about what might happen ARGH!!!

I have them on Advantix and they will be checked daily, but that's only mildly eased my stress!!!

So someone... please tell me... exactly what purpose do they serve?!!?!?

The Year that Was.... 2008

2008-12-08T13:16:00.001+11:00

First of all – can I just say how much I love writing these posts, even though nobody might read them! I think it’s nice to sit back and reflect on the year that was and see how far you have come.

For me this year has been mixed with highs, lows and countless frustrations. I have always thought that this year hasn’t been as successful as the year that was, but in many ways it has. I think I have learnt and developed so much as a handler this year. I watch many of my earlier videos and I can see the improvement, so if nothing else, that is a huge advantage for us as a team.

Leo
As usual – I will start with my boof-head Leo.
Well the plan was for him to achieve the following titles:
CDX JDX, AD, possibly ADX and some games titles (SD & GD). Trialling by the end of the year in UD.
Things progressed a little differently however.

Agility
At our first agility trial of the year, Leo pulled off a lovely 1st place and his AD title. Hows that for a start to the year?! After this, I pretty much pulled him out of agility for a few months as I wanted to re-train his weaves and get better contacts. I continued with jumping, but not with agility for those reasons. 12 months passed since gaining his JD and it didn’t look like our JDX was coming any time soon. The story of my life – so close, yet so far… always one fault – be it one knocked bar, or one off course obstacle. After watching a few of his videos and talking to some friends, we decided a sabbatical might be good. Lets work on his drive and motivation – do what works and improve this dog to be what we know he can be. I am SO glad that I did this as to me, he has improved out of sight. We are a much better team, and I think that he has developed into a dog that has the possibility of going ‘all the way’ in his agility career (read masters titles). We came back with guns blazing and in almost straight runs, Leo gained his JDX title… at the nationals no less! Yes, that’s right, 2008 marked the year of the Nationals in Victoria. What an experience that was. I was just SO proud of how Leo ran those courses – with speed and some beautiful moments for both of us as a team. After that, we took another break for one reason or other (no trials, clashing dates etc) and came back for the last few trials of 2008. Leo walked away with a pass for his ADX too… so at least we are getting there.

We teamed up with a partner for strategic pairs and had a blast gaining his SPD title. Go Leo Go! No other games for us though (which would make it a little hard to get the other titles mentioned above :P). But on a lesser scale, I think Leo and I have achieved so much this year, even if it is not represented buy the titles. We have developed as a trialling team and I feel very comfortable with him now. I am more aware of what my handling is saying to him and I can work out how to run a course better to suit him. One of my happiest moments – going from a dog who couldn’t do distance at the start of the year, to a dog that managed quite a difficult distance challenge at Warringal on Saturday! (Now if only my computer hadn’t crashed, I might have been able to do a video compilation for you to show you the difference…meh – maybe I will!)

Obedience
On the obedience side of things we had many set backs and stressful times. Countless passes were lost – so close, yet so far away. Knocking at the door so to speak. Worst was that we WERE sitting on a pass and some silly handler didn’t realise I couldn’t say his name for the change of position – before asking him to drop…. Boom, there goes a lovely pass and title (would have been 3 passes in 3 trials too!)…. I could have killed myself! In April, he finally gained his CDX, and has been flitting in and out of Open while we train for UD. He has done some lovely work – but unfortunately no more passes to sing home about. Once again, the Nationals were great. As for UD, well – that’s coming along real nice and I’m hoping that by early next year we will re-enter the rings. We’ll see. Leo’s obedience year has been quite quiet this time round. I have learnt so much training him for UD, it has really opened up my eyes training styles and such.

Herding
Yes a new venture…. Not really sure HOW we managed this, but Leo did gain his HT title… to me it looked more like chase the sheep and see what you get, but hey, it was fun!

Most Versatile Aussie:
Well this was one of our big events for the year. Even though we got no pass cards, I was very pleased with how they went. Leo was awarded Neuter in Show at the specialty, and also scored very well in the critique. He worked nicely considering the weather (yukky, humid weekend) and especially considering the dogs’ competed in herding, obedience and agility all in one day, I was just happy that they got out and worked! Looking forward to the next one!

So a busy year, with much to be proud of, even if it’s to the lesser degree. Hopes for 2009? I would like to be trialling in UD, perhaps with a pass under our belt, gain his ADX and JDO titles and perhaps this year a few games titles (SD or GD)… we’ll see. Might even give the PT a go (herding)….

Kinta
Well where do I start with her?! Around July I think we entered the rings. My aim for her was to gain her CCD, CD, AD and JD titles.

Agility:
Agility she started off with a bang – first trial, first pass, first place. Second trial, 2 more passes, JD title and again, 1st place in one I think. We didn’t enter AD until later in the year (August?) and since then she’s been a one fault wonder… close, but yet so far. We had some difficulty in JDX runs, with her loosing her confidence a little bit. Out of the ring we came to work on that and now she is back with a vengeance. I am really proud of Kinta’s agility achievements and think that she has a great career ahead of her. We still have to work on contacts and weave entries (from other obstacles), but on the whole, she is doing very well. She has been having a stop-start year, with seasons and all (right in time for the nationals)! So it feels like she’s been trialling for ages, but when you look back, she has only really done a handful.

Obedience:
Once again she started off well… first trial, first pass, first place. Second trial, second pass (possibly even second place!)… since then it was all downhill… LOL! She can be a little stress head so it took me a while to calm my nerves and learn a new way of handling for a more sensitive dog unlike bombproof Leo. It’s been an interesting curve trying to not quench my dog’s enthusiasm by my nerves. Many, MANY times we have blown a great pass… in fact I don’t believe she’s ever had a score below 188 or 89 (for CCD), but always we have done something silly in the ring which has cost us our pass. Because I hate the lead in CCD, I decided to go up to Novice once we were working well as a team. Again, very nice scores, one mistake… So close, and I am sure it will happen soon! No titles in Obedience to date.

Herding:
Again – a new venture and after a period of pretending sheep didn’t exist, the instinct has kicked back in and she does show a lot of talent in this field (I certainly don’t!)… She gained her HT title as well :)

Showing:
Well with all the other sports HOW do we find time? We don’t really!! Started the year with a Junior In Group and BCC.. After that it’s been more an ‘occasional’ challenge here and there.. I took her out of the ring for close to 6mths, and I am really pleased with how she is looking at the moment. We’ll see how she goes. At the moment we are sitting on 40-ish points, so we are slowly getting there :)

Most Versatile Aussie:
Once again no passes to sing home about, but very pleased that my 'green' dog could compete competently in 3 events in one day. Again - almost sitting on a pass in most events :P. Very pleased with her showing at the specialty, making the final cut for best gaited and a good look in for non-champ sweepstakes. She did win her class and Opposite Limit in Show though. Once again, a lovely critique by the judge for the MVA also.

On the whole I’m pleased with her. I often forget that while I’ve been training her for a while, we actually haven’t been trialling for long, especially once you include juggling all of our events, seasons and such. I still believe that we will get far, she just may take a little longer to mature and keep it all together than Leo. Hopes for next year?

Well we should embark on an exciting new venture of breeding. Kinta will be out for some time raising a litter of pups in 2009 which I am excited and nervous about all in the one breath. Once we hit the rings again though, I would love to get those CD and AD titles, before focussing on showing and getting that elusive CH title!!!

So that’s it from me – I hap-hazard year, where I think a lot of our growth and development has been ‘off’ the course. But that can only bode for good things to come… I still can’t believe how lucky I am to have such willing and ready to work dogs…. They are a joy to trial, despite my whinging and moaning that nothing can ever go right!

Somebody hates me!!!

2008-12-07T20:30:00.005+11:00

Ok - lets start with the techno stuff first. Seems that nobody will help me get my data/ photos etc off my E-HDD, even though theoretically they can, but won't because it will void the warranty.

Anyway - aside from that, I've been using for ages this product called Power Director for my videos to get them onto youtube etc. The reason being for some reason, not a lot of programs like my video camera - more money spinning I guess, to get you to buy the program.... or at least get it from somewhere :p. Anyways - when I bought this new computer it had on it the Power Director program on it. Though when I used it, the *sound* wasn't working, so re-loaded it..... only now *that* totally stuffed up didn't it!!! And do YA think I can find the CD?! Or even my Adobe Premiere CD?!!?!?!? They must be sitting with my lost photos of the dogs etc.... grrrrr...

So second part of why the world hates me - Well we had my obedience trial today.... ok - well not mine, but the one that I had the pleasure of organising. Most of it went off ok (except for the brief moment where I forgot about the competitor numbers so had a mad dash for home!)... least all of our judges turned up this time :P

Well Kinta did a really nice run (hence why I wanted to upload a video!).... sitting on a lovely pass of 192.... come to the stays... sit stay - no probs, nice and steady.... drop stay - no prob.... but oh... I just have to ITCH..... right HERE with 10 seconds to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHYYYYYYY! Does she have some allergy to pass cards?! Is there something in her brain that has told her to STAY away from all pass cards and challenge points?!?! I would love to know!

As you can guess it's pretty frustrating. She works SOOOO nice, but for some reason, it never seems to all come together at once.... I don't know what to do :-(

What's the upside of the whole weekend? Leo did some lovely runs in agility yesterday and Leo got his first ADX pass and 3rd place :D

Comming soon - my 'year that was' post (these were the last 2 trials of the year)... however I guess I might do it when I'm in a 'happier' mood :p

Gah - Technology!!!!

2008-11-20T08:01:00.002+11:00

ok well some of you know that around 2 weeks ago a splurged and bought myself a brank spaking new laptop for watching DVDs, emailing and doing the odd job here and there. Since my life seems to be spent on a computer lately, I really wanted a laptop whereby I wasn't sitting in ONE room wasting my life away and this way, I could actually still chat to family etc :P.

I went all out and bought wireless router, 1TB hard disk drive (external), laptop, and all the bells and whisltes. Everything was going fine and it was an ongoing joke that watching DVDs on the laptop was clearer than watching it on the home TV :). I happily transferred all of my music, photos, videos and word doc's to the HDD so that I could work off both computers, and not clog up our home computer space. Down went the videos and photos into cyberspace as I deleted them (permanently) from the computer :p.

As you also might know I also fill the role for trial secretary for our local obedience club and their obedience trial. This is all well and good, but I'm buckling under the pressure this year as I seldom have enough time to do all of the entries and organising. I'd done 3/4 of this and yup, all saved on the HDD (I can tell that some of you know where this is going!)

Well last night - I hooked everything up so I could enter the last of the entries into the computer. I also intended on taking all of my photos across to the desktop just to be sure :). Plug in the HDD... computer doesn't recognise it.... unplug it, try it again.... nothing. The green light is on with the HDD but nobody is home... try it on our home computer... nothing..... try a different USB cable... nup.... call tech support and do a whole bunch of stuff.... all to no avail. Seems that it's given up the ghost (AFTER 2 WEEKS!) and I have buckleys chance of getting my files back.

So.... all my trial entries...... back to the drawing board (and no time to enter the info!)
All of my photos..... gone forever (last backed up CD I can *find* is Nov 2007, though I know I did it more recently, I can't find that disc can I?!)
All my trial videos..... gone forever....
All of my iTunes music.....Kaput!

As you can imagine... I am not a happy camper. Back to the store today before work to see if there is anything that can be done.... if not.... well..... what can you do!?

She lives!

2008-11-16T20:37:00.002+11:00

Ok - yes so, it's been a while! What on EARTH have I been up to for a month?!?!

Well we had our much awaited QLD trip which was a blast - had a really good time visiting theme parks and what not - I was most proud of myself I must say. I am a bit of a wuss when it comes to rides, so I was expecting to be the 'bag holder' for some of the rides at least :). First stop was Movie World - 2 of the best rides there Superman Escape and your Batwing Spaceshot. Well - we were lining up for Superman, Loz was telling us how much fun it was, well I was lining up crapping myself thinking, 'i'm not sure if I can handle this'... but at the same time, knowing if I pulled out I'd regret it. I HAD to try it at least once right?! Well the start of it is pretty tame - all the time I'm thinking "oh sh!t, oh Sh!t, oh Sh!t'" You are then shot out of the 'indoor area' fast... um... lets say 0 - 100kms fast!!! You go up a massive 'hill' (ok so it's not a hill, but my brain can't think of another word!) and then fall what felt like almost vertical down. Did I enjoy it?! Umm... enough to go on 3 more times!!!! Oh yes, I am now a self confirmed adrenaline junkie thanks to the Superman ride... it was AWESOME! Also my excuse for every other ride on our trip 'well if I can go on Superman, I can go on x, y, z'. Other rides we went on at Movie world? The Lethal Weapon, Scooby Doo and most of the others, however the Wild West Falls were closed *sob*.

Ok - so after Movie World we also went to Dreamworld... Here again I grappled with nerves (should I add in here that I'm not great with heights and hate any rides really where I'm falling backwards).... so going on the Tower of Terror or Giant Drop was a big ask and I wasn't sure if I could do it. Once again, I was encouraged to have a go. I almost didn't make it to the tower or terror... the falling backwards really wasn't sitting well with me. A typical conversation while lining up:

One of the 3 girls: "But you went on Superman, this won't be as scary as Superman"
Me: "Yes, but in this one we are falling BACKWARDS!"

Repeat this several times and you get the gist.

Did I enjoy it first time round - sort of, once I got over crapping myself... and I mean seriously crapping myself!! Well - I enjoyed it enough to go on an additional 4 times, and yes, each time it got more fun, till I was leaving my hands up in the air! ROFL.

So I guess after the ToT I had to do the Giant Drop too. Now that was fun, but nowhere near as scary as I thought it would be :P.... see.... adrenaline junky! Who doesn't find dropping 40 stories *that* scary!?

Other rides? The Claw, Motocoaster & Cyclone

We also went to Wet N Wild on yup, you guessed it, one of the coldest days we were there *rolls eyes*... Typical weather isn't it!

What else did we do? Hmm... I caught up with Maria, one of my trainer/ online friends which was great, and also went horseriding, shopping and general 'fun' stuff :). As per usual, we barely stopped :p A great trip :

Yes - I know this is a long post - but there is one more 'major' event I need to cover off too :)

ok - so our next big event was our 10th Anniversary Australian Shepherd Specialty show and Most Versatile Aussie (MVA) competition... this was held on cup weekend and we had down breed specialist from America judging our dogs :). Was a day I looked forward to all year :).

I was very pleased with how my dogs went. Leo won Neuter in Show (with some VERY pleasing comments from the judge, including the question "WHY is this dog de-sexed"!) and Kinta won her class. Both pleasing results with over 140 Aussies entered :)

The MVA consisted of the dogs competing in conformation (critiqued by Sheila Polk), herding, obedience and agility. No - we didn't get any passes (other than herding), but we got very nice critique (96/100 for Leo, 95/100 for Kinta! WOO HOO!) but I was really chuffed with their efforts... doing 3 disciplines in one day is no mean feat.. quite difficult for the dogs to switch between activities as anyone would expect :)

On the whole - dogs have been doing very nice work lately which is pleasing as well as frustrating! Why frustrating you may ask? Because they are working REALLY well, but with no passes to show for it! It's not like they can't do it, it's just that it never all goes right on the day, and no I'm not making excuses - it really is so! They really do work brilliantly, but I seem to be missing a link somewhere between training and trialing especially for Miss K. If you've trialled before you'd understand how frustrating this can be.

Anyway enough waffling from me - I'll try and post more regularly now, but as you can imagine, life has been busy :p.

Prefix approval

2008-10-09T12:24:00.002+11:00

Well I got a letter in the mail yesterday - saying that I passed my breeders exam/ prefix has been approved (well one will assume that means you passed your exam, kind of silly to have a prefix, but not be a reg'd breeder!)

My kennel name is officially

Pawsitive Australian Shepherds

Jury is still out on that... when I put in on paper... it sounded good - I liked the fact that it had a performance ring to it.... now... I'm not so sure. I really wanted one of my first 3 preferences (haha - I can't even remember what my preferences were now except for those 3!).... now I think of registered names to ring with Pawsitive.... and they just don't work!

I'm sure i'll warm up to it in time... in the mean time - working on a new webpage for the kennels... fun, fun! NOT!

Leo & Kinta strike again

2008-10-05T21:37:00.002+11:00

Well... seems my dynamic duo have done it again.... although HOW I have no idea! We went herding today to have some 'training' for the fast up and coming MVA competition (Most Versatile Aussie). Now since it's quite hard for me to find some sheep to practice on, not to mention some expert help, our 'training' was actually a herding trial. I thought this a good idea as it would give me an idea of what I have to do, not to mention if all else fails some info on what we could do better. Colin Webster was one judge and he is a well known stockman, so very handy to have around and teach us the proper way of teaching our dogs to herd. I learnt quite a bit today, as did the dogs... although half the time it felt like *I* was doing the herding and the dogs were just doing "come.... STOP..... come.... STOPPPPP!!!!" ROFL! Must think of a different command to stop though seeing as stop sounds an *awful* lot like DROP! hehehe!

Anyway - long story short - the pups managed to pull off 2 passes and their HT title each, making this Kinta's 2nd title this year, and Leo's 5th! To top it all off, we were also awarded Runner up HIGH IN TEST behind a wonderful working Aussie in Pre-Trial (next level up... much harder!). This ticks off for both dogs almost all of the titles I *wished* for this year... which is no mean feat. Leo hasn't managed so far to pull off his SD and GD, not surprisingly, since we haven't entered those yet!!! Kinta and Leo haven't managed to get their respective agility titles, but are really close, I can feel it! The only one I hope for Kinta still to get is her CD... but we'll see eh!?

OK - I'll stop being proud mumma now. What else have I been up to... hmm... well - I got to meet up with one of my friends from Syd yesterday at Vic Markets which was lovely as though we've spoken online for... oooh.. over a year now, we've never actually met! Was nice to put a face to the name!! I'm also counting down the days until we jet set off on our long awaited QLD holiday!!! SQUEE!!!

Work is still going great guns, though very busy most of the time. Good busy though!

Hmm... what is there really...not a whole lot - been taking it easy (surprisingly) and haven't done any agility/ obedience since their respective nationals dates! Also gearing up for the long awaited for MVA! Unfortunatley, I've been a bit under the weather most of the weekend simply due to a cold that's been going around the office.... and I thought I hadn't caught it! Alas - I spoke too soon!

Finally - here's a new vid for you to feast your eyes on - just a music vid - nothing flash :)

Looking GOOD!

2008-09-14T21:39:00.003+10:00

Some photos I took of the dogs today - after a bath! They are both looking really good and.... more mature I guess!!! I'm really pleased with these shots - but also annoyed that a) Leo isn't a show dog, and b) I didn't enter the Royal... as Kinta has more coat (sort of) than usual!!!! So much for 'oh I won't waste my money on the Royal as she'll be in season' HA! We all know how THAT turned out!

Dogs are also progressing nicely in their obedience... I think it's time to give agility a bit of a breather and do some obedience! LOL! Kinta is working lovely and Leo is too -he is really comfortable in his open work now and his UD is coming along nicely.... as per the comments at training today. No - we are nowhere near trialling level yet, but we are slowly chipping away at the block :)

Agility is good - just need to clean up a few things here and there - particularly with Kinta... but that could be a season thing (she seems less confident and slower for some reason...?!)

Oh - and the exciting news - we went to see WICKED on Saturday! Was it as good as London??? YUP! IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I'm still on a high about it! It was just.... amazing! The singers were fantastic - props, coreography... everything was just to die for! Did I mention how much I love this musical?!?!?!

That's about it for this weekend - I just wanted to share piccies of the kidlets really :P

Ups and Downs

2008-09-08T11:09:00.002+10:00

Ok – so what’s the latest news? I’ll start from the start and see how far we go :p

The Nationals:
Well the gods didn’t decide to be nice to me and Kinta’s season didn’t lift in time. I am sure I provided much amusement for many having my daily checks with Kinta thinking ‘is she out yet’… LOL – methinks I couldn’t have gotten away with it since she was tarting around to anything and everything on 4 legs *rolls eyes*…. Then – as luck has it … guess who was OUT of season by Monday…. *sigh*

Firstly – the Nationals were AWESOME! Sooo much fun – and boy did the Leo run really well! In fact – I now have to re-think his label as ‘the dud’ as I think the tables have turned and he is a ‘dud’ no more :p. Leo had 6 runs over 2 days as I was stewarding on the Friday. In every run it was usually the cause of one small fault (tunnel suck, one bar down etc) that cost us our pass.. I couldn’t be prouder of him. On our very last run of the day (after a good dump of rain) – Leo decided that it was time to gain his 5th leg for his JDX title – not his fastest run I thought – but hey, still 10sec under time! We didn’t place or make it to the finals, but that doesn’t matter… and in hindsight, could be a good thing considering the amount of rain we had during / just before finals started! All in all – a great weekend, and a great dog to go home with J

Work:
Work is still going good and obviously keeping me very busy. I am really enjoying it, albeit making small errors now and again (like accidentally scheduling classes to clash with another :-O!) but on the whole I think it’s going well. Our seminars are doing well and I have some ideas clunking around upstairs and if I get a few seconds to think and air the brain, I might be able to put some into action! Leo adores my new ‘job’ as he gets to come in about once a week which of course means lots of people to steal food from and melt just simply by staring at them and giving them my big goofy grin with a butt wiggle…. Who can resist?!?!! Kinta on the other hand is finding the adjustment a little harder. She has decided in the 18mths we’ve had her that people at shows and in public are an excellent source of food and attention. In fact - her usual style at shows and such is to nab a person walking past with her paw and GLARE until they offer up either food or pats (Leo does this in a much more subtle way of either barking, jumping on them or nabbing them with both paws and licking their face)… Kinta also likes to get them into a false sense of security having people believe the breed is nice and calm, before she turns on her nutso gene! At home, Kinta is also much better, as crating before visitors come and while they settle in tends to get rid of the woofs. At work, she is a little uncertain of the coming and going (just in the office – everywhere else ie: seminars and such, people are GREAT) so we are working on that and helping her feel more comfortable!

Monty:
Well – he is much happier now that the cone is off his head and he can re-gain some self dignity without the tablets being shoved down his throat and such. The wound is also healing nicely. The biopsy results came back to say that it was a malignant tumour, which we were hoping we got all out, but couldn’t be sure. Further tests on the biopsy showed that the tumour was in fact benign so Monty now has the all clear…. Thank goodness for that!

Last Weekend:
This consisted of Croydon’s agility trial where it was Leo’s turn to shine again. Leo picked up his 4th title for this year alone – being his first games title; strategic pairs… This was done in fine style with a 1st place J . What’s more is it was another day of ‘almosts’ – he almost got an excellent agility pass (and 1st place) but he popped out of the last weave. In our first Masters Jumping round, everybody was talking about how difficult it was (and it was!) but I was SO proud of Leo as he almost ran clear and would have, should the stupid handler have supported the jump for just a wee bit longer… not sure if he would have made time though – but still – I was really proud of his efforts!

Kinta had a nice Novice Agility round, but (like Leo) popped out at the last weaver. Her excellent jumping left something to be desired – she was very slow and just didn’t seem fussed/ confident about anything!? Anyway – considering she is still so new to trialing, I can’t give up on her just yet! Having said that….could be a season thing too… LOL. At least it points out where we need to concentrate for both dogs (same problems)… hahaha
Yesterday – we basically spent the day with dad – walked along the new trial near eastlink – from Mitcham to Springvale Rd… was quite a nice walk J and the dogs were suitable exhausted once we got home J …. Sort of (well it lasted all of 30mins!)

Video’s of both are on youtube btw!

Breeding:
Well – I finally got my breeders exam in the mail, so over the coming weeks I will complete this… hopefully all will go well and I’ll have a kennel name soon (one I like please!)… As for actual breeding – we know that Kinta is being bred next season – puppies may be born at home (nothing in concrete yet) and we do have a few ideas for sires, but again, nothing in concrete yet! I guess nothing is set until the deed is done :p

So… that’s the latest… I think! LOL! So excited – I have a few weeks off trials – so am going to see WICKED on Saturday (woot woot!) which I saw almost 2 yrs ago to the day… And the next couple of weekends we might go and do some scouting around at some houses and see what we can find…. I’m so excited that soon I might have my own place!!!

Murphy Hates ME!

2008-08-21T21:22:00.004+10:00

And before anybody asks... no - I do not mean Murphy the Aussie ;-).

Gee - I can't believe it's been a whole month since my last post! This time - I can't exactly use the excuse of 'well nothing much has been happening' because truck loads have!

Settling in more to the new job now and I must say, I absolutely love it! I find out more developments every day and I feel that I really can and will grow into this role! It's just got so much potential!!! I'm so happy that I've actually found something that I want to get up and go to work in the morning for!

Downsides... I do find it harder to motivate myself to go out at nights for training, but I think that's more a case of 'new job, lots of responsibilities' and general brain exhaustion! Not to mention the horrible wet weather we've been having which has just made it plain yuk to do anything in! The poor pooches are SO neglected as I just *don't* want to walk them lately coz it's just disgusting out there! Good thing I still do though 'eh?!

OK - so why exactly does Murphy hate me?! Hmm... well lets start with the Obedience nationals!

I was sooo proud of both of my dogs efforts - some lovely work by both!

Lets start with Kinta - who should have passed with a score of 97/100 putting her in 1st place and 7 points ahead of any other dog that passed that day (at least in our ring)!... enter stand for exam - which she held a treat... until I returned around her and she decided to plop back in heel! Doh! That was the State Trials.

Nationals - not as good as the day before.... but still sitting on a reasonably good score.. and a 1st or 2nd place... come to the sit stay and she lies down! ARGH!!! Ah well... thems the breaks right?!

Anyways, obedience wise, since I hate the lead I don't think I am going to complete her CCD title... instead we will brush up on a few things (clearly her SFE and Stays!) and enter Novice come October I think.

Next bad news - I entered Kinta in the Nationals as she (thankfully) didn't drop coat until the beginning of August, which generally tells me she wont' be in for at least another month. So off I send a cheque for $72 as well as entries for the Hastings and Croydon trial (weekend before and after Nat's). So over $100 in entries all up. No swelling, no 'boy' interest or anything. I have her at work Monday and she is being a little 'weird' around people - just glued to my leg pretty much.... then I bring her in Tuesday... and I notice blood on the floor... my first thought 'how on earth did you hurt yourself?!'... then it dawns on me... yup, she's in season alright - a whole month early! I noticed no swelling or anything! So bye bye nationals! Unless of course someone *is* watching over me and gives her a very short cycle :p

Now - enter Leo:

He actually doesn't have that bad a run except for the Obedience Nationals.

State trials he did reasonably well (again, I was absolutely thrilled with his ring work) and boy - was he happy to be out again after about a 3 month sabbatical! Sitting on a pass of 186 (our dreaded number) and come stays he stands up, sits down again!

Anyways - here is a video of his efforts

Come nationals he is doing brilliantly... lost only 3 points in the exercises he completely properly... come DOR - and he looks away briefly as I give the signal... oops! Beautiful straight recall! To make me feel better, he also brings the d/b back to the judge instead of over the jump *rolls eyes*

Video again:

I'm not sure if I have mentioned his successes lately (yes it's been that long), but he did brilliantly at our last agility trial picking up two more JDX passes leaving us with one more needed for our JDX title (hopefully at the nationals or upcoming trials!) - Video of one of his runs on the day (3rd place, nice time behind some very fast dogs!)

OK - so you're probably thinking... well why does Murphy hate you so much... this all 'aint that bad!

Well - enter Monty:

Poor Monty has had a lump on his shoulder which has been quite suspicious so I took him to the vets to have a look - they had no idea what it was, so they took a needle aspiration and sent it off.... results back... still no idea, but some lymphocytes etc detected. So - Off to my vet to get it removed, which I did today... All removed as well as full blood profile, urine samples and thyroid tests since he is now 9, I wanted to make sure that there were no other signs that this lump could be serious and he *has* been eating a LOT lately (food he shouldn't) so wanted the clean bill of health. All went well, but gee... those vet bills sure to bite! $800 later and I'm really missing the $100 I wasted on Kinta's entries!

Well fingers crossed the lump doesn't come back... although I must admit - I have been getting amusement out of watching the poor kid walk backwards so that he doesn't (in his mind) bang his head on anything. He is sooo despondent poor guy!

Some pics:

On the whole though - have been enjoying watching the olympics and having a general relaxing few weeks (no trials!)... Ah HAH! That's why I don't want to get off my a$$ and walk the dogs... OLYMPICS!!!! tee hee!

Happy birthday little girl

2008-07-19T22:21:00.003+10:00

I can't believe it, but my little midget is 2 yrs old today! Boy time has flown! When/where/ HOW did that happen!!?!?!? She is an awesome little girl and she and I share a very special bond. It's hard to believe that I almost didn't end up with her! I can't wait to see what the future holds for us... even if she didn't turn out *quite* as crazy as we planned ;-).

This week has also marked the first week at my new job... and an exciting and stressful one it's been. Going to be longer hours, as it includes some night work (up until 9pm at night), but that also means that I get to go in later on those days, and yup, my dogs are becoming 'education dogs' (haha - technically I could assess them myself!) and thus, if I need them, they can come into work with me :). Don't know what Peggy the office cat will think though ;-).

Everybody I'm working with is great and so far are pleased with my work. I've been shadowing a little bit, the girl I'm taking over, as well as in the latter half of the week, mostly doing the work with her helping out :). I am still in awe really that I have landed this job... which is more a job that I dreamed of, and never really thought I'd ever have the opportunity of doing :).

OK - so what exactly does the job involve? Well - basically a lot of phone calls/ consults for clients with behavioural issues (dogs and cats... the cat bit requires a bit more research on my behalf!) as well as over-seeing basically the evening dog training classes (although the trainers are awesome that we have on staff).... Weekly we run talks to the general public in relation to general behavioural problems and things of that ilk (barking dogs, environmental enrichment etc, etc.).... Finally I'm also working with the shelter dogs and doing assessments, when needed on those... a task that isn't always fun.

I'm really looking forward to what I can make out of this role. There is plenty of room for growth and development as well as just the general experience I can gain out of a role like this! I really can't wait to see what evolves from here as time goes on!

Latest news

2008-07-07T11:39:00.002+10:00

Ok so it's been a while.... yes, I know - slack and all that - but what other excuse is there!

A LOT has happened since my last post... the most important is that I have a new job. I start on the 14th, so for a week, I am now 'unemployed' haha- now that's going to be tough! For those that *don't* already know, this new job involves me doing what I love day in and out, it's closer to home and is just generally a better job! Basically I'll be working as an animal behaviourist, as well as doing some public education about dogs, dog behaviour & training! I honestly can't wait to start.... but am also very nervous that I am not good enough for the job! Either way it has to be better than my previous job... right?! On the up side, it means that I get to go to a lot more seminars about dog behaviour and such.... without tearing holes into my pocket! In fact, I am going to one this Wednesday night - very excited!!! See... can you tell I'll just *love* this new job!

Last week we spent 3 days down at the penninsula between Rosebud and Sorrento thanks to sir Leo for winning the 'top Victorian obedience dog of the year 2007' (which I might add he isn't really, but only about 10 dogs entered the competition, and we won... also came about 4th nationally... but as I said, a very small competition)! Photos can be found here... I'm quite proud of them if I do say so myself (the photos.... as well as the dogs)!.. Who knows, I might be a budding photographer yet.... ha!

On the doggy front, we came *so* close to adding another title to Miss K's name.. in the form of CCD... we had a trial on Saturday and she gained one pass in the morning (89/100) and was sitting on a score of 97/100 in the afternoon.... pity she couldn't hold the stays for more than 50seconds :(. As some of you may know, we've had a bit of a rocky start trialling this girl as she is just a sensitive little soul and picks up on my nerves and changes in body posture easily... so I've had to learn the hard way not to expect so much, cool down and just enjoy the ride. The last trial on Saturday, really showed what she is capable of. After a brief consideration of blowing CCD to the wind (HATE the lead), I decided to stick with it for the nationals where we will hopefully walk away with her title, and all ready to trial in Novice once her season is over :). I have a lot of faith in this girl, I just need to learn to take the pressure off both her and myself!

Leo has also been doing very well - he had a bully run through in Open yesterday at club, as well as some (rather messy) mat work. He has really been getting better with age and I can't wait to bring him out for the nationals into open as he really knows what he is doing now and is comfortable with his task. As for agility - that bar knocking is still an issue, so hopefully Susan Salo will become available (from our club) soon so that I can learn on how to help him along with this :D. Lots of hard work, but I think all this training will pay off in the end!

Other than that - I've just been leading a very busy life trying to keep up with the social side of things, as well as finalising the project at work (handed in last Monday) and just generally... barely keeping on top of things!

Looks like it's time to start organising for the next obedience trial too.... oh boy! Does it ever stop!? But then, life would be boring if I took it slow, wouldn't it?!

So - until next time....

Awe- Struck

2008-06-15T14:16:00.004+10:00

Ok... so I was driving to the agility trial yesterday complaining how I only ever get one pass in a day, if any at all :P. When I usually run 4-6 runs, I thought I could do with a little more LOL! I told the dogs when they got in the car (after trying to ride in the backseat) that they could ride 'up front' (ie: backseat) if they got 2 passes...

As you know - Kinta made her debut at Morwell and while she did well in the AM trial, her PM trial made me wonder if I was pushing her and perhaps she wasn't quite ready yet. I was prepared to pull her out again and train her up more for the nationals, if I didn't feel she was ready after Warringal (yesterday's trial).

Anyway... seems *something* was going right yesterday (I think it was the 'lucky shoes'... ie: new shoes I wore for the first time)... Here is what we walked away with:

Novice Jumping (AM):
3rd Place - Kinta .... SCT - 38sec, CT 23.33sec

Excellent Jumping (AM):
4th Place - Leo..... SCT 40sec, CT 37.07sec

Novice Jumping (PM):
1st Place - Kinta..... SCT 33 sec.... CT: 21.31sec **JD TITLE**

Novice Strategic Pairs:
2nd Place - Leo...... SCT 65sec CT - 47.32sec

Excellent Jumping (PM)
3rd Place - Leo.... SCT 37sec CT 29.78sec

Yep - that's right.... for our 5 runs of the day... we walked away with 5 passes!!! What's more is Kinta got her JD title in 2 trials!!! TWO TRIALS!! I still can't believe it! All the runs were just fantastic to run, especially Leo's since he was running slow and I couldn't work out why. It wasn't until later I realised he had a split toenail! Poor tyke ran all those runs with a sore foot :(. So considering he was still well under time, I was quite happy with that effort as it means my 'speed training' is paying off as he runs much faster than that when all of his feet are functioning normally :p.

Video's from the day:

I still can't believe it...... LOL! Oh - and guess who got to 'shotgun' on the way home :P

Frustration, happy tidings and such

2008-06-10T07:17:00.003+10:00

Ok - so as you remember - the last post I wrote - I sent the dogs away for a 'holiday' while I fences got done.... well... in typical tradie manner.... they are still NOT done!!! Just a little bit frustrating as I sent the dogs away so that the fences could be down overnight, done without the tradies getting hassled or with me being stressed about the dogs getting out. Hopefully they'll get done today (yup 2 weeks later), and thankfully the parents are home to watch the dogs for us :). Just a little bit annoying!

I have had a reasonably busy last couple of weeks - at work, because our project is due soon, but also at home with the dogs also. Last weekend (first weekend of June) I went to Shepparton for an agility seminar held by Deb Kelly. It was really good and I picked up a lot of things re: my handling etc. As to whether I can apply it or not is another story *vbg*!

This weekend just gone was spent in Traralgon where I stayed with a friend whilst trialling the mutts at Sale/ Morwell (Sale on Sunday, Morwell Monday... hehe nice bit of alliteration there!)

Kinta was entered in CCD on Sunday and that effort was just abysmal. Shows what a difference it makes when I haven't had anybody call an exercise for me for a while (well... with Kinta anyway!). She totally lost it after she missed the stands, and watching the vids, I certainly lost it to! All of my finesse and nice body language went out the window, so we made a disastrous team! Hopefully we can clean up our act for our next trial, and be the remarkable team I know we can be!!! LOL! Still... it was an enjoyable day and it did point out what/ where we can work on... won't take long i'm sure as the foundations are there, we just need to work more as a *team* together :)

Morwell was Kinta's agility debut. Both dogs did really well - as we haven't trialled since the start of March in agility. No passes for Leo unfortunately - as the PM jumping was my fault (what seemed like good ideas for a FC when walking, certainly was NOT when running with a dog!). In the AM, he missed out on a pass as he knocked a bar. The jump was at an angle, I think he turned a little too sharp and clipped it with his back legs :(. It's getting frustrating as he is more than capable of doing the courses, but we are yet to receive a pass... all because of one error!! You can watch his jumping runs here (agility run didn't tape):

Kinta did well - although as luck would have it, her best run wasn't caught on tape! She did very well and got a Jumping pass in her first ever run... and... wait for it- first place too!!! yippee!!! The 2nd jumping run was very similar to Leo's and yup - bad places for me to turn which stuffed the dog up again :p. She had fun though! Agility was a mess, but I'm not really worried about that seeing as I don't think she is quite ready for that (her contacts/ weaves). She'll be a jumping dog for a while until I am totally sure that she will be ready for agility (Leo too infact!)

Her runs are here:

Nothing much else to be said in other news - Leo's scent work is going excellently and we are almost up to a full set. I'm just totally amazed at how quickly and how well he picked up on this... and he just *Loves* it!!! Yippee!!!

*sigh* I just hope that Kinta turns out to be everything I hoped she would and I haven't stuffed her up!!!

What do to, what to do

2008-05-29T07:32:00.002+10:00

Some of you might be aware that the Nationals are looming..... Agility and Obedience nationals to be held in Melbourne through August (start of August for Obedience, end of August for Agility).... so the question is.... what to enter!

I sent Leo's entries off yesterday - early bird entries... I closed my eyes and entered him in 6 events, just agility/ jumping - 4 runs on Sat and a minimum of 2 runs on Sunday (finals are run in the afternoon)...

The question is Kinta. I've left her entries till later - missing the 'early bird' (saving $2 each run) simply because 'will she or wont she' be in season! She *shouldn't* be in season... but at the risk of wasting $60 - I'll wait and see thanks! At least the timing of her coat drop will give me a reasonable indicator. If I suspect she might be, I'll enter less events, If I think she won't - then I'll enter all events... but imagine....
running 12 runs over 2 days!!! OMG!!! I'll be killing myself running between rings!!!

So everybody please - hope that my girl plays nice and keeps to a SIX month cycle - by which she will come into season at the end of Sept, not the end of August!!! (we've had one 5.5mth and one 6mth cycle so far...)

Leo is 4 today!

2008-05-25T20:58:00.005+10:00

It's hard to believe that it's been 4 years since this little pip squeak was born! Not to mention.... was he really *that* small!!?!?!?

So much has changed in 4 short years... it's hard to imagine that 'back then' I knew nothing about the dog world, obedience, showing, agility or anything that I'm totally obsessed with now. It's hard to believe that I'd never thought of breeding/ showing and when I inquired after Leo only said I might *try* obedience and agility!

I remember the day I picked him up like it was yesterday ;). We'd been over the week before just to have a 'look' at some puppies... because after having lost my Rusty-Girl only a few weeks ago, I didn't feel ready for a puppy, but I wanted to make sure that when I did go looking, I was going to get the right one. I went to a couple of shows before hand, put my name on the puppy register for a red female around Christmas time. I had received an email earlier in the week saying this breeder had a lovely blue merle boy that she thinks I should look at (Jayne, the puppy officer) as he will be ideal for obedience/ agility etc,etc,etc. I thought 'oh yeah, this will be ok to look at coz it's a blue, and I want a red. Not to mention it's a boy and I want a girl!' After speaking to Ana on the phone, I decided i'll go down and have a look at the litter... one thing I was adamant about was that I did *not* want a black tri female (hahaha).

Well - they say the pup chooses you, and I must say I think it's true. The entire time I was there, Leo's sisters came and went, pretty indifferent to us, they just wanted cuddles from anyone... but Leo... no - he slept on my feet the whole time - he would play with me when I knelt down to play with him, but admittedly - he wouldn't leave my side. I knew we were sold when my mum was smitten with him ;). We went to look at other litters (yes, one including a red female!) and I knew I had to have him..

If I had any doubts - it was certainly washed away the week later when we went to pick him up and he ran straight out of the crate and back into my lap!

I mean... who could resist a face such as this:

The day we picked him up...

Checking to see what mum is doing!

So much for 'outdoor dog only'!!!!

Retrieving already (he loooved that toy!)!

One cool dude!

Seriously chilled out!

Since then -I've achieved so much with him... He's a great dog to live with, has a brilliant temperament, happy and silly demeanor and is a great dog to train. I've made plenty of mistakes with him, but he just keeps on trying and the results at the end are just so rewarding. I wish I could do more with him - he was a great therapy dog, but it just doesn't fit in anymore. He is literally everything I could ever want in a dog! I hope that we continue to build on this relationship we have to reach our higher goals but most of all have fun getting there!

Soo... how did the birthday boy spend his day? Well he had a raving party last night (a la movie night at Traceys' house), obedience this morning (he did awesome - signals heelwork for the first time and he nailed it as well as metal & wood scents!!!! *insert happy dance here*) and Mr Joey over for a play this afternoon. A nice night inside tonight followed by a juicy bone... ah bliss! What more could a boy want ;)

Happy birthday mate!

Now - as for me - I am going to be *very* despondent this week... our fences are getting done which means Kinta is spending the week with the breeders and Leo is being shipped off to a friends place.... I'm dog-less all week!!!!!

Introducing......

2008-05-11T00:09:00.004+10:00

Meet Mr Jojo (or Dodo as his mum likes to call him!)

Joey is Tracey's new pup who came for a visit to our place today.... we intended to go for a walk, but one thing led to another and we went shopping (boring stuff, groceries and mothers day shopping) and got stuck watching Greys Anatomy instead ;-). With Kinta away on a showing weekend with her '2nd family', Leo and Joey had some fun together. It really makes it clear that 3 can be a crowd, as Leo was a lot more playful with Joey since Kinta wasn't here... whereas he can be a bit of a snob when she is around *especially* if she doesn't feel like playing! LOL! Kinta is usually quite firm with Joey, so it was nice for the boys to just have some 'chillin' time.

So... here are some piccies!

Catch me if you can!

A ritual of Joey's - everybody needs a good teeth clean!
Leo "I believe I can flyyyy"
C'mon Leo (aka toy hog) .... share the toy!

Please......

Puh-leeeese....
PLEASE!!!!! (with a cherry on top?!)
Oh CMON!!!
Yep - it's official! Leo's a TOY HOG!
At least Auntie Amanda lets me have a go ;-)
Well - until next time -that's all folks!

By popular demand....

2008-05-09T09:09:00.002+10:00

A new post!!! ROFL!

Question?! What *was* my last post about?!?!!?

Well - Kinta has finally entered (Kind of) the trialling circuit having her first NADAC agility trial last Sunday. She did extremely well and came back with 3 out of 4 passes.... A real pity about her NQ as she just knocked a couple of bars. It pointed out a few things I need to work on with her - but.... she shows promise. I'm so proud of her. Here are photos of Leo and Kinta on the day. Keep scrolling through as there are a few of each dog. Leo also did well at this trial and managed 2 out of 4 passes. I was really pleased with him as he was confident, fast and we all had an absolute blast! Leo missed one pass because I pulled him off the last jump (I didn't keep running straight) and he clipped it! Stupid, stupid handler! As for the 2nd pass he missed out on - he went a *little* crazy in his last run of the day (tunnelers) and went into the wrong end of the tunnel! Oops!

Unfortunately - no video footage as I didn't have anybody to tape for me :)

Am looking forward to next weekend as it will be Kinta's first obedience trial and I honestly can't wait to get her out - pass or fail!!! She is such a trooper :P

On other news, my little baby girl is going on a holiday without me this weekend :(. Going showing with her breeders. I'm gonna miss the crazy thing! Doubt she'll miss me though - she always has such fun with them.

A bit of drama - seems that Miss K is having a false pregnancy after her latest season - nothing drastic, but she did have a bit of discharge last week, which prompted a visit to the vet. It also got me wondering if she has not had phantoms before, as her boobs always are a little inflamed for some weeks after her season - but that is the only symptom she seems to have. Anyways the topic was brought up about breeding, and it looks like I have to start thinking about that.... so fun times ahead.....

I'm also seriously contemplating the thoughts of buying my own place in the near future. But it seems, while I have the means to get a loan to buy a modest (not shabby, but not fancy or big) place, in the area I want (haha - near KCC), meeting the repayments may be a little tough.... It's frustrating because I am *so* close it isn't funny... and I want my own independence etc. I plan to house share, but don't want to be dependent on it lest it doesn't work out/ can't find anyone etc,etc... then if you don't have someone, how will you make the repayments if ya get my gist. It's not like i'm living in the city and people are queuing up to be your roomie ;)... So I guess the decision now lies do I buy at the end of this year, and then rent it out - paying off as much as possible until I can afford to move in (still got to work out how I can do this and still get the first home buyers grant)... or do I hang out for a bit more, and buy when I have the money (and possibly when the housing prices are starting to rise again)..... Decisions, decisions! I wish I knew!!! Does anybody have a crystal ball to tell me what to do?!

On top of that - if I buy - I say bye bye to my traveling.... for a while at least.... do I want to... or do I want to go on one last fling first?! *sigh*... I *really* wish I knew. Now... where are those sexy, millionaires that I was always told about?!?! Better yet - in those fairytales - weren't there things called 'princes in shining armour'.... where did mine go?! Is he lost?! How can I speed him along in his trek to find me (maybe buy him a GPS?!)

La di dah

2008-04-30T09:22:00.003+10:00

Again - another non-eventful week over here! Mind you it was lovely to have a nice break on the weekend (3 day weekend... bring it on!). Downside is of course that this is the LAST allocated long-weekend for us until CHRISTMAS as the queens birthday/ cup weekend is not recognised by the university... so will have to be taken as annual leave (aka cup weekend ;-) ). I have to keep telling myself "2 weeks for christmas, 2 weeks for christmas".

Sooo... what did I get up to?! Well Fri/ Sat was spent showing at Lancefield/ Sunbury. Was an enjoyable weekend and we picked up a few points too :). Nothing overly exciting as they were small shows in the way of Aussies. Still over 1200 dogs each day I think?! Anyways - at the moment i'm trying various things to improve Kinta's coat, or rather quantity of it. Her coat is actually quite nice and healthy, but it just lacks...... volume! So I've changed her diet and also going to wash her in "royal jelly" to see if that will make a difference at all!

Saturday night was spent with the gals - and yet another Harry Potter night (ok, so the first 2 weren't planned that way, it was more a 'come over for dinner and watch a movie' by which time were were already suckered into HP!). Sat it was kind of planned as we knew we were going to end up watching it anyways ;). We have gone a little 'up market' of late - read: rather than ordering pizza's we have been cooking dinner!!! Surprisingly no-one is dead yet.... I think the closest we came was at MY dinner.... not because of the taste of it (Chicken Parma... self crumbed and all thank you very much :p )... but because the bl**dy non-stick greaseproof paper apparently isn't non-stick!!!! ROFL!

Job hunting is still.... well.... hunting ;). No news there.

Very excited about this weekend - we have our ASCV open show on Saturday - Leo and Kinta entered. Will be interesting to see results as our aspiring judge is a fellow Aussie breeder, so it's always nice to know the type and style that they like :). No points are awarded at open shows, just so you know :p. The main part of the excitement however is that we also have an agility trial on Sunday - a NADAC one (ie: not the usual trials we go to) and Kinta's first trial! I'm very excited about it as I'm curious to see how both dogs will go, Leo too as I've been working on him a lot lately to get a bit of speed on him.

I have also commenced Leo's UD training. Am using Morgan Spector's method of teaching Leo scent work and all seems to be going well so far. I am sure we'll come up with a zillion glitches, but I have a heap of people to call on if the going gets tough! So far:

Lesson 1 - he indicated pretty well up to about 4 articles - when he occasionally started to pick up the wrong one. Ended the session on a high and feeling quite proud of ourselves.

Lesson 2 - seemed that lesson 1 didn't go as well planned as I thought - turned out Leo thought the idea was to pick up ANY article (possibly caused by my too eager clicks when he 'sniffed' the right one). Went right back to start and I *think* we are on the right track now. He will 'search' for the right scent and will confidently pick it up when he has found it - sometimes he searches for a while, other times he picks it up immediately. Much higher success rate. Up to 3-4 articles now.

Another lesson tonight, and the next... then he'll have a few days break. I always like to give them a break after a 'new' exercise has been introduced as it sort of lets the whole scenario 'sink in' and I seem to get a really good response from doing this (whether I am right or not, who knows!!!)

That's it from me I think... back to work!

ETA - now seriously guys - comment on the blog - I haven't had a comment since Feb and am feeling un-loved... I know people are reading ;).... Please..... *bribes with pieces of chocolate*

FINALLY - we have a pass!!!

2008-04-22T09:55:00.002+10:00

Ok - so it's been a while, I've almost forgotten what it feels like!!! Since my birthday weekend we have not had one pass card/ challenge certificate awarded to us! Despite coming so close a number of times, we haven't quite cracked it yet! Sunday was our CDODC's obedience trial. I could barely sleep the night before, tossing and turning thinking of at least a million things that could go wrong, or worse, something i'd forgotten to do! Everything was pretty much smooth sailing (thankfully), except for the teeny tiny error of hmm... a judge not turning up!!! Scary stuff! Luckily one of the stewards was a judge, so we were able to get her to fill in for us *phew!*.

On top of all of that I was also trialling Leo. Enter a dog who, for the past 3 days has flatly refused to pick up his d/b on the first go (ewww mum that's plastic!)... due to my wooden one being in a very unstable condition (going to break at any stage now), I had to get Leo used to the plastic one. Well - he *still* wasn't picking it up on first go Sunday morning and I was walking around wondering if I should withdraw if he doesn't pick it up, OR continue on.... I still haven't decided what I would have done...

Thankfully - the dog picked up the d/b BOTH times AND came back over the hurdle for the ROH. Held his stays beautifully too :). We finally passed with a score of 184, 2nd place and... our CDX title! WOO HOO! I know it isn't exactly the longest time in Open, quite a short stint actually, but since he got his first 2 so quick, there was no bleedingly obvious reason as to why he kept (just) failing, it felt like ages!! I'm so pleased that he got there in the end! I guess now it's time to brush up Kinta and bring her out hey?! On the whole, I'm very excited as we can now officially start training for UD!!!

That was pretty much the extent of our weekend, given that Sat arvo was spent finalising stuff for the trial.

I'm also very excited as I have entered both Leo and Kinta in our first NADAC trials! I think these courses will be a great way to build up Leo's speed (he goes back to novice, more flowing courses... plus a tunnelers one!) and a good way to see just how close Kinta is to trialling level. I'm really looking forward to it on the 4th May. Our agility training has been completely re-vamped now that i'm taking it more 'seriously' than I have previously so I'm going back and re-training a lot of things as well as changing my approach etc. I can really see the difference!

On another note - of late I've taken a real keen interest in this breed called Pyrenean Shepherds. I've been trying to find out as much information about them as possible, which is not an easy task given the breeds rarity, not to mention there are NONE in Australia. It's super hard to find anything really worthwhile reading on the breed (there's only so many times you can read a standard, and only so much information it gives you) much less in English (sorry but my Dutch/ Sweedish/ French is not THAT good!).... I'd love to learn more about the breed as I believe they are related to the Aussies and I really find the breed endearing! Anyone with info - email me please!!!

General dullness...

2008-04-17T09:20:00.002+10:00

I just had an amusing thought.... Outside of the dogs, there really is not much to tell (or that you guys would be interested in!)... so when the dogs aren't doing anything spectacular and it is just the week in, week out training... I have NOTHING to say! Plus - I'm trying to be a little creative here and have posts that don't involve the dogs, but hey, what can I say - they are my life!

Don't you hate it when people ask you "so what have you been up to lately?!" The best answer I usually can come up with is "nothing much" - which generally is the case, because lets face it, the stuff I get up to isn't that interesting to 90% of the people that ask! But if "nothing much" is what I get up to, it certainly keeps me very busy! Frankly I'm exhausted! It's that time of year again..... Croydon's obedience trial, and again I have the pleasure of being trial secretary... a task I loathe and love. I enjoy it - because it is a good way of meeting others in the obedience fraternity - I hate it, because in the last few weeks, I have a constant nagging feeling that I've forgotten something, have I done everything and OMG it's only xxxx days away!!! The number of times I have had that feeling this week.....

What else does "nothing much" consist of - hmm... of course there is the general training, which seems to make up 90% of my life and AH commitments. The dogs are going really well, Leo is super enthusiastic and his speed around the agility course is definitely improving. For those of you who don't know I have been working to try and get him to run faster etc. I think it's working! Kinta is also going well and her agility is coming on in leaps and bounds. I am at the point now where I have to be REALLY careful because she is so close to being good, and I want the good with speed. If I push her too much, she will be good, but lacking in speed. If that makes sense. Basically we are at the stage of one step forward, two steps back. Obedience wise, she has certainly matured a lot in that department and is working really nice, especially considering her young age!

Oooh - the dogs also had a go at herding last weekend, the first time in about a year I think. Much to my surprise Leo has re-gained his enthusiasm about sheep, while Kinta has decided that mum was tricking, the sheep were there merely as a distraction and there was NO WAY she was falling for that trick!!! LOL! The trainer said that Kinta probably had tonnes of instinct but was just confused and not used to the whole scenario - more exposure should help! I'd love to give them both more exposure, but access to sheep and TIME are big factors :(.

Ok - so other than that I really, really have nothing to tell. There has been no drama, no stories to tell of over here!

Frustrating

2008-03-30T16:23:00.003+11:00

This is getting so frustrating!! I have a dog that loves to work... and does it well..... I often get told that people love watching him work because he is just so happy around the ring!! He can do well.... again - he was on fire today. Yep you guessed it, another obedience trial down the drain.... Brilliant work by Leo - he was all cylinders go. He heeled well (went wide on a few turns, but he was up and with me, focusing and even ignoring a few distracting things on the ground!)... Only minimal marks lost in the other exercises. He and I were having a blast :D. That was until the ROH and the silly sausage thought that bringing the d/b back to our judge, rather than going over the hurdle seemed like a good alternative.... He then of course corrected himself and brought the d/b back to me, before sitting in front of the judge.... but still!!! So - here comes the blow.... had he done it well - we would have likely scored..... yep - 191!!!!!! Testament to how good he was working!

Don't get me wrong, I still have an absolute blast out there.... and I still enjoy it... but c'mon!!! Maybe 2007 was his year and he no longer wants to perform *vbg*.... or maybe he doesn't want Kinta to come out and steal his thunder (a likely story).... but I hate it that we get so close, yet not quite there......

Unless.... this is still punishment for me saying his name when I shouldn't have LOL!

Ah well - he's a good dog, he will get there eventually.... maybe we'll even get his OC one day (I'd love that!)... but at the moment, his career as sausage meat, or perhaps a life in a new home is looking better and better (haha - joking, joking... love him too much!)

On a positive note - Miss K got RBCC.... again yesterday.... to Indi - Leo's sister :P. She is yet another 'frustrating' case - coming close, yet not quite there for those darned challenge points!

I have dud's I tell ya.... DUD'S!!!!!

186 is NOT a lucky number

2008-03-25T15:41:00.002+11:00

*sigh* for the THIRD time this weekend, Leo and I were unable to sustain a pass for our CDX title... and yep, you guessed it, had we passed, our score would have been..... 186!!! That's also the THIRD time in a row we have blown a pass of 186!! ROFL!

Sooo... what has he done to blow the passes?

Trial 1:
NOT the dogs fault, but for the Change of Positions (COP) I accidentally said his name when I shouldn't have..... not doing THAT again!!!

Trial 2:
Very hot and humid by this time and he dropped in the sit-stay :-(

Trial 3:
Apparently there was an interesting smell right where the d/b landed, which was far too interesting to leave and thus finish the exercise (ROH)... when I called out "OI!" he quickly snapped around, picked up d/b and finished the exercise perfectly :-(.

Another go this weekend...... but I certainly don't have my hopes up! If he doesn't get it soon, I'm going to pull him out for a bit and give Kinta her shot as I don't want to trial 2 dogs, at least in the initial phases..... so.... I wonder how much of this is Leo's antics so that Miss K won't have a go in the obedience ring.... hmmm..... *vbg*!

Had a lovely Easter weekend showing and relaxing. Last day off today -then back to work tomorrow. We didn't get anywhere in the shows either, but it was always a nice morning out :).

As for the job hunting.... rang a few recruitment agencies today, and unless I have min. 2yrs sales experience, I'm not even going to get a look in.... ummm.... HOW exactly am I to GET the sales experience, if no-one is willing to give me the experience?!?!?!?

*sigh!*

Photo overload!

2008-03-21T19:38:00.017+11:00

OK - Apologies for the photo overload. I was mucking around in the yard with the pups today, throwing their toys and keeping my finger on the button (fast shutter speed option where it takes heaps of pics one after the other). I was amazed at the quality that came out as you would expect photos of a lesser quality and the shots were ones I wouldn't have been able to get normally.

On other news - we had a show today - Kinta thought it great fun, but we got nowhere (huge Bitch entry - it was an 11pt challenge!!)... more showing tomorrow and Monday ;)

Sharing their toy - notice their foot timing is identical ;-)

Couch buddies

Head shot of Leo that I really like

Ummmm.....

Kinta shot - shame about the reflection of the light

Reasonable gaiting shot!

Learning to beg

I just love this shot of Kinta - so expressive!

Ball catching expertise

Now with some Kinta style ;)

More toy sharing - you can really tell they are great mates :D

And of course.... barking dogs!!

Coz my two always have something to say!!

OMG!!!! It's a ball!!!! (she totally looks freaked in this shot!!) PMSL

Lastly - the ring-in - Monty - attacking the tug-toy

clean up - after the 'kill'

I do have HEAPS more, and some stacked shots of Miss K, but I'll save them for a later date ;)

Latest happenings

2008-03-19T08:36:00.002+11:00

Ok - apologies for my recent lack of posts! I've either been too busy, or I can't be bothered updating you all on recent happenings (haha - I know... my bad!).

On the general scale of things though - nothing exciting has really happened, just the promise of a few things. We've had a few more trials (Leo) since my last post, but have no passes to brag of. His last agility trial he did real well - ran some nice rounds, but didn't get any clear rounds. Our main disappointment however would have to be our Obedience trial Saturday just gone. Leo *should* have passed with a score of 186, but his stupid mother said his name before commanding 'down' (or "park" as we like to say).... as I didn't realise you couldn't!!!! Well.... I learnt the hard way ;-). To say I was annoyed at myself was an understatement!!!! To make matters worse, he worked brilliantly in the arvo, sitting on another pass, and blew the sit-stay (too hot!).

Both dog's obedience however has been coming along really well. Each Tuesday night we have been going to Cranbourne for FOOs (Friends of Obedience) which has been really helpful. Leo has perked up a lot with his training, and I look forward to our continuing trials together. Kinta is also going well, but sometimes finds it hard to concentrate because of the happenings around her. Last night in particular she found hard... there must have been the smell of rabbits in the air or something, because every time we got to one end of the ring, she would momentarily lose concentration!!!! Ah well - as the saying goes..... practice, practice, practice!

Agility is an interesting one. I'm hoping to put Leo right down again to foundation level as doing various things just doesn't seem to be building up his speed long-term. So I think the best thing I can do is to go right back to the start and let him know that the name of the game is accuracy AND speed. I think this is probably the best way I can get the results I want from him. Kinta on the other hand is coming along like you would expect ;-).

On the social front - it's just been the usual - a few happenings here and there. Wicked tickets are being organised, as well as trips to QLD (we are staying here) for October. I'm really excited about this trip, but not sure how we are going to fit in everything we want!!!! Holidays are also being planned for a few nights away thanks to Leo... places we can stay at are our choices of these places. This is thanks to Leo doing very well last year in his obedience and winning dog trials Vic Obedience dog of the year. I think we'll stay at Andrews nest. At the moment, I'm also going through the net, trying to find some good comedy festival shows.... i've always wanted to go, but missed the mark on the dates!!! Hopefully I can scam a few people into coming with me too ;-).

Job front.... lets see - I have had one interview, but am going to turn the job down. It was for a vet nursing position, and if that was something I wanted to do long-term it would be a good opportunity.... but it's not, and I don't think it would actually help me further in my career. I would be getting 1/2 my pay, and will have to give up (yes, give up!) all of my dog training/ trialling as they would expect me to work every Saturday until someone more junior than me came along. Not to mention, I would be finishing work later and thus couldn't make it to training. Just not feasible for me. So we'll keep looking and see what we can find!

I really don't think there is much else to tell..... So have a happy easter everyone and hopefully I'll keep my blog a little more updated from now on!!!

A room with a view

2008-02-25T08:59:00.002+11:00

I have *finally* moved offices into one with a window!!!! ROFL! I can't tell you what a difference it makes... it really was getting quite depressing being in an office all on your own, often with no-one else around and to add to it all, no natural light! Charming eh?! Well anyway - we spent most of Friday moving the offices around and furniture.... I felt bad as one girl was doing most of the work because I couldn't lift/ move the heavy objects (tables etc) because my wrist still can't do the hard yakka stuff. Either way, my room is now much nicer..... and brighter :p.

Had a brief moment of excitement last week on the job front. A friend/ acquaintance of mine that I have met a couple of times at shows, was telling me that she had found a new job... still in the animal industry etc,etc. I asked her what her current job is - well she works at "Therapon" which is veterinary wholesaler and she worked in the sales dept doing the research behind diff products etc. Sounded pretty interesting and the type of job I was looking for. I was going to take her position, but when she asked her boss... boss said that she wasn't looking at finding a replacement for her role :(. I will still hand my resume in and talk to them etc, but at least I have an idea of the area of job that I would like to get into now :).

Well... I have had a *very* busy, but fun weekend!!! Friday night (after the big move) consisted of my much belated birthday party - a cocktail party (yes, dressed up to the nines too!)... Was a heap of fun... I don't think we ended up going to bed until about 3am, so I guess that means everyone had fun right?! I got a lovely present from the girls - an agility tunnel!!!! Sooo excited about getting out and using it now :).

Saturday - well 1/2 of it was gone thanks to sleeping in (ahhh... glorious!) and finally decided to move at around 3pm in order to get ready for our first obedience trial of the year. Considering we have only trained minimally over the break, I wasn't expecting too much. Boy - I swear - the whole of Melbourne must store it's whole wind supply and dump it at KCC park! It was sooo cold and windy Sat night - someone said it would be close to 100kms/ hr winds... so not easy conditions. Leo was on fire though - well... sort of... he was on fire with eagerness :P. With precision.... not so much LOL! We didn't pass... he missed his 'stand's in the heelwork (miss 2 positions and you're gone)... who knows why.... then he missed coming back over the jump with the d/b. He has been proofed for pathetic throws (with a mum like me, you need to be proofed for ALL throws!) but he must have thought it was a clever idea ;). You could see the glint in his eye when coming back though.... almost as if to say - "see mum, I wanted to try something new - what do you think?!"

Sunday I spent the afternoon lying on the couch and watching old Gilmore Girls episodes :). 'Tis bliss... then pulling out my new 'weaving' set and practicing some 2x2 with the dogs... I must say - I am more than impressed with this method - you move along REALLY fast... particularly since we haven't been all that consistent with training every night etc :). Went out *again* Sunday night to "The corner hotel" with Tracey and her friend Corrie to watch "Something for Kate" an Aussie band. I haven't heard their stuff for ages, but still love it, and it was a good night out..... but of course resulted in me sleeping past my alarm this morning!!!!

ROFL! So... busy weekend, followed by an undoubtedly busy week.... again! Ah well... if you are having fun, what can ya do?! :p

Weekend News

2008-02-18T08:39:00.003+11:00

I swear - there was something I wanted to post about in here mid-week, but I have now totally forgotten about it!!! We have had a very busy 3 day weekend though.

Had a lovely, quiet birthday on Thursday - had to go to work (which was dead quiet - nobody in office) *sob*. Also had the pleasure of picking up a friend (met online - DOL of course!) and finally getting to meet Maria (from QLD). Maria was to stay with us on Thur night and we had a great day on Friday mucking around with the dogs, playing Genabacab (omg - our poor dogs! How do they understand what we want them to do!) and just chatting in general. My two loved the extra attention, got some Frisbee training tips and had a play around with some agility equipment. Kinta was a funny one - she barked at Maria the whole time she was playing tug with Leo like she wanted in on the game, but when offered to her - she *wouldn't* tug with M but kept coming back to me ;). Cheeky 'mummy's girl' :p.

Saturday was a busy and LONG day all around - Good thing I checked the gazette before going to the show, as rather than starting at 9am - our show was due to start at 8:30am! So - get to the park at 7:30 - get dog ready (kinda pointless really as she isn't in show condition at the moment, and I look at it and think 'i've entered, might as well have some fun etc') and finish show by 9am! We were knocked out of our Inter class, which isn't all that surprising :). Hung around to watch Group judging (looked like it was going to be over quickly..... but looks can be deceiving!)... then went to catch up with Tracey and Kylie. Ended up seeing a movie - "Fools Gold" which I really enjoyed :p. Back to the park at 4:30 for a twilight agility trial. As it turned out, there was no need to rush, as we didn't have our first run until at least 7pm!!! Leo and I had 3 runs - Novice Agility, Excellent Jumping and Open Jumping. So for those of you who have never seen us run before, I took my new 'baby' out and video taped (well not me, got someone to do it!) my runs!!! I was thrilled to bits with Leo's runs, he was fast, listening and boy is it great to see it on tape as I'm able to see where he and I need improvement. We ended up with 1 (almost 2!) pass - in Novice agility - 1st place and around 26seconds under time. This gave us our final pass for our AD TITLE!!! So Leo is now: Ellagant Full O Mischief CD AD JD!!!!! Not only pretty - but brains too ;) LOL!

Anyway - video is here:

If you are wondering what is going on in OJ - the first jump - I didn't call him soon enough, so he didn't see the jump, out the back it was so dark he couldn't see the jump. The end bit is a distance work - so you can't cross this line planted - I was thrilled that Leo did the first 2 obstacles (we haven't done OJ before) but he just *couldn't* get the last one as I had to push him out again (no thanks mum!)... as for Excellent Jumping - stoopid Mum forgot the course and almost took him on the wrong way!!!! Everyone was really impressed with Leo's runs though and kept commenting on how well he did!

Kinta was brilliant - I took her along for some social and focus work. It's time for her to come out and about now, get used to the environments and realise she has to *work* in these types of situations.... she did really well and I was thrilled to bits with her too!

I also have gotten Kinta DNA tested on Sat - should be about 2 weeks until we get the results. I was a little annoyed at the guy taking the swabs - he was such an a$$.... Kinta HATES those microchip scanners - so he just struts right over puts his hand over her neck (I didn't even have time to hold onto her!) and try to scan her chip.... she freaked of course, which is something I don't want..... then the guy has the nerve to say 'oh - she's a bit skittish isn't she'.... well wouldn't you be if you gave no indication and this big guy just crowded you, lent over and was sticking this thing over your back. Then he goes onto say - "she ain't gonna like me taking her cheek swabs..." :-O. I told him she'll be fine - she just doesn't like the scanners... sure enough - sitting there pretty as a princess while her cheek swabs are taken. I hate ppl like that - straight away assume things, and don't even take time to let the dog know you are about to do something - invasive or not with them!

Had a relatively quiet day on Sunday - all was well except for the fact that my computer doesn't love me and wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do!!

Another busy week this week - with our first FOOs training on Tue night - hopefully this will give us some good ground work for our obedience trials this year :)

Back to it!

2008-02-12T08:53:00.000+11:00

Ok - so there has been a severe lack of posts! My bad!

Hmm.... what's the re-cap since the last post?! Leo's wound has *thankfully* closed up without any further intervention and seems A -ok at the moment. My guess it was a grass seed or something similar, which came out when the puss came out. His hamstring injury as far as I can tell is also clear, as he has been hooning around with Kinta and others and no ill-effects. Thank goodness for that!

After a few hiccups with the video camera, all seems to be working well - so watch out for heaps of training vids. I am sure most of you have already seen this - but this is the latest of Kinta strutting her stuff:

There are also some of Leo on there, but they are from 2006 - just old vids I *finally* uploaded.

At the end of January I said 'farewell' to my brother and his girlfriend Lily who jetted off to South America for 7 weeks. They are then stopping off at London for the next 3 years! EEK! It's going to be weird, as although I didn't see him *that* much (living in Syd), it still was an awful lot closer than LONDON! ROFL!

Pet Expo at the start of Feb was a whole tonne of fun and I was so proud of my crew. Kinta was the absolute extrovert which I was thrilled about as I was a little uncertain she might be unnerved by all the kiddies noises etc. Nope - she loved it! Not even a glint of nervousness/ uneasiness at all - with dogs or people :D :D. It's amazing how the little things make us so happy LOL. Leo was his usual self - selling his soul to anyone who might pay attention to him! Both had a go at the agility demo's and had a blast. Kinta was awesome considering she has only done about 3-4 obstacles together before, and did 15 in a row without even blinking. Fast too - she just was confused about the wing jumps when she was ahead of me ;) LOL!

Training has started again - last week for everyone, but I couldn't make it so went back Sunday just passed. For some reason I have been a little 'flat' about it and thus it rubs off on the dogs - could be a variety of things, but we are still enjoying ourselves enough - I think it's more about getting back into the swing of things!

Been to a couple of shows recently, but haven't done much good. As expected though as Kinta has dropped coat *again*. Woe be me, I think i I have a 5mth cycling b!tch. I have a feeling she'll be in season in March, which is 5.5 mths since her last season. Boy - THAT comes around quick!!! Trials for Leo start again this weekend with Agility twilight trial - I'm excited!!!! Obedience trial the week after that ;).

At the moment, I am house sitting for an obedience friend and their two BC's. It's been fun having 4 dogs around and inside the house etc. Very busy though.... they all get along pretty well, though Dash (6yr old BC) seems to pick on Leo a bit and I don't think he asks for it :(. LOL. This also might attribute a little to my 'flat' attitude to training - out of sorts in a new house etc.

Am re-teaching Leo the weavers and starting Kinta on it. I am using Susan Garrett's 2x2 method, and while it is initially hard to get your head around, I think the penny has finally dropped (for me!) and we now understand what is expected. I am pretty happy with the results and the methods behind it. We shall see how we go ;).

The job front is open for me again - as I think i'm going to start looking for a new venture yet again.... ah - the joys of finding your own little niche. Other than that - I think I have covered everything!!!!!!!

Ok - and to end... here is a pic I snapped of the hounds with my new video camera - not bad pics IMO.... Just snapped at the right moment - and ended up with this:

Maybe one of them farted, or maybe one told a joke *shrugs* :p

Murphy's Law

2008-01-22T08:36:00.000+11:00

Hmmm.... where to start.....

Good news:

Got Kinta's hip scores back, and they were excellent. The way hip scores go - the lower the better, with 0 being perfect. Kinta's sire had an overall score of 11 (4:7 I think) and her dam 3 (1:2). I was personally expecting her to get a little higher than her dam seeing as her father has quite a high score (well, it's not really high, but in relation to the breed it is)... I was thrilled when I got her scores back as a total of 2 (1:1) which is fantastic! Overall international score of 0!!!! Yippeee!!!

Other news:

Had a show on Saturday, but did no good, only picking up RBCC. Was told that the judge likes strength which Kinta obviously lacks a little of. Birdie (Mazasuka Free as a Bird) picked up the challenge, and she is quite a nice bitch, so I didn't mind ;).

Went shopping on Sunday - with the intentions of *looking* for a video camera. I had a fair idea of what I wanted, prices etc. I'd also read a few reviews on the net, so wasn't going in completely blind. Set myself a budget and off we go. I wanted a pretty basic camera, easy to use etc, for filming my trials and training as well as use on holidays etc. I'd decided a mini-DV (tapes) was the way to go due to the fact that the format on the DVD versions were compressed and I was told, not as good quality and more difficult to edit (you need to edit to put onto youtube etc). This meant I was looking around the $370- $500 mark. Probably closer to the $500.... I tell you what - these things are most frustrating to shop for as they don't vary all that much in functionality and it's hard to test quality etc, since most don't let you plug it in and play around!!! Anyways - walked into Harvey Norman and they had a huge sale on. For $100 more they had a hard drive camera (saves directly onto hard drive, no tapes no nothing, so not forking out extra money throughout video's life span getting tapes etc all the time) on sale, which got me thinking that if you pay a little more, I get a much better quality camera, not to mention more convenient. Long story short, after shopping around etc, I was able to get a $1200 camera for almost 1/2 price, which is streets ahead of the mini DV cameras (they stopped improving technology on them years ago) and gives a much better picture quality etc. The zoom is not great (10x optical) but you would never really use much more than that anyway as it would start to distort the image. Read the reviews online and it sounds like it was a good buy (well i'd kind of figured that out already since someone told me I was lying that I could get it at that price!). Feeling a little guilty that I spent so much, but also glad that I got such a good deal. Well.... here it is:

Ok - so why Murphy?! Well... it seems I make a big expense and then everything goes up sh!t creek!!!! Sunday night I found on Leo a lump on the back of his neck - on further inspection, I got a puss ball out of it (ewww).... but that left a big gaping hole (ok, quite small really, but it was quite deep!)... We clipped the hair around it and washed it out with saline, but it was still looking pretty angry and yuk on Monday, so decided to take him to the vet (could be a foreign body stuck in there).... No matter I thought - had to pick up Kinta's hip scores anyway. Vet had a look and couldn't find any foreign body... so onto some antibiotics and if that doesn't clear it up, he'll have to go under GA to try and find it. Great! Just what I need. I asked vet to have a look at Leo's right hind leg too as last time he was at the chiro, they told me he pulled a hamstring (from tripping up the stairs)... I didnt' think it was properly healed, so wanted the vet to have another look. I was right, so he is now on 2wks crate rest for it to heal properly!!

Want more?! Ok - no problems! I got home yesterday to find my entry forms returned from the pet expo. You won't believe the reason! The entry form was too big!!! Yep, they didn't want my money, or my entry, simply because the piece of paper was too large. I mean FFS it's not like it was the size of a billboard and they needed a truck to load it in?! Plus, it was one I had printed off fro the VCA webpage!!!! They have also had my entry for a month, so lets not bother calling me to let me know and could I possibly mail them another entry form, nope, we'll just send it back without giving her enough time to re-enter! I guess it makes me more frustrated because a) it's the pet expo and I like showing there.... and b) I've been trial sec. now and have accepted ALL entries and know it isn't that hard (to enter one filled out correctly but the wrong size).... no matter if you have 1000 or 100.

Even more?! Sure - I've got a bag full! My contract for my job is ending soon, so spoke to my boss about it's renewal. Turns out that while they want to keep me, they only have enough funding to keep me on for one project.... so while i'm not overly worried (boss thinks he can work around it), it's still something to be concerned about!

So go away Murphy - leave me alone - you've done enough for one day!!! Oh and fingers crossed Leo's wound heals so he *doesn't* need surgery!!!!

Brags!

2008-01-17T21:13:00.001+11:00

OK - yet another brag post but nothing really new....

What *has* happened since the last time I wrote.... short answer - absolutely nothing outside of dogs! I really, really haven't done anything exciting... Unless you call sitting on the couch watching some Gilmore Girls and Greys Anatomy exciting :P. I had a full weekend of showing - Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. I missed the showing funnily enough. Friday night was excellent as Kinta pulled off a 9pt Bitch Challenge, Runner up Best of Breed and Junior in Group. We got knocked out for Junior in Show as the dog who got Runner up Best in Show was from the Junior class.... so the long and short is we waited around for 90 mins for no reason ;). We didn't get anything else the rest of the weekend, save a RBCC (reserve challenge..... *again*) on the Sunday. Overall I was pretty happy with Kinta's performance as she held her own, the judges giving her a good look in each time. They were also big classes with around 20 Aussies being shown each day. A good effort all round really. I'm also super excited by the way Kinta is turning out, she really is maturing quite a bit now... and all those fears I had last year seem a distant memory... what more could you want :). Photo from the weekend:

Ok - so why is this a brag post exactly? Well.... I had such a great year last year (2007), particularly with Leo - lots of successes as you have heard me mention countless times ;). Now who knows if we'll have another year like that. So I wanted to take a photo of my little man with his 2007 winnings (well... most of them, some are at work)....

First the rundown:

CCD -
1 x 1st place.
1 x 2nd place
1x 3rd place
CD -
2 x 1st place
1 x 2nd place
CDX -
1 x 1st place
1 x 2nd place
JD
1 x 1st place
1 x 2nd place
1 x 3rd place
AD
1 x 1st place
1 x 3rd place (& 1 3rd NQ)

And the photo - Leo with his loot:
And of course - what do I do when there are so many photos to choose from and I can't decide?! Post them all up of course!!! Maybe we should vote - which one is the best ;) ROFL!

Kinta of course doesn't have quite as good a track record since she is only showing... but 2008 might be her year! Question is.... where do I put all the sashes!!!

Ok - I'm sure you are all sick of my brags by now - so I guess I'll leave it at that until I can think of a more interesting post!!!! Please bare with me (or somehow make my life infinitely more exciting!) ;)

Another dog post....

2008-01-07T09:56:00.000+11:00

Coz lets face it, what other kind of post is there ;) *evil laugh*

First up - I would like to clear something up.... next time I say that I am *not* happy with calm, quiet Kinta when she is out of season.... can someone *please* bang me over the head with a cricket bat or something, until sense starts to penetrate!

Why?!

Hmm... well - we did some training with the hounds yesterday morning (and started Leo on UD work!!!) and ended up at one of the beaches down at Mornington with Tracey and Kylie (and their hounds too). Was surprised to find a beach that allows dogs during the day but according to the Life be in it "walkies" beach - Mills beach is the 'go'... even the lifeguards didn't say anything! We weren't prepared so not dressed or ready for the beach, but that didn't stop us going in with the dogs anyway (on lead).... Poor Whiskey and Scruffy (Tracey & Kylie's dogs) are NOT water babies and didn't like the prospect of the water at all ;).... Leo liked the water until Kinta started to use him as a launch pad to jump into the water OR if he went out too deep (swimming) and a *big* wave came along (read: wave of about 10cm!)... Mind you, if I left him, he wasn't a happy camper.

Kinta the feral on the other hand thought waves were there to be jumped over, chased, attacked, run into and of course body surf (or is that doggy surf?!)... and what *is* it about wet dogs and spack attacks?! They come out of the water and if they weren't on lead both would likely have been jumping over tanning bodies sprawled out on the beach.... in fact a soccer match was almost interrupted since *obviously* someone kicking a ball means that they are to kick it to us *roll eyes*.... Lifeguards with their kayak things coming out of the water deserved to be barked at (Kinta) as they had no right blocking her view..... *sigh*.... Holes were to be dug (Leo joined in) only to flop in it, roll over in the sand then shake all over us.... Heaven forbid if we actually sat still for more than 30 seconds as that meant we needed to be jumped on, barked at and ordered to do something.....

When we got back to Kylie's place (where I think I out stood my welcome ;-)) instead of being nice, quiet dogs, we get out into the larger yard and have another 3 min spack attack (both dogs) which of course included jumping OVER poor Scruffy (Yorkie), using the yard as a grand prix circuit and general chasing and being a pest.... if that wasn't enough.... we bark at everyone (males mostly) that has the nerve to walk around their house/ back yard....

So... I repeat - if I *ever* complain about quiet, sedate Kinta... please hit me over the head with something HARD!

Ok - so maybe they weren't that bad.... but she was on Speed yesterday... I swear ;-). But the day was fun, and there wouldn't be excitement if she wasn't a feral... right?!

Also went to see SPAMALOT on Saturday night and I highly recommend it to everyone! It was hilarious.... to put it mildly! Gotta love Monty Python!

ETA - and after all that - I think this is my 100th Post ;) ROFL!

Kepala Pics

2008-01-02T13:59:00.001+11:00

Happy new year everyone!

Some quick snaps taken by others at Kepala pet resort... the dogs naturally had a blast and LOTS of swimming ;)... once Kinta found her feet for swimming in the pool (she loves dams but neither were sure about these pools) there was no getting her out!

Lagoon pool

Head shots:

Mid chase:

Geared up for a swim in the indoor pool:

Funny story - when my dad was describing Kepala to my brother, for some reason he had it in his head that there was a wave pool and waterslide for the dogs there too ;). I think my brother thought I had well and truly crossed the line into canine insanity ROFL!

Christmas, Naughty Black Dog and more

2007-12-30T17:20:00.000+11:00

First up - I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It has been very busy here with parties Christmas Day, Boxing day and thereafter ;). My brother came home from Sydney on Boxing day so have barely had time to be on the computer etc (shock, horror, there is a life away from here!). Went to the beach on Friday when it was about 35deg and generally just been having a good time out in the sun etc. Went down to the Kepala Pet Resort again today and both the dogs and I had a ball. We weren't too naughty either ;). Not too much 'in your face' etc.

Over Christmas we had quite a few families over, some with young children (eldest at 7yrs) so kept the dogs downstairs separated from the kids. All of which are used to dogs, but having smaller, *very* tolerant dogs doesn't mean that the kids are dog proof, but rather the dogs are kid proof ;). I was *very* happy with both dogs. Kinta gave a few *woofs* when people came outside, but was quite confident to come up and say hi. With the exception of one. I completely forgot about one of our family friends who is epileptic and loooves animals. She went to 'grab' Kinta (there is no other way to describe it) and Kinta got the begeezers scared out of her.... Thankfully in about 5 mins they were good friends again and Kinta's confidence came right up again when I pulled out the clicker ant C&T each time she went to say 'hi' to someone. We also have a few *woofs* at one of the kids' scooter on the decking (makes a funny noise) and the 2yr old (on Boxing day) climbing up the stairs as 2 yr olds do. Nothing major as a simple "enough" or "don't be silly" from me stopped her from continuing. So all in all I was over the moon, as home-turf seems to be where Kinta maintains her reserved behaviour. We did have a few drama's though. Once on Christmas day - I had the dogs briefly up with me and the young kids. These kids live with dogs, but given that theirs are smaller and less excitable, started to get quite excited. I was watching Kinta and somehow one of them (I thought Leo, parents of girl thought Kinta) got a little too excited and knocked her over. 5 mins later all was forgotten and just to make sure both parties were fine I got the dogs out (one at a time this time!) with the girl so that they could have a pat, do some tricks, get fed etc. All went smoothly then, and also gave me a good moment to point out to girl that getting excited around doggies is not a good thing as they get excited too (she was getting really excited at the tricks they could do!). So I was pleased with that!

What *does* annoy me though is that on Boxing day the relo's brought their dogs over too (not the annoying part), one of which is an 11 yr old Pom who wouldn't like to be mixed with the rambunctious puppies! So I kept her upstairs and the other dogs downstairs. Enter 2yr old toddler, also lives with a dog. She loved the look of Brandy (Pom) and tried to grab hold of her.... Brandy was not all that appreciative and tried to bite her.... but it was me who has to watch kids and dogs, not the kids parents or the owners of the dogs (enter annoying part!). What's more frustrating is that if a small dog snaps at a toddler, parents see it is 'nothing' and the dog didn't mean it/ won't do any harm... but as soon as one of mine *might* do something like that (even so much as 'bark' etc) then they are ones to *really* watch as they are dangerous etc..... *sigh*. I'd trust my dogs over 90% of little dogs thank-you!

Anyway - back on task - Christmas was really good and a great catch up with family. The Sunday before we had an agility meet at a friends place (full agility course) which was heaps of fun for dogs and family! I'm also proud to announce that I *can* bake!!! hehehe! I made a lemon tart from scratch - base and all and it turned out really well! Even the base! I was surprised as my mum, Queen of all cooking sometimes struggles with the short crust pastry, but for some reason, this recipe worked!!! I also made Caramel Slice, Shortbread and Brownies for the Christmas festivities! All seemed to go down well ;).

Since then I've had a couple of lazy days at home, travels to the beach and Kepala Park, and movies/ shopping with friends. Tomorrow night i'm off to Phillip Island again for NYE. Looking forward to it! I also have a stack of photos I took over the week (given clean dogs!).... Just look at Kinta.... *finally* some nice stacked shots:

And some candid shots I took mucking around:

Leaping for the ball:

Jumping for Joy!

and the main reason why my dogs hate me:

'nother great stacked shot of Leo (I think I'm getting the hang of this now!)

As for the Naughty Black Dog?! As many of you know - I have had tendonitis in my wrist coming up to 3mths now. It's a royal pain in the bum and *finally* has been on the improve. I am to wear my wrist out of the splint as much as possible and do various tendon strength exercises etc,etc. All was going well and I was marvelling in the car today (driving to Kepala) how much improved my wrist is etc,etc. Enter Kepala park and 2 hooligan Aussies. They were getting a bit much and running through the centre of people etc. I tried to call Kinta to get her to settle and come she did - *SMACK* right into my sore hand (I was seated) and the pain shot through it! When I tried to move my thumb again I couldn't! I swear, the pain was soo bad I was almost in tears! I couldn't even move my thumb!!!! I tried again and then *plop* somehow my bone slips back into joint!! She had dislocated it! Don't know which one, don't know how, but she had! Now I'm back to square 1 with the sodden wrist as I can barely move it again so back in the splint it goes!! *very BIG sigh*!

ETA: Exciting news - I had Kinta booked in on the 27th to get her hips and elbows scored - now waiting until the results come out! Next step in Feb is for her MDR1 DNA test :)

AWOL

2007-12-17T09:19:00.001+11:00

OK - there is a reason for the lack of posts - mainly the fact that I've been away for the past week in Tasmania for our family holiday (minus big-brother ;-) ). So beware - shis is going to be long and jam packed full of photos!

We left for Tassie last Friday - just for a holiday in general, but also because Mum & Dad wanted to take me around to see where we spent our first few years etc. We were based in Hobart (one of the RCI resorts) but basically traveling around a little each day. The resort itself was relatively simple as resorts go (most usually have quite a few facilities such as pool, gym, tennis courts, squash courts etc) so there wasn't much to do around the place. Doesn't matter too much as we were never going to be home, particularly on this trip, but Mum and I usually like to spend a day or 2 at the resort doing nothing but reading, watching TV and using the facilities ;-). Didn't have any time for that here though!

Saturday:
Went to pick up car so wondered around Hobart for the morning (and had a glorious sleep in.... can't remember the last time I did that!). Took the car up to Russell Falls (can't remember the actual name of the park) which was a nice, easy walk, although a little disappointing as by the sound of it, the falls should have been fabulous, but because of the lack of rain/ drought, it was a little more than a trickle.

These are 2 different falls (the smaller one being Russel falls), but I can't remember the name of the 2nd one either!

Some photos throughout the walk:

(Giant tree!)

I think every night pretty much we ate some form of seafood or another - it's so fresh over there! Some were a little disappointing but most were delicious!

Sunday:
Went to the Tahune forest where there is a 'airwalk' or basically a suspended bridge that you can walk across for some decent views and admire the trees etc ;-). Swinging bridge is a highlight of Mum's considering she has a fear of heights... thereby a 'moving' bridge is not exactly the most enjoyable trip :p.

Monday:
Monday was our long awaited trip to Wine-Glass Bay! I think we walked about 15kms in total - and it is NOT an easy walk - you are literally 'climbing' up the mountain on rocks and a few steps here and there. Then of course we weren't sure where the next track was (to go the longer walk back to the car) so walked ALL the way across the beach only to find the starting point of the track was back where we started *sigh*! NO, I wasn't the one navigating! I highly recommend this walk to anyone going to Tassie. Stopped the night at Bicheno so that we could go visit Orford and Triabunna the next day.

Exhausted after the climb up the hill

View from the top!

Along the way we also came across some wildlife who weren't at all afraid of people so we could get quite close. I'm pretty sure this is a Potteroo being smaller than the avg Wallaby (sorry, 3rd yr M&M has slipped from my head... permanently!). We also saw an Echidna but the piccies didn't turn out!

Tuesday:
Started the day in Bicheno (after a lovely seafood dinner the night before!) and then trekked down to Triabunna, where M&D spent 4yrs and Scott and Myself were born.

View from Bicheno.

Triabunna is a teeny town about 1hr out of Hobart. Doesn't sound like much by Melbourne, Eastern Suburbs standards (with Cranbourne or Pakenham being that far out, if not more), but Triabunna is *really* small with a tiny supermarket, one butcher, baker and hardware store! Orford is the next closest town (5mins) and although smaller, apparently more popular! We certainly had scenery plus as everywhere you turn had ocean views and lovely beaches..... pity that it will never be warm enough in Tassie to enjoy it! Since we had some extra time, we made a surprise visit to one of M&D's old friends.... was great to see the utter surprise on their face as we had told no-one we were coming, lest we not have enough time to pay a visit. On the home journey, we stopped off at Sorell (about 20mins out of Hobart) to visit an older couple who used to baby-sit my brother and I. I was surprised how much I remembered of them as they visited us a few times in Melbourne. Was kinda nice remembering what I used to do with them when I was a kid ;-). I think we made their day, stopping by to say hello. As for what I remember of our house and Triabunna? Absolutely nothing!

Our old house with the 'ocean view'

Wednesday:
From all the travels of the past few days, we canceled our plans of another early start to head to Port Arthur and instead decided on a much easier drive to the Cadbury factory and Richmond (quiant old town). Cadbury factory was great and got the tastebuds reeling.... all that chocolate! And I was happy to 'proove' to my parents (and everyone else who didn't believe me!) saying that their seconds went to the pig-feed! so HA to all those who didn't believe me and thought I was joking (me? joke? NEVER!).

Richmond was a nice little town and we basically just had a quick amble around. By the end of it I was pretty tired (my poor little legs!) so wasn't the best company around ;-). We did go to the Richmond Gaol though.

Thursday:
Home time. We spent the morning visiting the Womens Factory (convicts and where they went before assigned to a 'job') as well as the Cascade Brewery. Both were very interesting tours, particularly the Womens factory. I think we made it a 'first' at he Cascade tour though as out of a grp of about 12, only 3-4 actually drank beer!!! That couldn't happen too often ;-).

Was a most enjoyable holiday - but all in all - it was great to come home to this:

And - what would a post be without some stacked shots of the dogs ;-) (Mind you, I *really* like Leo's one!)

Now - how was that for a long post! Hopefully all the pics didn't conk out your computers!!!

As for what I've been doing the rest of the time?! Some very in-depth research into the world of Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls (the final season!!)..... all thanks to the wonderful people at Amazon! Of course this has involved many late nights (2am!) and considerable yelling at the TV (mainly for GG)....

End of the 2007 trialling year

2007-12-02T16:58:00.001+11:00

Well - this has been quite a year for me and my crew. So this will be basically a brag post - summing up the year:

Leo
Starting off with 2 CCD passes for Leo and aspirations for agility. Kinta was the start of my venture into showing also. I think at the end of last year, I said that I wanted 4 titles for Leo - CCD, CD, AD & JD.

Obedience
First obedience trial of the year, and we are off to a good start - CCD in the bag - and some beaut work by Mr Leo. Glad to say he didn't stop there. Within 3 weeks of starting CD - he had also gained this title with some lovely scores too! I didn't quite expect him to get his novice so fast! In under a year, Leo had gained 2 of his obedience titles, which I was thrilled about. Rather than rush through, I decided to take time out of obedience, train him up for open, which also gave me time to concentrate on Agility and Kinta. We didn't enter obedience again until 17th November. First trial in Open (which is quite a jump from Novice) and we come away with our first pass (albeit, not that great) and 173. Today, we had our last obedience trial of the year. Considering the heat (30 deg) and that it was my first time as Trial secretary, I wasn't expecting too much from him. We ended up pulling off another pass, score of 189 and highest scoring Croydon member in trial!!!!! I couldn't be prouder of him, and considering the comments others have made about him, I should be ;-). So he has made a great end to the year, and set the bar high for our next trialling year!

Agility:
2007 marked the start of our agility career. Off to a shaky start, we had to scratch from our first trial due to Leo being lame. So we hit the rings in March sometime I think. First trial we did no good, but what can you expect! From there - we have pulled away one pass from each trial bar 1. Leo is a steady, consistent jumper, once he learnt to lift those legs (still a continuing issue!). By July he had attained his JD title in about 4 trials I think. Agility was a little harder as we like to do only ONE thing wrong ie: knock a bar, refusal etc,etc. As the saying goes, he does it great at training, but likes to stuff up at trials! Saturday was our last agility trial of the year and we didn't get off to a good start.... off with the fairies and just basically not focussed. A good novice agility run, but 2 bars down. PM was a bit better and we pulled off a Novice agility pass about 30 seconds under time!!!! I was even happier to hear we got 3rd place against some very tough (and fast!) competition!!!!

So we got 3 out of the 4 titles wanted, and some excellent foundation laid for next year - only one more pass to go for both our CDX and AD titles... and Leo is getting better and better for JDX too - so not far off for that! Every pass we have received has been a place! I'm just so proud of this boy.... for a 'dud' he isn't doing too bad ;-). Our hopes for next year? Lets set them high eh? CDX, AD, JDX, possibly ADX and some Games titles (SD, GD). Don't know if we'll get there due to the fact i'll be running 2 dogs! I'd love to be ready/ trialling in UD by the end of the year too ;-).

Kinta:

Showing:
Interesting start for us as it is a completely new venture. Filled with highs and lows. Everybody keeps telling me how nice she is looking etc,etc, but it was a long road before the points started rolling in. It wasn't until Kinta hit 15mths that the judges really started looking at her, but I feel it isn't far off yet. I have every confidence in her as I do think she is lovely and well 'designed' for a multi-talented career! Our year has included a:
Minor Puppy in Grp
Puppy in Grp
Junior in Show (ASCV Open show)
1st in Non-Champ sweepies
Reserve Challenge at our ASCV Open show
AND we finished the year with a 9pt BOB! Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come!

Obedience:
Although we haven't entered a ring yet, I couldn't be prouder with what I'm getting from her. She is a very enthusiastic, precise worker and is a lot more focussed than Leo. I feel we still need some exposure around unfamiliar areas/ crowds (summer project!) but I have high hopes for her. I am most proud of her heel-work (Thank-you Sarah!) and hopefully we'll be starting our obedience stint at the start of next year.

Agility:
Only started a few months ago and is going well. She is a natural at it, and while I think she will be 'competitive' I don't think she will be top-dog material. But who knows. I find with Kinta that her speed comes through confidence, and she isn't quite there yet ;-). On the 'known' she is quite a fast worker! I can't wait to get her out there competing!!! Seriously - though she is frustrating when she is just out of season (flat as) she is just delightful to work and live with at other times.

My hopes for Kinta - Hopefully - Aust Ch, CCD, CD, AD, JD. We'll see how we go ;-).

Adapting life to 2 dogs
Long story short I love it! I don't think i'll be a sole-dog owner again, I just love how these two get on - they really are best buds. I've found it a little hard to divide my time, as I really want to give each dog individual attention, and at times I find it slipping, but am able to pick up again real quick. Kinta has been a great addition - I just love her sweet 'mummy's girl' temperament, but at the same time, Leo suits me too - he just loves everybody and is so happy about life! Seriously - 2 great dogs!

Ok - I'll stop gloating now, but I just wanted to sum up my year :D :D!