*Blink* Where did April go? Wait? Is that June coming??

This is my April post masquerading as a May post. Better late than never. That could be phrase that ends up on my epitaph but as long they add AND WAS AWESOME WITH IT I have no problem with this. So April let’s see. *Rummages through pages of the diary* Raven’s last chemo treatment (in her third round of the protocol) was on May 29th. That was her treatment #16. She came out of remission the week before that. Or at least that’s when I got them to do a fine needle aspirate to confirm my thoughts on her. Her nodes are up but they are not huge. Amy said she had a higher percentage of medium sized cancer cells (lymphocytes) but that her large cancer cell percentage was still quite low. Basically when I picked her up from her last treatment my instructions were to just keep monitoring her, keep her as healthy and as active as I usually do and if there are any signs she’s feeling the effects of cancer then to bring her in for a consult and to discuss where we go from here. Options include chemotherapy tablets, a three weekly cycle of inpatient visits and various other possible drugs/ chemo therapy agents can be tried.

May 13th saw Raven pass her second year anniversary of her diagnosis. I felt grateful that day for what extra time I’ve had with her, but I know now is just borrowed time really. I still hope that we might see her tenth birthday but the rational part of my brain knows that this is probably unrealistic. It’s pretty much a wait and see game but with the waiting part exchanged for let’s give her every quality of life we can. She still loves her walks, her treats, her special dinners, her playing on the agility course, her ambles round the Dogswest grounds and her propensity to attempt mind control of anyone with a tidbit in their pocket or sitting at eye level consuming what she clearly sees as food meant to be shared whether it be ice cream, toast or spaghetti. She still gets poopy if she thinks Spryte is getting a little too much attention, if Cypher is overly rambunctious or there’s a hint of nail clipping or baths to be had. She still acts like a puppy when we come home and sings us a happy welcome yodel from time to time. Still the boss of her place though, a mere look makes Cypher back up ten paces and an intent stare makes Spryte decide perhaps that spot on the floor is more comfortable than the couch. She still likes to ride up front in the car and make sure next door neighbour’s cat is not on her turf. And I’m quite sure she gets satisfaction from keeping the birds out of her yard and making sure that any toy with stuffing is suitably destuffed. So like I’ve written before on this blog – we’re taking each day as it comes and if some days she’s more tired than others we just take a break. I do think she’s rather loving the not having to go for chemo each week thing as well.

In trialling news I guess the biggest event from April was our State Titles. I spent a fair bit on entries I must admit with three dogs in – but it was worth it in the end, I had a lot of fun and managed to get all three dogs into finals ending up with about eight runs in the finals! Spryte ended up in Excellent Jumping, Open Agility and Excellent Agility. Raven was in Masters Agility and Open Jumping and Cypher was in Masters Jumping, Open Agility and Open Jumping. The upshot of all those runs was we had one clear in the end in Excellent Agility with Spryte however I over handled the contacts (this is what happens when you have no faith in your dog’s contacts because you have been letting criteria slide) and we finished clear and likely in second place as no placings are given in finals, only wins. Had a great crack at Excellent Jumping with Spryte but she decided an off course tyre was just too tempting. Cypher was going quite well in Open Agility but did his exact same trick as last year in the Masters Agility final and came off the see saw before it even started tipping. And Raven? Well I remember running and laughing on course because it seemed she was having a ball of a time whilst I was busy just trying to keep her vaguely on the right course – I recall starting off well, about half way round things went pear shaped. I think Cypher had a bar down in each of his other runs. Anyway it was a good weekend even without the wins (we did end up with a lot of top 7 place sashes especially on the Friday when the dogs qualified in NINE out of TWELVE runs...Spryte finishing ADX, JDX and ADO titles all on the one night..I don’t think I’ve had a ratio of running clear like that in a while – I mean I guess the BC Nationals was it when we managed eight out of fifteen runs clear...I have no idea how these kinds of trialling days/events happen and I always wonder what I did different to make it happen).

The tyre she was NOT supposed to do...

Versus the tyre she was supposed to do...sp0t the difference!

Her brother Flyte - he's here cos he wins at looking handsome
whilst doing agility at break neck speed.

We missed the next couple of double headers – about three or four trials in total attending a wedding up near Geraldton. It was an excellent wedding though as far as weddings go, thoroughly entertaining and well catered and just very relaxed and comfortable (they had flip flops for every guest so the high heels and shiny shoes could be put to one side) so I didn’t mind missing the trials really. By that stage we were heading into May.

I did attend the Ronda Carter two day seminar held here in Perth, organised by Sue Hogben along with some like minded triallers from over East. It was fantastic. I loved it and I kind of predicted that I would enjoy it because I’ve watched how Ronda handles on videos for a few years now and have always loved her style of handling. This was the first presenter for me who totally resonated with the way I feel comfortable handling dogs on course. Don’t get me wrong – we’ve had some fantastic presenters over here and I can state without hesitation that I have learnt something from every single one of them. However it was great to have someone say – ‘I’d handle it like this’ and for me not to even have to consciously think ‘Where does my arm cue go for this or which way should I be facing?’ It just felt natural. It’s not a system, there’s no set rules you must follow at all times, there’s an understanding that you handle the best way for your particular dog and that you give them all the information they need to do the course fast, efficiently and naturally. I took Cypher and Spryte on the course and found out exactly how much work I need to do (especially for Spryte – Ronda saw Cypher’s contacts and thought they were fine even though four on the floor is not the ideal choice). So that was great and it’s given me a list of things to work on and it’s raised the consciousness I have of using the dog’s natural movement/momentum to the maximum potential for allowing them to know where they are going next. Spryte does not have independent weavers and quite frankly, her contacts suck, out loud. We’re working on those. Apart from an ADAA weekend next weekend she will not be doing any more agility until I’ve retrained those contacts. Jumping yes, but not contacts. We’re gonna start from scratch on them and aim for having her ready by April next year, hopefully earlier if I am disciplined enough. *g*

The following weekend was the Mother’s Day trial in Bunbury. It was also Spryte’s debut in the Masters classes since finishing her Excellent titles at the States. Her very first trial and she won Masters Jumping – outright. It was a height class trial however the quickest in the 400 class was also the quickest overall. Thanks to a friend *yay LINDA!* I have it all on video. She nearly pulled off a Masters Agility pass too...however I was just too far behind her and she didn’t see the broad she was supposed to GO ON to. But it was a great course to run and she had a blast and I was grinning by the end of it anyway. Open Jumping and she was like a manic speed demon through the weaves! She ended up first in 400 and then 2nd overall to Sue’s Nifty. That was also a wickedly fun run to have. Raven was a little off that day and definitely tired by Masters Jumping so we pulled out of that one. Cypher? I honestly cannot remember what he did. I’m pretty sure he had a bar down fairly early in Masters Agility and also a bar in Masters Jumping. I do remember vaguely muttering something about jumping grids and drills whilst walking back to the car with him. Anyway it was a good day and a great day for little Spryte’s debut in Masters Class.

The following weekend was Geraldton. Raven did alright, Cypher did okay and Spryte had the disadvantage of a slow thinking handler who was clearly not up to speed with her speed. Raven picked up a very close to winning 2nd place in Masters Agility the first day and on the second day Cypher won the Open Agility class seeing as how nobody else passed and he only passed because I put him in a down stay in the distance challenge. I kid you not – a literal DOWN! STAY! Whilst I got myself into position – ah yes that was a crazy course. Could never have worked that one with the girls that’s for sure. Raven went clear in Open and Masters Jumping – although with no help from me in Masters since I got lost (straight after running Spryte and losing the course with her too *eye roll*). And that was pretty much it from Geraldton. Spryte had no missed contacts or dropped bars all weekend, we had issues with the stick in the ground weavers and also issues with handler not being on the ball. I blame all the driving – must have lulled me into a far too relaxed state of brain waves. My reflexes were slower than a snail on crutches. My solution? Bring more caffeine next time. Oh and handle better.

Then today...GSDA trial. I only entered them in two runs each. Cypher ran a nice run in Masters Jumping (seventh out of sixteen quallies) knocked a bar in Masters Agility (he took off so early for a bar he must have clearly thought he was going to have the assistance of magically appearing wings), Raven knocked the third from last bar in Masters Jumping and went two better in Masters Agility knocking the last bar after a pretty quick and tidy run. Let me just take this opportunity here to mention a steadily growing peeve of mine at recent trials – call it superstition, call it distraction, call it not proofing your dog well enough over bars WHATEVER – however I am of the opinion that as a spectator (it’s a given that as the actual competitor on course you never even so much as THINK you’re home and hosed) you do NOT celebrate, cheer, congratulate, clap, applaud, give hearty vocalisations UNTIL the dog has crossed that finish line. I truly believe that yes you can jinx the run and yes it can distract the dog and yes it can make adult faces crumple in disappointment momentarily (or for longer...sometimes you just have to let it go) when that bar comes down. I have taken to running that final line (if I have the good fortune of being with my dog or even ahead of it...yes it does happen sometimes trust me) in silence and almost holding my breath. Which, come to think of it, probably explains the extreme panting at the end of it – by me rather than my dog...but I digress. So people – DO NOT CHEER UNTIL THAT DOG HAS CLEARED THAT FINISH LINE! Better yet...wait till they’re back at their crate/car getting jackpotted/treated/praised and having their wonders sung. Okay that’s a little extreme but I am trying to make a point here. Where was I? Ah yes today’s trial. Spryte was giving the Masters Jumping a good bash until she decided she’d go quicker if she’d just go THROUGH this bar instead of over it. Just because she sensed I was in a hurry. Sheesh. Then in Open Jumping the lure and draw of the distance challenge was just far too much to overcome the necessity of doing 12 whole weavers. Ten apparently would do. I disagreed. She saw the error of her ways and did twelve. It was all good.

So next weekend (long weekend YAY!!!!) is the first ADAA trials to be held here in Perth. Three days – stupidly I have about 24 runs entered on each day with three dogs (putting Raven in no more than four per day) and I have a strong feeling I’ll need another weekend to recover from my long weekend. Ahh whatever. It’s fun to run and I’m curious to see the difference between that and ANKC. Also I have the joy of turning 35 happening on Saturday. But it’s okay – I took the Facebook quiz that tells me my real age and it said 14 so I’m feeling much better about my 35th knowing that really I am just a total teenager. Hmmm...wonder what my Wii Fit will tell me is my age? Better go dust that Fit board thing off and find out.

Movies I’ve seen recently: Angels and Demons (recommend it, better than Da Vinci code and prettier city scenes), Night at The Museum 2, s’okay, wouldn’t pay full price for it. Ben Stiller really is quite two dimensional – Zoolander was his best effort I think. Wolverine Origins – saw that twice so would definitely recommend that one. On the wait list – Transformers 2 and Terminator Salvation. Have a tonne of books to read including Reif Larsen’s The Selected Works of TS Spivet which is about a 12 year old genius mapmaker and his crazy family – one tight lipped cowboy father, a scientist mother searching for mythological beetles and a possibly normal sister (who might not be) and a dog called Verywell who is definitely mad. Sounds like a hoot – plus there’s pictures. I always like the ones with pictures. Oh and one more thing – Spryte’s hopefully going to be a Mama for the first time this year. Her husband has been picked out and she’s due in season in June. Robyn at Winpara is doing the litter so fingers crossed we might see some Spryte bubs by the end of August or so. If anyone is interested in finding out more email Robyn at her site: http://www.winpara.com

Happy Birthday Raven!

Been back in Perth nearly a week now and have finally found the time to update my blog. I forewarn of much euphoric happiness in this post because yes, our trip was just that good. Better even than the Victorian Nationals last year (Even better than winning three events and making three finals!).
We left Perth around 4.30pm on a Thursday afternoon and the flight was pretty smooth and uneventful (apart from a guy falling unconscious momentarily and a concern that we might have to divert – no chest pains though so he survived just fine) and we landed in Canberra around ten past ten at night. I had ordered a Ford station wagon from the hire company which apparently translated to a Toyota Kluger 4wd. *Shrugs* No extra charge but not quite as roomy in the back as the station wagon so Spryte’s kennel travelled on a slant which was no problem for her – just annoyed me. But the superior driving experience of a nearly brand new Kluger made up for it. Took us around 45 minutes to follow Glenn and Robyn back to our accommodation which was about 35 minutes out of the Canberra CBD (and therefore in another state! We crossed over into NSW on the way!). The Christmas Cottage was great and is probably one of the best places to stay when you have dogs. Between the 8 of us we had 18 Border Collies and 1 German Pinscher and there was plenty of room for them to run around in.
Friday was a fairly laid back day – we trooped down to EPIC (Exhibition Park Showgrounds Canberra) to watch a bit of the herding, scope out the grounds, put up shade and collect numbers. That was all good and then we (Rosanna, myself and the three dogs) took off for a drive towards the Snowy Mountains and visited a very pretty little town called Cooma. I really wish I had taken my camera and taken pictures but it just got forgotten. Anyway this town was gorgeous and we had lunch there and the dogs got to run around a bit before we checked out a few spots for look outs and had some spectacular views. Stopped in at EPIC on the way back after stopping off at the grocery store to pick up a few items to give the dogs another opportunity to stretch their legs. Spryte was the only one going in the show and I soon realised the Canberra red dust was going to mean her bath on Thursday just wasn’t going to cut it for the whole weekend. Canberra grounds are very dry, red, caked and baked clay and dusty. We came home and had a BBQ with some decent scotch filet steak that I filled up on knowing I had 15 runs ahead of me the next day and knowing that I rarely have the time or the inclination to eat anything at trials.
Next day we were up at 6am in order to get our asses into gear quick enough to get down there for 7.30am given the first showing event was on at 8.30 and that people would be walking the first course in agility then. I also had to give Spryte’s legs a clean up with some spray on water and soap, the soap ended up a lovely caramel colour by the time I’d finished but with a bit of talcum powder she was looking freshly bathed again so all was good! Novice Agility was first and none of us were in that but next up was Excellent Agility and it was a nice flowing course that didn’t look to have too many possible problems. Spryte found one though! Deciding to self release on the a frame because apparently she knew where the course was going next, she cut across the front of my feet and took a spread jump backwards instead of heading to her left and onto the seesaw! Instant DQ but I was happy with her run apart from that. Next up was Open Agility and this was nested with Excellent so it was no time before we were walking this one with the distance being a number of jumps on a pinwheel. They started with the 400 height and so Spryte was up pretty quick and I am pleased to say she did this one perfectly, held her seesaw and handled very nicely to go clear and eventually win the class! This is awesome because Raven won this class back at the first BC National in Sydney 2006. Raven also did the course beautifully but I think the first run of the day and she was feeling a touch punchy and decided to apply her brakes a little late on the seesaw the first time and came off it when it was still in the air! After we redid that though she had no issues with any other contacts all day. Cypher was going very well till about 5 obstacles from the end when he hit the weavers for the first time and didn’t quite cope with how springy they were as they were nowhere near as pegged as we have them here and he kinda bounced off the first two poles more than usual and it literally looked like he got sling shotted out of them and missed a gap! He kept weaving completely oblivious! The dag! Took him back and redid them after realising he needs more of a stride check before entering these poles. Apart from the weavers his run was very smooth.
Masters Agility up next and just Raven and Cypher in this one. Raven handled like a dream even with her handler interrupting her flow a little when she pulled her off the right jump and had to bring her round! Raven was heading straight for the spread and for some reason in my head I had “No no! We pull right hard here Rave!” Well yes Simone you pull hard AFTER the spread you idiot! Anyway we ran clear in that one with her doing everything perfectly and it was good enough to win the Masters Agility class at the 2nd BC National! Onya Rave! And on your 9th birthday too! How cool is that?
Cypher did everything I asked and I couldn’t have wanted anything else from him but I think I must have overcompensated (read: got a little paranoid) about the weavers thing because I ended up getting a refusal at the weavers with my dithering about getting him to stride check more – he just ended up barking in my face as though asking what my problem was and are we doing the weavers or not?? Ooops. Oh well you get that...his run was very nice apart from that little glitch.
From there we started the Masters Gamblers class and in the meantime the judges went for lunch and we could walk it as much as we needed to. Spryte was busy up in the showring by then with Robyn and I am pleased to say that from about 42 Intermediate females in that show class she got cut to the top 11. I was just chuffed she made the shortlist! Then I was back down planning for Raven’s course in Masters Gamblers. I was grateful to see no pissy little weave points – so no 4 poles or 6 or 8 poles....there was just the 12. And they were in the gamble with the dogwalk between you and your dog. The trickiest part was getting them on the right angle going into the gamble so that their momentum would take them out to the weave poles. I actually finished my opening sequence quicker than I thought (I had anticipated Raven tiring fairly quickly as 45 seconds is longer than she spends on any course usually) so getting the angle wasn’t a problem in the end and she completed the Masters Gamblers class clear and with enough points and a fast enough time to win! So that’s her second National Masters Gamblers win after taking out the Victorian ones last year.
Excellent Gamblers next and the gamble nowhere near as hard this time so I tried to make sure we got the weavers in twice and did all the contacts twice, Cypher gave me everything and I was absolutely thrilled with it despite a nail biting moment in the gamble section where he nearly didn’t find the dogwalk due to the less than ideal angle I’d put him onto the gamble with! But I just kept up my verbal cues (read:yelling) and he eventually got the message....luckily fast enough to complete the gamble, make enough points go clear and win it! What an awesome day it was turning out to be! Raven had completed two winning runs so far, Spryte had Open Agility and now Cypher had Excellent Gamblers.
Novice Gamblers was next and the gamble this time was completely different – four simple jumps made much less simple by having them span across the middle of the course virtually! It would be a challenge to make sure that A. The dogs didn’t take more than one of them in a row in the opening and B. To make sure that none of those bars got knocked! I came up with a plan for Spryte that steered most of her opening sequence as far away from those jumps as possible but that still accumulated enough points – I didn’t quite get through all of my opening sequence plan (seems the contacts were not quite what they were at the start of the day funnily enough and we had to redo an aframe) however we garnered enough points to pass and just had a minor hiccup with the last jump of the gamble, she’d thought we’d finished but then realised when I was still frantically running the gamble line and arm signalling the last jump that perhaps she had one more jump to do! The last jump was at a different angle so she just didn’t see it in her path. Thankfully she did it in time and surprisingly for me (since we didn’t get all the points we could have) she won this class too! The last half of the day was dedicated to jumping and we started with Masters Jumping. Brian Hillier designed a fast flowing course with a couple of subtle challenges. Raven and I got on the start line and it turned out to be one of those runs that you just want to bottle. She and I were totally in sync and the run was one of the smoothest, tightest MJ runs we’ve done in a while. I knew when we finished that it was a good time and she was more than ten seconds under the SCT. I was kind of grinning like an idiot by that stage, not quite believing the day could go any better. And then Cypher surprises me...I ran hard, really hard and he was with me the whole time on that course never letting me get to far in front of him, his ground speed will never be as fast as Raven’s but with closer handling his turns can be tighter and as a result he finished that run less than a second and a half behind Raven which for him is something special. Ultimately Raven and Cypher ended up in 1st and 2nd place respectively and really? Can’t do better than that. *Is still beaming*
Open Jumping was next and Spryte was first up in that and she felt a little slow through the weavers so I was wondering if she was feeling tired. Anyway she pointed out a challenge to me that I hadn’t recognised when I was walking it and couldn’t see a jump in a side by side jump tunnel discrimination. So I fixed that with Raven but by then I could see the efforts of the previous four runs had taken their toll and she dropped a bar. We finished that course with the one fault and I had never been more pleased with her than that day – she’d had a ball and had worked really hard to give me everything she had. That bar only came down because of a lack of confidence in my directional cues so for a dog who I have spent vast amounts of time on working on her bar knocking this effort today was just absolutely brilliant. Cypher came the closest to a clear on this one, he was four obstacles from home and shot out of a straight flexi tunnel so fast that I was unable to redirect his trajectory quick enough to avoid a refusal on a jump set slightly offside before the last line of jumps to the finish line. Think I must have been feeling tired by then too. It didn’t bother me in the slightest though I must admit...the day had been brilliant enough!
Last run of the day was about 5pm in the afternoon and they were hurrying to get through the runs before the light went. Spryte was in Excellent Jumping. And given her run in Open Jumping I decided she must be feeling as tired as I was by that stage (I had had little sleep the night before and had even consumed a V energy drink during the day which I normally avoid) and so I had given her a small handful of Advance biccies in some water after Open Jumping, hoping that might pep her up for Excellent Jumping. I don’t know if those helped or if she’d just managed to sneak in a super power nap between OJ and EJ but she was firing! We had about 18 obstacles and we finished that course clean and in 20.23 seconds! I think adrenaline was the only thing powering me by that stage and somehow I managed to keep up and a little ahead (the course design did help that – plus a dog happy to run straight out to a tunnel whilst you got your own ass in a better position) and we finished our last run of the day off with a win! Yes, I’m still beaming.
I was a little shell shocked by our successes that day I must admit. I’ve been playing this sport for nearly 14 years now and never has anything gone quite that well all day for me. I’ve had great days for sure and I can recall them just as vividly but this? This was just amazing...and all on Raven’s 9th birthday. A dog currently in remission from Canine Lymphoma and still receiving chemo. Out of the nine events I had entered that day, between the three of them they managed to carry off the first places from seven of them! I’m so happy I got to take them all. Spryte’s improvement from her first trip east back in August last year to now is really quite noticeable and I have to admit that whilst I know she will never be another Raven (honestly I don’t think there ever could be no matter how fast they were) she is proving to be just as much fun to run in her own right as Raven is. When the time comes for Raven to retire I just know Spryte is going to be just as much of a thrill to run as Raven was.
I managed to get some photos of the dogs - thanks to Lara Sedgeman, one of the National photographers and I post them here. For all her agility photos of the Nationals go here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/GunShotPhotos

Cypher looks rather pleased to be free of those weavers!

A four shot Cy On Seesaw sequence - he's really quite polite
waiting for the cue to leave - either that or he's just making
sure we can all see his best side.

I think this was Open Jumping - so not the pretty
jumping style Cypher!

Performing the difficult distance challenge with style!

Cy on the Masters Jumping course - on his way to second place!
Note the improved jumping style on this one!

Cy on the Excellent Gamblers course having fun!

Raven's first run of the day - seems her ABS was not quite
up to par!


So we did that one again - and this time did it right!

Lara took good shots of Raven weaving!

Mandatory dog running photo - complete with shaved hock!
Having a ball on the Masters Gamblers course.

On her way to first place in Masters Agility!

Same jump two different courses! Top one Open Jumping
bottom one Masters Jumping!

Last run of the day and looking a little tired on the
Open Jumping course.

Two shot sequence of Spryte's winning Open Agility
seesaw! She totally looks like one of those frou frou showdogs here!

Spryte weaving!

See what I mean about the Open Jumping feeling a bit slower?

Great tunnel photos - thanks Lara!!

And our last run of the day - no more feeling tired we were
hooning round this one!

So the upshot of this trial is that we came home with a seven brand new Silver Eagle Cool Coats, embroidered with the Nationals logo, a brand new Black Dog trialling gear bag (thanks to Cypher’s 2nd place in MJ) and seven 9kg bags of Purina Pro Plan. No I didn’t bring those back on that plane with me. I managed to sell four thank goodness and bring one bag home (along with a 2kg bag) and only ended up having to give away two of the bags. I’ve sold two of the Cool Coats, I’m keeping three so still have two available for sale if anyone is interested. They retail between $105 and $120 and I’m selling these for $100 each. The National logo on it is quite nice if anyone is interested let me know. Of course I need to show what the coats look like. :-)

Raven

Spryte

Cypher

The Three Amigos

Now I’m pretty sure that Spryte has her JDX title but it seems I cannot find her cards for it. The cards I’ve found add up to four passes so far. I am going to have to go back through her results to see if I can find them and see if I can find the cards. Or maybe I’m wrong. Either way she has picked up her fourth pass for ADO so only one more to go on that one and she is now into Excellent Gamblers. She has also one more pass to go for ADX. Cypher has one more pass to go for his SPDM title and one more to go for SDX. Raven is now sitting on one pass left for SPDM, three for GDM still (that seems a lot to me but again I can’t seem to locate any more cards) and four for Masters Snooker. The next trial up is another games trial so that will be good to try and finish off some titles. As soon as Raven has her GDM title though I’ll only enter her at big events for that one – 60 seconds non stop at that level of intensity definitely takes it out of her energy wise (not to mention my obvious need for oxygen at the end of those runs and I’m not even doing any obstacles!) so really unless it’s a National or a Royal or a Classic we won’t be doing the GDM class too often.
Since being back the most I’ve done is take the dogs for a run around the Canine grounds so it will be back to training next week, our next big event being the State Agility trial I guess, Friday and Saturday April 17th and 18th. Spryte will need much more repetition on her contacts and further proofing. There are lots of smaller less used skills that we need to work on too. I was very pleased with her start lines all day Saturday, she was in a rock solid sit on all of them and I should remember not to let up on the reinforcement of that during our training sessions. The next Border Collie National is being hosted by the Tasmanian Border Collie club – hopefully in 2012. I just hope it’s in the latter half of 2012 because I’ll need some financial recovery time after doing a trip of around 5 months at the end of 2011, early 2012 to the US, Canada and Alaska. But I must admit I’ve always wanted to visit Tassie and really – what a perfect reason to do so. I’d definitely make it a two week trip at least I’d think. It would be fantastic if they could organise it in school holiday time but that could be just me.

In non-agility related news caught a horror flick last night at the cinemas – Friday the 13th and have to say, for a person who never does horror films usually, I was entertained.
One might suggest I’m easily entertained these days but I beg to differ, I am pretty sure the older you get the harder it is to be entertained by things whether they be people, books, movies, tv or various other past times. Perhaps it is because the genre is quite new to me, cinematically speaking that is. Anyway as far as horror movies go I can see why it broke opening box office records for the horror genre in the US. It did help that it had one of the Supernatural boys in it I suppose but still....worth the $8 voucher tickets we used.
Probably better than My Bloody Valentine as well (sorry Jensen) because there was a definitely much more on the edge of your seat kind of feel to it.

Another hobby I am currently trying to cram into my somewhat bursting schedule is learning the piano. I came home from Canberra to a Casio piano keyboard (yay for Mr Tim! *mwha*) and I am determined to learn how to play my favourite pieces of music.
It could be a challenge because I am not that keen on the actually learning how to read music part but god bless the internet and Youtube for wonderful How To Play videos that show you where to put your hands and fingers. In the back of my mind I’ve always had the impression that it’s a pretty special talent to be able to play the piano but in just these past few days I have come to be just in awe of those world renowned piano players because who knew how hard it is to have your left and right hand doing totally different things AT THE SAME TIME!!!! Honestly you’d think having the whole Gemini thing going on, split or twin personalities that I’d be able to just flounce on in and start playing but no...it would seem something like playing a beautiful classical piece takes practice and a helluva lot of concentration! Who knew!?!! No matter, I shall persevere and probably drive Tim mad playing the same thing over and over but in the end I and my piano playing skills (once I acquire some) shall prevail!

March and musings

I can’t believe it’s March already. See this is another thing wrong with the whole human time framing system. (In addition to the whole childhood/teenage education thing). Time should feel like it is passing slower the older you get – but seriously when you’re little everything takes sooo long and yet when you’re an adult and getting older years seem to go by even faster. There’s just something wrong with that!

Irrespective of my grumbles about the rapid passing of time I am here to update and update I will. Although it is barely March really and I will probably be breaking with tradition and posting more than once this month. Staggering I know but there you have it, call me my own rule breaker.
First off – news about the 2010 National. I have none. As in I am not involved with the committee this time except to offer my services as website maker/manager etc. I am still on the Agility Committee so I will kind of be kept in the loop about what is going on however there has been no schedule finalised yet, all I can tell people is that it will go for four days and runs from the Thursday the 29th of April to the Sunday May 2nd next year. And the Agility committee is currently training up stewards for it so we shall have plenty. I have managed to combine my work place with agility by asking students at my school if they would like to help us out. Now yes they get a small fee and given dinner and refreshments but most of these kids are now attending because they enjoy it and it gives them something to do. It’s weird though – having the kids call me Miss in front of everyone at agility who just knows me as Simone. But so far the feedback has been great and they are certainly conducting themselves well. Their enthusiasm and energy is good for the sport and who knows maybe some of them will want to try it out with their dogs so it works out for everyone all round especially with year 10 students having to complete 20 hours of community service each year.

So onto the first trial for March. Last night it was held as a Games trial fundraiser for the Obedience committee who are hosting the October 10th Obedience National here this year. I faired fairly well in this one gaining six passes out of nine runs and finishing a few titles off. Spryte ran with partner Guirmere Snazzy and gained a quallie and 2nd place to finish off their titles. We were a couple of seconds behind the first place getters and I am blaming Cathy entirely for that one because her idea of yelling and my idea of yelling are probably about ten decibels in difference. But YAY title! Then Nifty and Raven won Masters Strategic Pairs despite Raven always managing to fit in extra obstacles. Can only find six cards though so yeah still waiting on one more leg there! Cypher and Smudge also ran clear in Masters Strat Pairs and finished 4th or 5th I can’t remember except to say we must have had some seconds wasted somewhere – probably when Cypher decided barking and jumping all over me between sequences is the best fun ever.

Snooker and Cypher won Excellent Snooker and I am feeling very virtuous by saying that I held his criteria throughout the whole game his four on the floor contacts were held before I gave the release word each time. Masters Snooker Raven came second in to Terra – the girls had the same points but the four year age difference definitely came into play with the speed as Terra beat Raven by about 5 seconds! I can’t believe Raven is going to be nine years old next week! Spryte and Snooker Novice was going great guns till the closing when she decided to do her trick on the dogwalk contact and I picked her up and walked out.

Gamblers and Raven was going great guns in Masters, the scribe telling me she was running out of room to write points down however I made the stupid error of trying to squeeze in another dogwalk just as the whistle blew and I couldn’t turn her around off the dogwalk and had to finish it and thus those fifteen seconds to get the gamble done was just too tight for her but I was absolutely thrilled with how she’d run as it’s a very taxing run the Masters gamblers and far more running than she’d do on any regular courses. Excellent Gamblers with Cypher ran just how I planned it and I was very pleased with everything he did, nailing his contacts, jumping well and just very in tune with me. We connected well on that course and even though I felt like I needed oxygen at the end of it I really enjoyed it. That was his GDX title finally and a third place. Spryte had issues in Novice Gamblers and not just with a dogwalk – for some reason doing 12 weavers was deemed too hard. We eventually got our points for them but she popped them at least three times that I remember. We left after doing (or not doing two on two off) the dogwalk. Needless to say dogwalks and weavers will be DRILLED this week.

And in my usual style of posting random real life thoughts at the end of my entries - I want to learn piano. As in the playing of it. Not so much the reading of sheet music thing. Surely the expression play it by ear evolved from doing just that with a piano? Besides YouTube is great for teaching me where to put my fingers on keys. Bizarre moment of the week at school - there's this new energy drink out called Rock Star (clearly not aimed at any kind of market demographic with that labelling is it? *rolls eyes* - could have just called it Just For Egocentric Teens with Stars in the Eyes). A can was intercepted by one of the teachers at our school. A 750ml can. A can that has on it, in tiny letters - "not suitable for children and you should not consume more than 500 ml per day". Did I mention the can contained 750 mls?? It was taken off a kid who bounces off the walls quite well without any kind of artificial help - the can contains 100GRAMS of sugar and a 120 mls of caffeine! *shudders* Seriously people should have to provide a driver's license to buy this stuff and here we are with 12 to 14 years olds drinking it like it's just your average soft drink! That's just crazy.

If you squint hard I didn't actually miss my February post

The new and improved monthly update style continues for the month of February. Ok yes I know it’s March already but I had a February update ready to go for a while now. It was just in my head instead of on the blog. I’m always told it’s the thought that counts. Anyway Feb was kind of a fairly quiet month by way of agility. I have probably entered Spryte in as many shows as trials in a bid to make sure she knows all about the show ring stuff by the time we fly to the BC Nationals in the first week of March.

I am not a huge fan of the showring scene. For one it all feels less productive, purposeful to me than say training for agility. I’m sure it’s all perspective really but showing requires more prep just prior to the show and it’s all so subjective it really feels like much more of a gamble on a lottery than agility ever does. But it has its purpose for the breeders and as Spryte will be being bred from I guess it’s important that she demonstrates she’s a good example of the breed. Although whether or not the showring is the place to adequately prove that is a topic of hot debate.

So far from around five or six shows she’s picked up about three reserve challenges and one challenge award, so at least she is on her way towards her Champion title with regards to points. I’m glad that when she titles eventually she’ll have titles at both ends – including herding titles so I feel it gives a little more credence to the claim of good example of the breed. If I can get out of actually showing her I will and Robyn shows her for me. She showed Raven to most of her points. I am far more relaxed walking onto an agility course than into a showring and all I can put that down to is lack of experience in the showring. I don’t do it all the time and therefore never become immune to that nervous feeling. Also the feeling that I may just do something that possibly means the judge decides not to pick my dog. As I said it’s all so arbitrary and subjective that I find the whole scene puzzling at the best of times and downright bizarre at the worst of times. So we’ll keep entering shows (that don’t clash with agility trials) and hope that she’ll get there. She’s a nicely put together bitch (and I mean that in all senses of the word) and can move like a dream and judges who are not too pedantic about size should like her.

So February I did the Albany trip and in terms of the trial it wasn’t a roaring success, barely simmering really with only one pass from twelve runs it clearly wasn’t our weekend in that department. I wasn’t disappointed by many of my runs though so that was good – there’s a difference between not passing and having disastrous runs to show for it and not passing and being very happy with the runs just having one unlucky fault each time. Raven and Spryte had a few of those. Cypher just couldn’t seem to keep his bars up this weekend.

After that it was all very quiet till just this weekend gone. Friday February 27th was a games trial hosted by the Agility Committee raising funds for the 2010 Nationals. Had the three of them in everything and did quite well – Raven won Masters Snooker, came second in Masters Strategic Pairs with her usual partner Guirmere Nifty Lad and in Masters Gamblers she just knocked the second last bar in the gamble section on the way home. It was a shame as she probably would have won that one having done everything well and truly twice. But I was mostly pleased with how well she’s running and trying really hard for me. She still has five more chemo treatments to go.
Cypher came second in Excellent Snooker and did a really smooth run for me so very happy with that, he paired up with Lexi (Hotnote Electri Cute) for Masters Strat Pairs and they finished with a quallie and third place. Of course after making me run like a mad thing for 45 seconds in Excellent
Gamblers he knocked a bar in the gamble so we didn’t pass that one.

Spryte’s first run was a cracker and I was wrapt with her contacts in Novice Gamblers. She nailed two beautiful contacts on both the dogwalk and the aframe. Did everything I asked and ended up with a quallie and 4th place overall. There was a bit of a mix up with how the obstacles in the actual gamble were scored so unbeknownst to me I missed out on boosting her opening points by not doing any of the obstacles in the gamble. But I was extremely happy with that run. She then let her evil twin out to play and decided that she didn’t know what two on two off on the dogwalk meant anymore in Novice Snooker so we left that ring without finishing. No passes in Novice Strat Pairs as a bar came down and we had decided not to rescue.

So then we were at Saturday and this was another fundraising trial for the Nationals in 2010. Just a normal trial this time and I entered my guys in everything as a prep for next Saturday in Canberra when they will each be doing five runs that day at the BC Nationals. So after the games I was quite prepared to blow off the entries for all of Spryte’s runs in order to maintain criteria in the ring. After doing gamblers where they do contacts several times without reward it is difficult to get those contacts back for newer dogs. So inevitably in both Excellent Agility and Open Agility Spryte was carried out the ring in both due to her let’s try the whole four in the colour of the dogwalk thing and see if she lets me keep going. I didn’t. I walked straight up to her, picked her up off the dogwalk and withdrew from the ring. I then went and found a spare dogwalk plank and drilled her two on two off again. Never missed one. Excellent Jumping we passed and I thought that was our title but I can’t seem to find the cards – so maybe not. But she ended up with a quallie and third place overall after we had a slight glitch in our run where I had to bring her around me to line her up properly for a jump after she curved in on a line. Open Jumping she missed the distance challenge but I didn’t feel disappointed about that since there was only one quallie for the entire class and neither Raven nor Cypher got the distance challenge either.

Raven came second in Masters Agility and did a lovely run I was very pleased with her given the course was quite technical and challenging. There were only about five or six passes. Cypher managed to knock the very first bar. Nothing like a first bar down to deflate your sails. Of the two I would rather have the last bar down because at least then you know you have run the rest of the course perfectly. He did a lovely run in Masters jumping though finishing about 6th out of 12 or 14 qualifications and it was a run that felt nicely in sync so that was good. He had a bar down in Open Agility and missed the distance in Open Jumping. Raven also had one bar down in Open Agility (the same one!) and she had a handler problem in Masters Jumping – me being slack and there was no reason to be I just thought I could cut a corner that I clearly had no right cutting!

So that concluded our February trialling month. In other news 600 litre fishtanks overflow if you leave hoses running in them (tiny baby fish get to go for wild rides), seeing horror movies in 3D (My Bloody Valentine) almost negates the squeamish factor of seeing an eyeball stuck on the point of a pickaxe as it goes through some guys head and comes out the screen towards you and Joe Satriani’s Satch Boogie is a track that makes your fingers ache on Guitar Hero World Tour.
More importantly though – my Dad is a match for my Mum and he is going to be donating his left kidney to her in the near future. That was the news that has kinda made this long weekend one of the best in a long time.

And now in new MONTHLY fashion...

Doing my level best to try and keep this blog more of a monthly and less of a quarterly edition thing this year. Hence I am getting this post in BEFORE work takes over my life once again. So trialling successes of late...we’ve only had two trials back this year so far and I am for the most part very happy with how the dogs are running and how my calf muscle has healed up allowing me to go run again. On the Saturday the 17th Cloverdale held their fun teams and gamblers event. Games in WA are still a rarity although looking at the Canine News we seem to have quite a few coming up thank goodness. There is a reason why so few dogs have their Masters titles in any games over here and it is really form a total lack of games being offered. There seems to be about three lines of thought when it comes to games – there are those who would rather games were dropped all together in favour of regular agility and jumping events because there are serious arguments for the fact that doing the games with our dogs is actually counter intuitive with their training. To a certain extent I agree (that it is counter intuitive not that they should be dropped all together). I refuse to do anything less than 12 weave poles in the gamblers classes as I have seen plenty of evidence that weave pole performance in regular events can decline due to dogs repetitively doing 4 or 8 or 6 poles in games. Some die hards may argue if the poles are trained correctly then the dog should just weave however many are in front of them regardless of what they have just done in a gamblers class. My answer is our dogs are not robots and that muscle memory is a strong element of their performance and there is no way I should be calling my dog out for not completing 12 poles when I have just asked her to do 4 and 8 poles only over and over in another ring. Weaves for high drive dogs are a huge control issue. Most dogs who like to run flat out and have strong drive to complete obstacles and just run as fast as they can would see poles as a frustrating obstacle. Our fastest dogs here in the West frequently can be witnessed barking, growling, yipping vocally whilst stuck doing the poles. I may be anthropomorphising a little here but frankly I think they get pissed when their handlers can take off on them to get further ahead and they are stuck doing the poles, they literally have to apply serious self control to make sure they get all the poles done properly – letting them do 4 and 8 poles over and over is just like giving them the okay to do that elsewhere. So hence in a gamblers class I will rarely use the 4 or 8 pole option and must admit I get a little grumpy if the 12 poles are not an option because automatically my possible points are restricted. Another element of retroactive behaviours seen and allowed in games is dogs getting to do whatever obstacles are in front of them irrespective of handlers plans, on the way to gamble lines or sequences in Strat Pairs if dogs take obstacles the handler doesn’t intend them to take it has no bearing on qualifying. This does lead to slackness on the handler’s part and also more out of control behaviours by the dogs on courses. So I can see the point of view of those who don’t like games and want to see them dropped. However I truly believe that with the right approach and outlook games can serve an excellent purpose in training as well. Again people are probably thinking – Here she goes again...she’s training in the ring Ummmm Ahhhhhh! Well. Tough. The only person it affects in games is the judge, myself and the dog. I don’t use up any extra time so I don’t see a problem. Example: The other night in Excellent Gamblers Cypher didn’t quite give me his proper four of the floor behaviour on his dogwalk the first time round. Rather than rush off and try and stick to our plan of doing a course that would give us all the needed points I decided then and there to work his contacts. So we did the dogwalk, aframe and seesaw several times over till I was happy with the performance he gave me and the whistle blew. We were completely out of place when the whistle blew but I tried to get us down there (he took a seesaw on the way which I should have insisted on a finished behaviour for him but I rushed him which was stupid) however we ran out of time to do the gamble. I’d rather blow a games entry like that (making sure his contacts are consistent because no way could I have done the contacts that often in a regular agility event) than get all hung up on getting the pass. Gamblers allows you to correct things straight away if you are not happy with them and that’s why I will always play that game. Snooker is a little different. But again it comes down to clever handling. I think people get all hung up on where they have to go and what they have to avoid and what points they get and stress themselves out way too much about these things. Snooker can be just like a normal regular Novice/Excellent or Masters Agility course. So long as you can cope with not having your course numbered in the usual way. Yes you have to have a course planned in your head. But really all it is, is single bar, obstacle, single bar, obstacle, single bar, obstacle then closing sequence. You can make it as easy or as hard as you like especially in Novice and Excellent. Masters might be a little more difficult (well okay sometimes it’s a LOT more difficult but hey that’s why it’s called Masters) but for the most part you can run a course. Strat Pairs is a little different from both Snooker and Gamblers in terms of negative and positive aspects. And probably I can see with some high drive, very fired up dogs that it could create huge problems but it also depends on how well you handle and plan your attack. You don’t have to rescue if you don’t want. That can be an agreement right there that will make things easier for you. You don’t have to have a gazillion change overs. You can choose to work particular sequences according to your dog’s strengths or even if you want to reinforce behaviours you can choose to take on certain obstacles. So the games, ultimately can work for you or against you and I think it’s up to the individual on how they want to approach them. Me? I am of the – well I love running agility and doing trials so if games are all that’s on offer I will take them up and still do my level best to maintain the same criteria I have for any other agility or jumping event. So the three train of thoughts are (returning to my clearly derailed point I was trying to make from earlier) – 1) Games suck, get rid of them 2) Games are great because I can get away with crap training and crap handling and still pass 3) Games are good because I can treat them like regular classes and it’s just more opportunities to play agility. Also people might have the concept that the games are less competitive than regular agility and jumping – which is quite possible but is certainly not going harsh my sense of pride in achieving three games wins at the last Nationals that’s for sure.

Here endeth the unplanned rant about games. Geez. I have no idea where that came from – whatever, we have lots of games coming up so maybe now’s a good time to say it. Where was I? Ah yes Cloverdale. So whilst Cy and I had a good practice run in the ring in Excellent Gamblers he pulled off two lovely runs for the team in Agility and Jumping, going clear in both helping the team to 2nd place out of 23. Raven had two nice runs as reserve for the team – one bar in Jumping and one missed bar in Agility. Gamblers was a little different and brought home to me the full impact really of her dislocated hip from last year. We were in Masters and she was flying round the course – running contacts being her forte meaning she could gather all her points fairly fast and in good time – whistle blew and I knew we couldn’t mess around so I head down for the gamble line and she must have though we were heading out so I had to make a sharp call to get her to turn to the gamble line. She turned but then for the first time in seven and a half years of competing in trials she stopped dead on course and just looked at me. No yelps or cried of pain just stopped running all together. Looking at me with the oddest expression, ears up and alert. My stomach dropped immediately and then I just patted my leg to see if she’d trot over to me and she trotted over to me fine. No lameness or soreness. She was, to all intents and purposes, totally sound. We left the ring and I let her warm down, watching her all the while, she was keen as usual for her treats and I started wondering. I recalled the course and then the turn she made and realised that was the exact same kind of turn on that side of her hip when she dislocated it. I daresay she felt a twinge or something and that rather vivid memory I am sure came crashing back about the day she had slammed it into the dislocation on course. Here is my nearly nine year old seriously kami kaze Border Collie who looks like she might just have developed a skerrick of self preservation for once. Whilst I wish I could take that day back in hindsight it really does look like it has given her little bit more caution about throwing her little body round the course without a care in the world. She went onto run the agility course last night and it was all good. So I may not have the fiercely lunatic insanely mad Raven on course anymore and I think that has to be a good thing in terms of her own safety.

Spryte had a very good night for her first trial back. She ran as a reserve for another team and had two beautifully clear and super fast runs that I was extremely pleased with. Start lines were great, contacts were good and we ran very in tune with each other. The Novice Gamblers we went in uncovered the dogwalk contact weakness though as she started to do her four in the colour trick again. So I made the decision then and there to just work her contacts not caring if we passed or not. Somehow she still managed to get enough points to pass even after working the contacts several times over. So that was a nice surprise at the end of the night.

The following Friday was a fundraiser trial run by the Agility committee, gearing up for the Nationals here in 2010. Spryte had a great night going clear in three out of four runs (picking up three first places in the 400 class and three third places overall) only missing the Open jumping pass because I momentarily forgot she’s still a baby dog really and doesn’t just do obstacles in her way. The only thing I wasn’t happy about was her dogwalk contact and I am going to be working on that intensively for the next month or so before the BC Nationals. Cypher had two runs and ran clear in Masters Agility, saving my ass a couple of times when I didn’t give him the clearest of directions and knocked one bar in Masters Jumping (probably because I was in a huge hurry as the judge had measured the course wrong and given a wrong course time – Cy was a second over course time) but I was very happy with his efforts. Raven had two runs and did a cracker run in Agility but I gave a late turn command (probably my subconscious still worried about her hip) and she took a jump off course and in Masters Jumping...well let’s just say various factors came into play causing me to get the course completely wrong. And that’s all I have to say about that.

But speaking of Spryte I would like a comprehensive inexhaustible list called 1001 Ways to Proof your Two On Two Off Contact. So far I have:

1) Will send over dogwalk and get into position without handler moving. (Handler can be at any point within a 20 meter radius)

2) Will wait and be called over dogwalk getting into position without handler moving (Handler stands at any point with 20 meter radius of the end of the contact)

3) Will hold position when handler blows by at any speed and at any angle on either side.

4) Will hold position when handler front crosses with side.

5) Will hold position is handler runs in opposite direction past the contact.

6) Will get into position if handler only runs halfway, quarter way, three quarter way and stops dead.

7) Will hold position even when other dogs blast by chasing favourite toy

8) Will hold position even if handler throws favourite toy or food past the contact

9) Will hold position even when handler is talking, praising yelling and wait for release word.

10) Will run into position regardless of how far laterally the handler runs away from the contact.

Can anyone thing of anymore??

Back to work Thursday. Movies I’ve seen on the holidays (this is me comforting myself with the affirmation that I actually did non job/chore/errand related activities on holidays):

1) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Do NOT see if you are looking for light hearted, uplifting movie that will leave you feeling all happy) Very good dramatic film, excellent acting even more superb makeup and a truly unique story. F.Scott Fitzgerald deserves his vaunted place in literary history.

2) Yes Man – Yes, yes I know you are probably not a huge fan of Jim Carrey (the number of people I speak to I have to wonder how the man makes money as so few people actually list him as one of their favourite actors but I digress) but anyway. This story was good, light, funny and very entertaining and with an underlying message that pops up in my head on a disturbingly frequent basis. Here’s a quote from it that I like: The world's a playground. You know that when you are a kid, but somewhere along the way everyone forgets it.

3) Tropic Thunder – Irreverent and hilarious – it’s worth it just for Robert Downey Junior and Ben Stiller’s performances alone, also it has reduced the size of the stick I envision up Tom Cruise’s ass as his performance is really quite jaw dropping (and that’s more in the “Oh my god I can’t believe he looks like that and says those things” than the “Oscar performance right there” way)

4) Gabriel (Aussie made movie on DVD) – I’m all interested in the stories at the moment...the whole Angels falling to Earth, What’s Michael’s gig and wow Gabriel is really a bad ass warrior arch angel isn’t he? I like reading about the mythology around the fall and the creation of Lucifer and all that kind of thing. Possibly Supernatural the TV show is seeping a little deep into my psyche these days but I just find it all profoundly fascinating. And this movie scratched that itch. It has a Dark City feel to it and it was a good watch for me.

5) Zack and Miri Make a Porno – This was funny and amusing and also irreverent in a South Parkesque kind of way. Besides it had two actors in it from the Kevin Smith films and I have always been a fan of theirs. Good for a light hearted fluffy comedy hour and a half. And no i did not pay money to go see it at a cinema – we downloaded this one.

6) Madagascar 2 – Awesome! Loved it and the Penguins get way more screentime and I have decided they are the best animated characters EVER. It was as good if not better than the first one and at one point I laughed so hard I had tears of laughter running down my face. David Schwimmer as the hypochondriac giraffe is a sight to be seen.

7) Australia – Don’t care how many critics bagged this they clearly had the wrong expectations going into it. I loved it. Showcased outback Australia absolutely beautifully, the cinematography was stunning and Nicole Kidman was not only tolerable but even amusing in parts. Hugh Jackman was...well Hugh Jackman, nice to look at, good to hear and he played his character very well. Of course there are all underlying issues of race and gender and historical recounts etc etc but I don’t go to the movies for the visceral, critical academic conversations I plan on having with myself later, I go for the escapism and I poke my tongue out at anyone who wants to frown on my escapism parade.

8) Twilight – Saw that one twice. But with good reason. Read the book like 13 times already. You think I jest. Sadly I do not. The Twilight saga is kind of like the equivalent of my guilty crack literary addiction. Dare I use the word ‘literary’ in the same context without invoking the wrath of the critics of Literature with the big ‘L’? Yes I do dare. Twilight has hooked so many teenagers into reading it’s perceived trashiness and popcorn quality is far outweighed by its positive effects on kids and reading. Anyway – it’s a good vampire romance flick with an awesome Vampire baseball scene and a very amusing Bringing the human over to meet the Vamp family scene that makes me smile just thinking about it.

And that’s about it on the movie front. In other news I have decided that the Nintendo Wii is the BEST invention by a gaming company EVER. Seriously I cannot speak highly enough of it and I spent the first year after it came out mocking anyone who talked about it because honestly how lame is the name WII??? *smirks* Heh, wanna come over to my place for the wii? Wanna wii together? Yes I am probably five years old but I really do think the PR or marketing division of Nintendo should have anticipated the inevitable mocking of the name ‘Wii’. Anyway. We have one now and it is AWESOME. Finally a video game a kid can play all day and have done some exercise by the end of it. We have Wii Fit (plus Sport, Play and Guitar Hero 3 & World Tour) and I can tell you know that game is a workout and a half! Yoga, Muscle, Aerobics and Balance exercises that have been turned into GAMES. I’m sweating within 15 minutes of doing the stuff in that game but I never feel like stopping because it’s addictive. And I have this thing where I have to keep improving my score or I get very pissy. I have even changed my mind about the Utopian Classroom being filled with laptops. I want it filled with Wii consoles and monitors because you can do EVERYTHING interactively and using multiple muscle groups. So yes I am a born again wii convert addict. And Guitar Hero is very neatly scratching that itch I had a while ago to learn music...yes I know it’s not real music but seriously the hand eye coordination needed and the fact that you can make nice sounds and music happen is all good enough for me. Plus the fact that I think I’ll be in my 60s before I even get to look at expert level means the longevity of this game is limitless!

Your Quarterly update (looks shamefaced...briefly)

Hmmm. September 21st was the last update. That’s over three months ago now. There’s an awful lot of news to update on. My brain hurts just thinking about it all. I’d love to just give a dot point list but I just know that my particular brand of OCD runs to actually writing way more than I have to once I get started. So bear with me.
Next event up after September 21st was probably the Royal which took place from the 27th through to the 6th of October. Unfortunately there was a touch of bad news in between the Sept 21st update and the Royal. Thursday the 25th of September. Lying on my bed reading a book and Raven jumps up for a brief pat (Raven never likes too much physical attention so the pats are always brief or you receive that disdainful look of ‘I am only tolerating this now because you somehow manage to feed me everyday’) and as usual, my automatic response is to check for her nodes. My stomach dropped immediately when I felt two pea sized nodes that were not there previously. An hour later I’m with her at Murdoch and seeing Dr Amy Lane with what I am sure is a rather depressingly pissed off expression on my face telling her that I think her nodes are up. Amy can feel them too and asks if I want to leave it for a week or two and see if it’s just an infection. At this point I think a blithely fatalistic attitude comes over me and I shake my head, tell her that she should take a fine needle aspirate now and I’d like to stay for the results. So off Raven goes and within a half hour or so Amy comes back to confirm what I already knew really but still had that silly tiny persistent hope that maybe it was something else. The lymphoma was back the bone marrow transplant had not worked and now there really was no hope for a cure at all. Raven was a little confused in the car on the way home, on the one hand she hadn’t been left there for treatment but on the other her human was making some weird noises with some salty wet stuff running down her face, she gave me one of her rare displays of affection with a lick on the cheek that made me smile even whilst I raged at the unfairness of it all.

I had an appointment with Ken the following week, Amy had made it clear that nothing needed to be done urgently and to go home and start thinking about what we were going to do next.

In the meantime the Royal arrived and we competed as per usual. Cypher had a good Royal this year, the team he was in winning both the Agility and the Jumping teams events (Hurrahs all round for Karen and Riot, Kriszty with Jess and Terra!) and putting in a nice run in Masters Agility ending up in 4th place. Raven had her usual blast with the spectators and put in some nice runs with just one or two faults in each. I wasn’t fussed I just wanted to see her have a good time because of course being so close on the heels of the return of the lymphoma I had all these morbid thoughts that it could quite well be her last Royal show ever. So shoving that aside she managed to have a lot of fun, especially on the course with two dog walks and helped keep the spectators entertained. Spryte? Well Spryte had her first Royal and thoroughly enjoyed herself albeit with some very baby dog mistakes on courses. She did a ripper Novice Jumping run but knocked two bars, Novice Agility she missed the weaver entry and in the Open runs I think she had issues with some contacts and maybe the distance challenges. She wasn’t fazed by the atmosphere at all though and continued to show me that she does still have a few more gears to go through in terms of speed. She also got to have her first go in the show ring on the Wednesday and handled it all very well even without any show clothes on since the bath the night before was apparently her cue to drop all of her coat. She’s on the small side as it is, having no coat certainly didn’t help her chances! But she moved very nicely and was solid as a rock with the judge going over her so no complaints from me.

After the Royal we moved into the last couple months of the trialling season. In terms of Raven I met with Ken in the second week of the school holidays and he examined her and basically said that we should leave her be for now, she is still a well and healthy dog, the nodes, whilst up were still small (pea sized really) and that we should try and delay treatment for when she is really starting to feel the effects of the lymphoma. Me, being slightly paranoid about it all, was concerned that I’d delay too long and one morning wake up with a sick dog on my hands. Ken felt fairly safe in assuring me that due to her previous history whereby I tend to notice other signs prior to her feeling really unwell that it would be the right move to carry on the way we were and to just monitor her for any changes which thanks to the fact that she does agility I would more than likely pick up on due to her behaviour there. Raven is feeling unwell when she slows down on course, holds her start lines and contacts and keeps all her bars up oddly enough. Ken also said the longer she goes without the chemo (since the last dose) the more likely the chemo treatment will be effective. So we tried to last as long as possible and I checked her nodes everyday.

After the Royal was a couple of trials one held by Perth and a double header held by Rockingham. Perth was some expensive training runs for us I think. Cy had bar issues as did Raven and Spryte had multiple issues of which I, being the diligent trainer I am of late *lol*, of course made a list of to remember to work on. However we did have a good Rockingham trial – Raven actually won a very tricky Masters course which felt all very excellent except I finished the course with her with this vague sense of her actually having done most of it without me, she was that far in front of me it was as though she was reading numbers by herself! Spryte also pulled off an Excellent Agility win and I got to run Kriszty’s Terra in Open Agility for a win as well. So it was a successful day all round with Cypher also picking up a couple of cards and placements. ACWA’s trial was also in the month of October but we didn’t have any joy there and was notable for me for one reason only – it is the one and only time I have ever gone home from a trial early and scratched from runs because I was just too damn tired. Of course it now being Jan 2009 I cannot remember why I was sooo tired but only that I left a trial early. The GSDA trial also was held in October and I distinctly remember that trial being purely training for young Spryte. Here let me list her issues (all trainer related of course):

1) Startlines. She has this thing whereby she will come in on lead, sit in position, I go to clip the lead off and/or hand it to the steward she stands up. I say ‘Sit’ and she apparently has no idea what that means. This happens in trials only. And I won’t walk off on her unless she sits and it has started becoming a habit of which I am not fond of.

2) Contacts. Yes yes not enough reinforcement or consistent sticking to criteria here by me I know this. So I’ve started being tougher on them in trials. If I know at training that previous week she has done a 150 two on two off perfect contacts and she doesn’t give me the behaviour in the ring, I stop , say ‘Too bad’ ask her one more time for ‘Contact’ if she offers it I say ‘Good girl’ and leave the ring. If she runs through, I stop, ask for ‘Contact’, get the behaviour off her and leave the ring. It’s completely fixable. But it is simply time, effort and repetition and consistency. Which sounds simple when I type it like that but I must be slow when it comes to this one!

3) Bars. I am now stopping her for dropped bars. This dog jumps 600 with not too much effort, I always train on 500 and warm her up on 500 and she does that height with ease. There is absolutely no reason she should drop 400 bars even if I do say stuff over the bar, give her crappy angles onto them, surprise her with them or whatever. Again training issue. And see I know this is not a line of popular thought but to me a trial is a training session. Or it should be. People say train like you trial. I’d rather trial like I train. There will be frowns saying ‘Well that’s just taking all the fun out of it, or its disrespectful of the judge, or you are making your dog unhappy’. To me trialling/training should be the same. And I am lousy as making it that way. So that is what I am working on. If we stop in training for dropped bars we are gonna stop in trialling for dropped bars. Spryte knows (like all my other dogs know) when we leave a course without running for the usual amount of time that something went wrong. Doesn’t mean I don’t go straight up for my next run and we start with a clean slate again. She doesn’t get any less enthusiastic to run because I pulled her out of a ring less than five minutes ago. It’s fun running agility, it’s even more fun to go clear and you know what the most fun is? Going clear CONSISTENTLY. Sadly consistently is NOT a word that could ever apply in my case and that’s a goal I want to work on.

So yes those are my three main issues with her. Things that will always be worked on over time are the tightening up of turns, her acceptance and adaptability to spur of the moment, no doubt last second decisions front crosses. Never my forte but I insist on doing them sometimes (how else does one improve?) and yes dogs I am going to be doing them in some crappy places at crappy times and really I don’t need a bark or growl of abuse because I got in your way! Sheesh. I don’t know how it is for other breeds but all three of my Border Collies feel the need to vocalise their disagreement with my decision to perform a front cross right there when clearly all I am doing is slowing them down. Which, typically if front cross is performed poorly, I am doing but sometimes you know I’d just like a little more flexibility. On their part not mine.

Where was I? October....yes tick that month as done. November and this is the month where I decided enough was enough with Raven and took her back in to see Ken at their new facilities in Osborne Park. Ken had moved from Murdoch due to his expanding clientele and lack of space at Murdoch. So brand new facilities in Selby Street along with a specialist surgeon and two radiographers. Raven christened the Consultation room by being the first consult in there, along with about 8 vet students. She is currently on the front page of their promo pamphlet as well doing her agility thing. That’s a little bittersweet – I’d much rather she’d never have to have anything to do with Oncology at all but then again I like the fact that she’s seen as a fighter and so far successful cancer patient. Raven told me she was tired at Judges practical exam (which by the way WA has three brand new agility judges from Woohoo!!!) when running some simple courses and at a couple of trials in November. She resumed chemo on November 14th without any complications. The same protocol as the first time – 16 treatments in all using three types of drugs. The only thing that changed was the use of the hardest hitting drug Doxorubicin. She had met her limit for that drug as she was at risk of heart failure should she continue using that one so they changed it to Epirubicin which has the same effects in terms of potency without the heart muscle damage but is harsher on the gut.

November was also the month I decided to take up Softball. What the hell? I can hear all the agility readers yelling from here. Yes well it’s always been a sport I’ve been interested in. Last played it very loosely in Primary school I believe. Anyway there is something incredibly satisfying about the sound of a bat hitting a ball and whacking the thing as far as possible. And I’ve always liked throwing stuff. J So I started training on Tuesday nights which is actually ACWA Club training night but I figured I could still train on Wednesday nights for Agility and even Thursday if I felt really hard up training wise. The games though are at a perfect time. It’s evening trials in Agility from the end of October onwards and all Softball games at either at 2 or 4pm and only go for an hour and a half. The season goes until the end of Feb. So the games NEVER clash with trials. Softball is a much more complicated sport than you think. And it’s a very different way of thinking with so many different permutations of what could and can happen and what kind of things you need to remember depending on A. Your position B. Whether there are 1, 2 or 3 players on bases, C. The weather! I’m enjoying it anyway and I don’t think it’s going to detract from my agility too much. It’s also another social circle really – new people, new friends and so vastly different from the agility world. Of course my agility friends all think I’m completely mad I’m sure but I think you can make room in your life enough if you really want to enough. And quite frankly watching those A Grade games? The skills involved and the level required – easily as difficult and awesome to watch as top level agility. I am still trying to get my head around how fast an underarm ball can actually be pitched – accurately!!! And the training won’t conflict with agility – short bursts of running and the ability to think quick and remember plays. Cypher’s affinity for incredibly strenuous tug games cannot harm the old throwing arm either. Eh whatever keeps you young I say!

So then December (and yes you can deduce form the lack of info regarding trial results that November wasn’t a successful month wins wise!) Hang on a sec. Raven did have another win in November! That’s right the Southern River trial she won 1st place in 500. I remember because it was the day after a chemo treatment! And I think she picked up a second in Masters Jumping somewhere in November as well!

Only a couple trials left in December and nothing too exciting happened there although I was a little side lined (okay a lot sidelined) by an old calf muscle injury which twinged slightly on training night at softball and then one week later tore properly since clearly I wasn’t allowed to get away with just a minor setback! This calf muscle was torn initially back in 2004 in Sydney in the middle of a BC Speciality trial. That was the weekend Robyn had to take over running Raven for me last second – still in her show clothes and everything. So yeah an old injury that unfortunately once done is always weakened and this was my second visit back to the physio for it since 2004. She said 6 weeks for this one but I have been doing my stretching and exercises religiously (and I am hardly, if ever, religious so that shows you how seriously I am taking this) and I have purchased new calf muscle supports and stuff. I really don’t want to stuff this up again since the plane tickets and accommodation are all booked for March and the Border Collie National in Canberra. So yes was somewhat restricted by that and entirely pissed off when it happened. ‘Oh dear’ was understating the issue massively and some fairly vulgar words were used that I would no doubt tell my students off severely for using. Sometimes obscenities are really the only satisfying way of dealing with these sorts of things. So Karen got to run my dogs at the last trial of the year and I have to say with little *snort* try ‘no’* training she managed to get them round their courses quite well with no more than one tiny fault on each run and some lovely handling. And so the agility season for 2008 came to an end and I have to say that of my list of highlights for the entire year several could be found in my achievements with the dogs in the trialling rings. The 2008 National and the States will always be memorable and some of the sweeter runs with Raven will be cherished.

So now here we are in January 2009. Spryte is currently in season right now and Cypher is doing his level best to convince me that he is the man for her. Sadly for Cypher he is not going to get a belated Christmas present. Part of the reason for attending the BC Nationals this year is to have a look around at the males there. Robyn will probably be breeding from her this year (maybe in June) and a suitable husband for her must be found. So she will likely be having her first litter of puppies this year. After that who knows? I have yet to decide if I will sterilise her or keep her entire. I think it will depend on her first litter and how that goes. She still needs to have her hips scored but all other health tests are passed, mostly clear by parentage. There has certainly been enough interest in puppies from her. Most non agility (and some agility) people who meet her seem to like her small size and want one just like her – she is, temperament wise, a fairly placid and incredibly gentle Border Collie who suckers people in with her dark liquid brown eyes, her small stature and her affinity for cuddles. She is the first cuddly female BC I have come across. It’s all a ruse though. If sheep or agility or other dogs racing around are involved it unleashes her inner demon very quickly and you wonder if that is a Border Collie or some kind of deranged meerkat hopped up on sugar on the end of the lead. She’s bossy with those dogs she thinks she can get away with being bossy with and sneakily grovelling with those she can’t. She knows exactly what buttons to push on Cypher to get what she wants and could quite easily steal a bone from his mouth if she wanted to.

As from next week we embark on a swimming regime to build up the dogs (and mine) condition to get them ready for the start of the agility season. As usual my fitness can also do with much improvement and I will be endeavouring to get up really early and take them walking (in this heat with the snakes around it’s crazy to be walking any later than 8am or before 7pm at night) and getting a routine going with training in the back yard and at club. So far I have booked three dogs on the plane for the BC Nats and will be entering all three. Only Raven can tell me if she will be coming or not closer to the time. I am under no allusions that this is probably her last Eastern States trip if she does go. She won both Masters Jumping and Open Agility at the last one, it would be great to see one more BC National with her but we take each day as it comes.

Spryte will be competing in the Excellent class, the showing and maybe some herding with Robyn. Cy will come for the agility. Raven has five more Masters Jumping wins to achieve for her Agility Champion and who knows? She may just make it. Stranger things have happened. This year saw two of our veterans achieve the title – Kriszty’s Jess (just turned 10) and Nicole Ford’s Corgi – Beauty who is also ten years old. So that was a great way to finish the year for the WA Agility crowd and absolutely spectacular achievements in light of the tough competition here in WA. Goals for this year? Spryte gets up into the Masters Classes and gets some games titles under her belt along with her ET. Raven stays in remission (really every other goal for her kind of pales into insignificance next to that one) and Cypher finishes off some games titles and I work towards making him as competitive as he can be and maybe finish off his CCD title. Raven is 9 in March, Spryte is 3 in July and Cypher is 5 in October. Three odd numbers must add up to a good year I hope.

In terms of my own personal goals – saving towards a huge holiday in 2011 when long service leave is due, surviving another year as a teacher in a hard to staff school, getting fitter and healthier and trying to stay a little bit more in front and less to the side or utterly behind of the general busyness that is my life. In other words try to overcome my chronic need to procrastinate about just about everything! My final goal is to come to terms and accept the fact that whilst I may be in my 35th year I am still, literally, quite a child at heart. Perhaps accept is not the right term, more like ‘ignore the guilt’. I shall not feel guilty if I want to spend a few hours playing Wii console games with friends, watch trashy popcorn television whilst defending it’s worth to all and sundry or perfect my score on various facebook word games. Also batting cages are good! The place where you can go to hit the crap out of a ball for a good hour has got to be cathartic in some form or another and it is perfectly alright for me to want a brand new softball bat.

In other non agility related news – have seen three movies recently that I enjoyed. Twilight (saw that twice and I’d say it’s because my sister dragged me to see it but in all honesty I was quite happy to watch it again) The Day the Earth Stood Still and Australia. None of them were out of this world oh my god twelve Oscars right there kind of quality but good enough to feel not ripped off by the $16.50 ticket charge these days. Also I am a Twilight addict. Have read all four books several times and shall not apologise for doing so. No they are not the literary equivalent of Bronte, Austen, Dickens or Tolstoy however they are as addictive as trashy television so hence the fascination. Also I have fondness for any kind of supernatural sci fi fantasy genre.

I’m afraid I have no images to make this entry pretty with and I really must fix that oversight as soon as possible. So for the rest of the holidays I shall do my level best to take some photos of blogworthiness quality. The rest of my holidays (which are going way too fast I might add) are filled with social lunches, dinners and drinks, softball and agility training, batting cages, movie going (plan to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button because...well I am curious), tv watching, wii playing, word game playing, reading (the line of books waiting to be read on my shelf right now is rather daunting) and just enjoying the company of Tim, my dogs and family.

First trial back is Jan 17th and is a fun teams event plus Gamblers so looking forward to that plus playing softball on Saturdays from January 10th and also have entered Spryte in a few shows to see if she can pick up some challenges. Lots to do and only so many hours in the day to do it so I find myself obsessively making TO DO lists for each day and trying to make sure I tick off at least two things each day lest I should feel unproductive. Though frankly I think the word holidays really should equal unproductive minus the guilt. Where did this idea come from that on holidays one must be productive? It's highly overrated and yet I feel suckered into ensuring it remain so, even just a little. This is why people go away for holidays - somehow not being in your own house on a holiday means that you can get away with doing absolutely nothing all day long and feel exactly zero in the guilt department! Solution? Be rich enough to go away for every holiday period. Ahhh such simple solutions to pertinent problems. If only. :-)

Update #2 - Spryte's Success and the Nationals

So finally I get the chance to do some updating of this blog. The last post was written two months ago but only posted today. My only excuse is that I've had other stuff to do and this blog is not so high on the priority list right now.

So going back to after the hip dislocation. Within three weeks Raven was going for fairly lengthy on lead walks with me. She had several weeks of massage and stretching and heat packs. Plus crating. The crating wasn't a huge hit with her I must admit. But no way was I going to be giving her the opportunity to reinjure the hip. She was pulled out of all the trials leading up to the Nationals except for the one on August 24th where I put her in one NFC Novice Jumping class run. We started some pretty intensive swimming sessions as well. Intensive in that they happened every couple of days. She only swam for five minutes sessions initially and we worked our way up to 15 minutes. She stayed on the Rimadyl for three weeks.

Spryte had some good results during this time. She is now officially known as Winpara Out Of Sight AD JD JDO HT.
At that July ACWA Trial she managed to WIN the Open Jumping class against quite a large number of dogs, and in Open Agility she picked up a 3rd behind two very fast, experienced much older dogs so I was very impressed with how she ran even if we couldn't get it quite together for the Novice classes.

Geraldton
The following weekend we drove up to Geraldton (me, Cypher and Spryte - Raven got to stay home and look after Tim, not sure that she would have chosen that option but there was no way I could take her without her doing her nut in the back of the car when I ran the other dogs, with my luck she would have done her hip again) to compete at a double header trial over the Saturday and Sunday. It was quite a fruitful weekend giving Spryte a little taste of going away and competing on different grounds, like a mini National practice I suppose.

Cypher picked up a 4th in Open Agility, 5th in Masters Agility, 8th in Open Jumping, 4th in the second Masters Agility, 9th in the second Open Jumping and a 4th in the second Masters Jumping. Six qualifications from eight runs was a good result for him, especially with some top 5 finishes.

Spryte won the first novice Agility for her first leg, picked up a 4th place in the second Open Jumping behind some very fast, experienced dogs again, then came 2nd in the second Novice Agility for her 2nd leg behind one of her pairs partners, the very fast, very exciting to watch Guirmere Snazzy and Cathy. At the conclusion of this weekend she only needs one more pass for her Open Jumping title (JDO) and one each for her AD and JD. So I was very happy with how the weekend went, it's good to have all that effort pay off because the four hour drive home can seem very long when it's one of those weekends where nothing goes right!

GSDA
The next weekend was the GSDA trial and this turned out to be a more expensive than usual training session for Spryte! We had the novice dog weave popping issue and some disagreement about contacts again. As in I wanted her to do them and she didn't. :-) Totally my own fault. I have been a bad bad trainer when it comes to contacts. Wait let me rephrase that. I have been a bad bad TRIALLER when it comes to contacts. As in letting her go if she happens to get them even if she doesn't give me the two on two off behaviour. I know as I'm letting it go in trial runs that this will be all bad. I think really I am just engaging in a form of procrastination again. Yes I know, it's a shock to me too. Heh. But anyway...I keep putting this whole "must insist on trained contact behaviour in the ring" approach off. She runs through a contact and I think "Hmmm next time I'll fix that". Funnily enough it's an oddity of dog training that once a dog does something (and really enjoys it, I mean literally you can see the GLEE on their faces, I kid you not) they tend to do it again. And again. And again. Of course this is not a new concept to me. *Sigh* At least Cypher was good old Mr Reliable again giving me two clears in both Masters Agility and Masters Jumping. I mishandled him in both Opens but was very pleased with both of those runs too.

CAWA Double Fundraiser Trial August 10th
Cypher was a good boy for this double trial. Picking up a clear round in both Open Agility and Masters Jumping in the morning and in the afternoon for four qualifications for the day. Spryte? Well we had eight practice runs. *vbg* I figure it was all part of our strategy, we didn't want her peaking too early before the Nationals. Well that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. From what I can remember there was the odd bar down and disagreements about contacts again. The following day at the Teams and Strategic Pairs event Nifty and Cypher paired up (Nifty's partner Raven being out of action and Cypher's partner Sage being out of action as well) and managed to go clear for a pass in the Masters Strategic Pairs class.

CAWA Fundraiser Trial August 24th
Spryte was back in form for this one, which was good considering we were leaving in four days for the Nationals! She won the Novice Agility class in the morning and that gave her her AD title. Cypher picked up a qualification in Open Jumping as well and did a beautiful run for SECOND place in Masters Agility. Very pleased with that as getting into the top 3 in Masters here is not easy. This was the trial where I tried Raven out for the first time with a Novice Jumping run in the NFC class. We had been doing single bits of equipment for the week before, single bar jumps etc, the ends of contacts. I really thought it wouldn't be wise to take her over to the Nationals without some sort of course under her belt in nearly two months. She held her startline, I led out and ran the entire course silently, she managed it fine knocking one bar when I did a lazy rear cross on her. I was handling conservatively I must admit that but it will be some time before I feel she might be up to a bit of excited handling. She goes quick enough without me pushing so we'll see. She pulled up fine from that run, having had plenty of massage and stretching before hand and a decent warm up. I walked her out afterwards and she was fine, no signs of stiffness at all. I'd pretty much decided by that evening she would be attending the Nationals.

ANKC AGILITY NATIONALS Friday, Saturday and Sunday August 29th, 30th and 31st
This National was an eye opening experience for many reasons. Overall I was absolutely over the moon with how my guys went although in retrospect I think taking three was slightly over ambitious. That said though I managed to get each of them into a final and for that I was immensely proud of them. Nearly 4000 runs took place over the three days. The first day was a teams event plus games and the first qualifying heat for both Open Agility and Open Jumping. The second day was the fullest with another teams event in the morning followed by two qualifying heats for every class - Novice, Excellent, Open and Masters Agility and Jumping. The third day was the last qualifying heat for Novice, Excellent and Masters plus the finals. So the schedule was very tight and packed and to be honest I think the next Nationals is going to have to span four days. Anyway onto my results:
Day One (Friday) - This was the best day really for us, as Raven is now the

2008 National Masters Gamblers Champion

and

2008 National Masters Strategic Pairs Champion with her pairs partners - Sue Hogben with Nifty

I was stunned to tell the truth. Here's this dog with a dislocated hip less than two months ago and a full bone marrow transplant back in June and she doesn't just compete at the Nationals. She wins! Not much would have been able to wipe the smile off my face after finishing those courses with her.
Yet still it seemed as if more good fortune was due our way. Little miss Spryte in her first run of the day in the Novice Strategic Pairs class with her partner Spice and Andrea Patching (who was very tolerant I must say as I basically had numerous courses to remember so I simply asked if she could do this part and that part and that's how we were going to do it!) took out first place there too. Spryte is now the

2008 National Novice Strategic Pairs Champion along with her partners Spice and Andrea.

This all took place in the morning so I was kind of wondering if that was going to be it for our successes of the weekend because really - how much good luck can someone have? If I'd had to go home at that point I would have still been extremely happy with how we had gone.

Anyway in the afternoon we took a hike out to the back paddock to the Open Jumping course. It looked quite tricky for the baby dogs but I figured I'd get Raven and Cypher through it. I ran Spryte first in the 400 height and was stunned to see us finish the course clear. The distance challenge was not easy for the baby dogs so I was very impressed than not only had she run clear at the Nationals she had also finished her title. What an excellent way to finish the title and how odd that she gets her JDO BEFORE her JD. I ran Raven and she was going great guns until I just did too much of an exciting front cross way in front of her which always causes her to accelerate madly and bars came down. I withdrew her immediately figuring A: I had enough running to do that weekend and B: Wanting her to conserve her energy as much as possible. Cypher ran it and ran clear as well too so was very pleased with him. Now to get into the finals you needed to finish in the top 7 out of something like 180 dogs. Needless to say I didn't think either Cypher or Spryte would have a chance. Cypher is just not quick enough and whilst Spryte is quick I don't think you can afford to have even the slightest wobble at the Nats and she had one going into the distance challenge. And yet at presentations that night Spryte's name got called out! In 6th place! I was just as stoked about that as I was about her first place in Pairs. My baby dog at her first nationals makes a final of one of the most hotly competitive classes there. What a little star! Open Agility - what happened there....I'm trying to recall it. Well Raven had decided that two months without out any kind of training meant she could break her startline so she was through tyre, up the dogwalk, down the dogwalk running through the colour and flattening out over two bars before I'd pretty much got past the first up plank on the dogwalk. Yeah we withdrew from that one. Cypher qualified in this but it was a generous clear I thought since I pretty much caused a refusal of a bar and had to bring him round to do it again. Idiot handler strikes again! And Spryte? Hmmm...I think we had an off course into a wrong tunnel entry or was it a missed contact. No wait. I remember. She dropped a bar in the distance challenge. That's right I remember now, she was going great guns too, but on memory I don't think I was able to call her off the wrong tunnel entry in the distance challenge as she was just so far in front of me.

So that was the Friday. We won some stuff, got quite a few clears and went home tired but pretty happy with the results. More importantly Raven had pulled up fine and no sign of any stiffness or soreness after the days events. If anything she was a little too UP! I slept like a log that night. A solid six hours.

Day Two (Saturday) - This day was a mixed results day but still one that left me feeling good about our achievements so far. I had gone to this National with Raven just absolutely thrilled to be able to be there and compete. To win or qualify was just icing on the cake as far as I was concerned. So when Raven pulled off a clear run in the hardest Masters Jumping course I've ever done and managed to finish in 6th I was absolutely chuffed with her. Honestly this course was so challenging that word spread ike wildfire around the grounds (and these grounds were huge by the way - to walk from one ring to another sometimes took like ten minutes!!) and the course became known as THE TUNNEL ONE. I have never run a design like this before and I hope to never again. In fact it is so unique I feel the need to post the course design right here. I think there were 8 qualifiers in about 170 dogs. Raven had made a Masters Jumping final. I was more than thrilled with her. In the morning the Masters Agility course looked to be quite challenging as well but much more in the way of could be do-able type challenging. Raven just knocked one bar and I withdrew. I then ran Cypher and we did a pretty solid run and I got him through it clear. We were early on in the running order so I thought nothing of it, lots more dogs to run and no doubt lots more clears as well. Spryte had some hard luck stories - although that said some of those stories did involve contacts and me not being able to walk the course because I was involved in three other rings at the front of the grounds whilst the walking was taking place down the far end of the grounds. She did a beautiful Open Agility run at one point and just missed the a frame contact by a toe and it was in the distance challenge so that didn't help. To be honest with her first run of the day in Novice Jumping I was completely stunned by her speed. It seemed like she had shifted up about 6 gears and it caught me by surprise my reactions definitely not quick enough in giving her the information she needed quickly enough. Then I mishandled a rear cross with in another Novice Jumping run. The Novice Agility courses were more challenging than I was used to, with some strong call offs and sharp turns for the youngsters which left very little room for error. And in my case no room at all! So no clear rounds for her all day. Cypher had a couple of qualifiers and one that I count as a qualifier - a very nicely run open Agility course that was speedy for him and without a single wobble. However the judge decided to give me a penalty because whilst I placed him on lead immediately I lost hold of the lead when he tugged with me as we left the ring ropes. Yeah. Not going to talk about it except to say that there was some rather extreme interpretations of the rules at this event (over the whole weekend in fact) that were not necessary by a long shot. Agility is supposed to be fun people - stop sucking the fun out of it! Where was I? Oh yes Cypher. Turns out by the end of the day he finished in FIFTH place in the Masters Agility class and had therefore qualified for a final. Good old Mr Reliable....though I really shouldn't call him old, he's only just about to turn four! I was very pleased with how he ran all weekend actually, he tried his best, did everything I asked and is the most consistent dog I have ever had the pleasure of owning and training. I know I bag on his speed sometimes but really he goes as fast as he can and enjoys his agility and the tugging afterwards, can't ask much more than that.

Day Three (Sunday) - Today was the last chance to qualify for the finals and yeah my guys didn't do anything in the morning. I had pulled Cy from Masters Agility and just focused on Jumping. I had pulled Raven from Masters Jumping and just focused on Masters Agility. And Spryte was in both her Novice runs. Cy ran clear in Masters Jumping but so did about 26 other dogs I think so he finished in 18th or something like that. I prefer that to the 8th place we finished in Open Jumping Saturday afternoon! It's great to know he nearly made it into a final like that but sometimes you just go perhaps I don't want to know he missed out on a finals run by point nothing of a second! Raven did an absolute ripper on an Agility run that would have made the finals easily time wise but she just knocked one bar. This course I didn't withdraw on thinking that this could possibly be out last ever run in a Masters Agility class at a National! Spryte? Well Seems like Idiot Handler had been missing in action for a while and chose her Novice Jumping course to come out on. Firstly I got lost. Yes. Lost. On a bloody 16 obstacle course. Unbelievable. So unbelievable in fact that I was completely flustered by this and tehrefore forgot to handle her properly for an off entry tunnel. So there went that chance! In Novice Agility? You know how I said that contact thing always comes back to bite you in the ass at some point? Well this was our point. Big time. Missed the a frame contact by about a toe length. Perfect other than that. *Shrugs* What can you do? I had pretty much sealed that fate with all my fart arsing around with her contacts in trials so I took it on the chin as you do and still gave her the biggest hug at the end of her run. She was in a final already - no point being greedy. :-)

Finals - There were 8 finals to be run. I was in three ofthem. The last three. Open Jumping, followed by Masters Jumping and followed by Masters Agility. So I got Spryte out eventually to get her ready for the OJ final. When I walked the course I realised it didn't matter how many times I walked this she would would be very unlikely to get the difficult distance challenge. She was third into the ring in 400 height class. After all my doubts about her she went and bloody did the distance challenge! I was absolutely stunned as the spectators could tell by my tone of voice. We were five jumps from home after the weavers and I hadn't anticipated the sharp turn and thus call off for the angle home. She took a jump off course. Bugger! My fault entirely but to be honest I didn't feel the slightest bit disappointed. She did exactly everything I asked and had completed a challenge that it turned out only ONE dog out of the entire finals class could manage to go clear on. She's just turned 2. She's gonna have a few more goes at Nationals in her lifetime. I can't wait to share them with her. Raven in Masters Jumping was up next. This course was pretty much as hard (and in some places harder) as THE TUNNEL ONE. Heh. And by this point our start line behaviour was non existent so I'm quite sure that we didn't get past just three before we had a fault. I withdrew after a bit because by that stage the grounds were wet, boggy and muddy and very slippery. So we thanked the judge and left the ring. She had made it to the Masters Jumping finals startline. It was more than i could have ever hoped for.
Cypher in Masters Agility - by the time it was his turn I think there was maybe one clear round. I revved him up something chronic with his tug toy and he was buzzing on the start line. This was a nice course to run but really to be honest, none of the handlers felt particularly safe running on the grounds as they were incredibly boggy and slippery by then, you did feel that you could land on your ass very quickly if you weren't careful. Cypher did a cracker of a run, he was going great guns and we had about four obstacles left when I opened my mouth and said 'Out'. One tiny word. And of course he did it. He went out just like I said. When he didn't need to go out he just needed to turn with me into a tunnel. With the way he was running he would have finished in at least 4th if not 3rd place. Ahhh well. This was disappointing because I had made the stuff up here and this was a Masters final that he could have quite easily gone clear on, unlike Spryte who I wasn't expecting to do anything with in the OJ final. Cypher of course was none the wiser, tugging like mad at the end of his run. He had done me proud, ran well, ran fast and did everything I asked. And this from a dog I was wondering if I should bother with the expense of taking!

And so that was it. The end of the Nationals. As a last note I have to make mention of Western Australia as a state and how well they did - we walked away with FOUR out of the eight finals wins, we had a couple of runners up and top 6 finishes in the finals. As a state we did very well, we won FOUR out of nine possible Games classes and had top 5 finishes in the rest just about. I am proud to be part of our WA Agility community because we can say without hesitation our dogs are some of the fastest, best trained and best handled out there. To live and compete in WA is to set the bar high for our agility standards and that has to be an asset anyway you look at it.

Roll on 2010 and the next Nationals - to be held here in sunny Perth at the end of April.
I will post some pics and some courses in the next post.

Update #1

It’s lucky I am a fairly positive sort of a character really. Most of the time. Otherwise I feel sure by now I would have just about been contemplating some serious drug usage or other potentially high risk escapism behaviours. It seems Raven is a bit of a dramatic attention seeker. Either that or she is just really one of the unluckiest Border Collies in the world. She had her final weekly blood test around two or three weeks ago. She only needs to visit Murdoch once a month for blood tests now. So quite clearly Raven felt like life was a little dull, or distinctly lacking in some veterinary attention.

On Saturday Raven managed to dislocate her right hip whilst running in a Masters Agility course. Albeit the ring and the grass surface in general was a bit wet and soggy but well over a hundred dogs ran in that ring and NONE of them managed to dislocate a hip. She had done her usual running contact on the dog walk gone over the next jump and turned the less desirable way around (it was a 180 degree turn back to a tunnel under the dog walk) so I stepped in to shape her line to the tunnel which it turns out she didn’t see till she was running flat tack and realised it was there at the last possible split second and tried to throw her little body in said tunnel. Most sane dogs would have probably just gone past it realising what a futile exercise it would have been by that stage. Her ass end went out from under, she hit the ground and landed on her right hip let out an almighty yelp and then peered round the tunnel at me as I turned back to her with her right back leg well off the ground.

I think at this point all the blood drained from my face as we soon established this wasn’t something she was going to walk off. We had no idea if it was a foot, hock, knee or hip issue at this stage so I carried her back to the car and started icing that leg and rang home for Tim to bring the 25mg tab of Rimadyl I had left over from her BMT. I gave her some food and some Rimadyl and we gave her a half hour lying down to see if that helped. She initially kept the leg tucked up fairly close to her body and were concerned that it was cruciate damage.

Within an hour and a half of the accident I got her into the local VetWest where the Vet had a look, by this stage she had stopped her intermittent shaking and her leg was dangling. She showed no signs of pain on the cranial draw test of the cruciate ligament and none on palpation of the hip but she would not let the vet extend her leg back behind her at all.

The vet suspected dislocated hip and wanted to do a GA asap in order to xray and replace it if indeed her suspicions were correct. Once a hip is dislocated the quicker it gets replaced the better and it’s virtually impossible after 12 hours. She explained what she would do and that she would strap it and that the strapping would be on for 10 to 14 days etc. She topped up Raven’s Rimadyl dose with an injection and then gave an injection of Temgesic (Sp?) which is a more powerful painkiller drug.

Then the Nurse is there getting me to sign the form and waiver and they are working up an estimate of the cost and I’m trying not to laugh hysterically as I explain to them exactly what Raven has been through in the last year and after sixteen thousand dollars worth of treatments for lymphoma I really don’t think an extra few hundred is going to make a difference somehow. I must admit I was pretty upset by this stage and worried about her going under another GA as it was less than 2 months since her last one plus she had eaten that morning, but with a friend’s help I managed to pull it together, give them my mobile number, leave Raven in a cage out the back (by this stage she is looking somewhat pissed about the change in environment) and drive back to the trial grounds.

They would call me as soon as they knew what was what. So I get a call around 2.15 explaining that all has gone well, Raven is awake from the GA, they x-rayed and it was a dislocated hip and it was put back in without too much trouble, can I come pick her up at 5.15. Of course I asked if it could be any earlier but that was a no go. So I was there at 5.15 on the dot and saw the vet who had treated Raven. She took me through and showed me the x rays. I have included them below, the last image is obviously after the hip has been replaced. The vet informed me that this was a rather unusual dislocation as rather than up and above the pelvis the ball had been pushed down out of the socket.

Typical Raven always does things her own way! So we looked at the x rays and she told me that it went back in easily and didn’t cause any problems with popping back out. This is the risk apparently with dislocated hips. That they can pop back out at any time during recovery period. Usually the dogs are strapped to the point that it can’t physically pop out (so they are on three legs) and everyone holds their breath at the end of the two weeks when the strapping comes off but because Raven’s was different she has all four legs on the ground and is weight bearing. Right now completely normally weight bearing I might add. The dog wants to trot everywhere and the hobbles don’t stop her from doing that! She can still cock that leg on that hip when she wants to pee as well! So I am going to try and get a referral to an Ortho specialist and try and confirm whether this strapping is doing the job or if it needs modifying. Also to enquire about her recovery therapy and what I can do to make sure it’s the best she can get. It’s a little different when you are talking about a sports performance dog as compared to your average pet dog I think. Long story not so short I don’t know at this stage if she will be going to the Nationals. Looking at her right now I feel 70% confident that she will be sound by then but you just never know. I will not be making any decisions at this stage. So that was my drama for the weekend. And now Raven is bored out of her skull and wondering what all the fuss is about. Below is one of the xray images they took.