Rainy day girl...

Trial #20 June 12th Cloverdale Canine Companions - A Morning trial in the very wet weather. I could blame the wet grass I suppose but we had three runs where she took a bar down - only on one run (Masters Jumping) did I make an error before she did! She did go clear in one though and won 1st Place in Open Jumping, good girl, it just amazes me how easily the clear runs in Open come now that we struggled for 3 years getting our Open titles. Not sure what it is but I think most would attribute it to me not being so hung up on getting qualifications anymore. I'd like to say well maybe I've just become a better handler - you do hope that after a certain amount of time in the sport you could show some improvement!

Northern Suburbs hoodoo!

Trial #19 June 5th Sunday - An afternoon trial at Northern Suburbs Dog Club in Carine. We never seem to crack any clears at these grounds and today unfortunately maintained our lack of success. Masters Agility was a great run for us, she just seemed to lose her rhythm slightly in the weaves and missed one but still came out the right side! So one fault there, all other runs we stopped due to bar down and the Open Jumping course which I thought we'd cleared, turned out a bar had dropped on a jump 8 meters from us as we were completing the spread jump quite weird! Oh well there's always next week's trial!

Raising more money...still having fun!!

Trial #17 & #18 May 29th - Back to back trials again today for the 2nd day of ANWA fundraising. In the morning she did a lovely run in Masters Agility - but we had a refusal. Open Agility we got called on a contact that was quite a tricky one to judge but it was a great run anyway, Masters Jumping and Open Jumping were all going well till she knocked a bar! In the afternoon we went better - 3 out of 4 runs keeping all bars up for 3rd Place MASTERS JUMPING and 1st Place OPEN AGILITY! So was very happy with her!

Raising money for the Nationals and having fun!!!

Trial #15 & #16 May 28th - Back to back trials today for ANWA fundraising. In the morning she did two very nice runs which I stuffed her up on causing a refusal and an off course however she did a bar in both Masters Jumping and Open Agility. She gained a 4th NQ in Masters Agility.
The afternoon trial went better - 1st PLACE MASTERS AGILITY and 2nd Place OPEN JUMPING! What a good girl! I was very proud of her and thought we worked well...Masters Jumping was very tough - and she had an off course before I could blink! Open agility she took the 2nd last bar down but other than that I was extremely pleased!
That ADM inches ever closer - 3 legs down 4 to go...

JDM Here we come...

Trial #14: May 22nd GSDA - Another FANTASTIC DAY today for different reasons though. She just tapped the last bar in Open Jumping and was in a rush over a jump in Masters Agility however she did finish off the day with her very FIRST Q IN MASTERS JUMPING with a 1st PLACE as well! As if this was not enough she also won 1st PLACE OPEN AGILITY! I was extremely happy with her efforts and pleased with our results!JDM by the way stands for Jumping Dog Master and requires 7 clear rounds. Given her jump issues I'm thinking this one could take a while LOL!!

Raven's EVERY BAR UP DAY!

Trial #13: May 15th Geraldton - A FANTASTIC DAY in my mind despite non qualifying in both Masters Agility and Masters Jumping. WHY? Today for the first time since competing in four classes we finished EVERY SINGLE RUN as she kept EVERY SINGLE BAR UP!!! Hooray!!! I was very pleased with her and to top it all off we took 1st PLACE OPEN AGILITY and 3rd PLACE OPEN JUMPING. I also got to run Deb Hyde's BC "Jasper" also known as Obedience Champion Brynbank Dangeros Liasion ADX JD UD...and he and I took out 2nd PLACE OPEN AGILITY (0.67 secs behind Raven) and 3rd PLACE OPEN JUMPING (0.25 secs in front of Raven!). A good day all round as that meant Jasper finished his JDX title off! Deb was very happy and I had great fun running him!

Training Day in Geraldton

Trial #12: May 14th Geraldton - today was a training day, she managed to keep all bars up in the Open Agility class and came 2nd despite a fault due to there only being 1 clear round. However the other 3 runs we used to work on her bar issues and we left the ring after knocking a bar in each. This time I kept it as neutral as possible - I got her to drop as soon as she hit one, I replaced the bar and we left the ring. Then before the next run I warmed her up over a jump making a huge fuss out of her when she kept her bar up, we got to the startline as if it was our first startline of the day.

Not a complete bust at Bunbury

Trial #11: May 8th Bunbury Agility Jumping Trial. Well we slightly improved on our last Bunbury performance, we managed a 3rd Place in Open Jumping. 1 bar down in all the other runs. Fingers crossed next weekend at Geraldton sees more success.

Mastering success!

Trial #9 & #10: April 24th Southern River Double Header Trial. Back to success!! In the morning she won 1st Place Open Jumping. In the afternoon even better Raven wins 1st Place Masters Agility! This time there were alot more clear rounds and so her time was a very competitive 35 seconds on a SCT of 50 seconds under Victorian Judge Mr T Moore. I must admit we did not have the ideal start to this one - we have been having start line issues - I say wait and she says "Make me" - her whole body is leaning forward on her front toenails her eyes are riveted to the first obstacle - I could have whole chickens hanging off the end of each hand and she would still pretend like I don't exist. So at the startline for Masters today I have her on my left and I take a couple of steps after the judge has said you can go - I go to turn back to her to repeat my rather strong "wait" command and she's off! She'd done two jumps and was on the seesaw before I had the presence of mind to yell WAIT!!! which she luckily did so that she did her contact - the rest of the course was done completely with me behind her and by thye seat of my pants since her start had blown my carefully thought of plan out the water! She's a little lunatic this one!

Perth Training Trial

Trial #8: April 9th Perth Training Club - This one was also not great - slightly improved on Bunbury though with a great run Open Agility apart from a missed down dogwalk contact. Masters Agility she dropped a bar and we left and the same went for Open Jumping and Masters Jumping.

Bunbury a bust!

Trial #7: April 3rd Bunbury Dog Club - well we are just going to pretend we didn't even enter this one! Her first run was Masters agility and it was going well untill the 3rd last bar which came down. Bad handler (me!) didn't stop her and I'm pretty sure this set the tone for the rest of her runs - where she took down the first bar in each just about! So just over 3 hours driving and NO legs today :-((( But I must admit I learnt a valuable lesson today. We have been working very intensively on her jumping - and targeting the dropping of bars. I have sought advice and I am sticking to a very clear, concise and stringent criteria for her jumping behaviour. And I have been noticing a steady but slow improvement - today it felt like she wasn't even bothering in her first few runs. My mood with her got progressively worse after each of those runs and I actually wondered why her efforts were so so slow and lazy off the start lines. Then I realised - as hardnails as I feel Raven is (she is not soft in any way shape or form) she certainly is affected by my moods. I put her over a couple of jumps before our last run and just kind of 'made up' with her as if we'd been arguing. I let her know that she was still my best friend and we were going to have fun. She still knocked a bar on that last run but we got through most of the course and she was her usual grinning speed freaky self. Mental note to self - if shitty with her about a run then I leave it on that course (my shittyness with her I mean) She knows why we've stopped - she gets it, not finishing the run is what she hates most, her 2nd most hated thing is me getting shitty with her - but that has a more lasting (and far more negative) effect than leaving the ring. Once I've clipped that lead back on I'm looking forward to our next run as the first of the day. So whilst the day was a total waste in terms of qualifications it was a very valuable day in terms of me figuring out a very important lesson about us.

Our 2nd Masters Pass!

Trial #6: April 2nd Cloverdale Canine Companions. This evening's trial was a historic one for this team of two. Raven and I finally got it all together on a rather tough Masters Agility course (only 2 qualified) amongst the best dogs in the state to go clear and win 1st Place Masters Agility! and if that wasn't enough she ran clear in Open Agility for another 1st Place Open Agility. This was one happy handler! Leg #2 down - 5 to go!

Disconnection...

After a 2 week break from trialling we headed out to Lumen Christi grounds in Gosnells for the first Gosnells Agility and Jumping trial of the year. After rolling her ankle spectacularly at the last event of the Classic her handler held her back today not being able to run flat out. Open Jumping 1 bar down, Open Agility she misses the down on the dog walk contact, in Masters Agility she took the dogwalk at too shallow and angle and came off the side of the up ramp, Masters Jumping she was a bit disconnected and took a wrong jump. No luck today and we won't tell my physio who told me no agility for 6 to 8 weeks. All my right ankle ligaments and muscle tendons were completely torn and overstretched and I needed x rays and muscle anti inflammatories to get it sorted - I will now probably have a weak right anke for the rest of my life....*sigh*...this better not be a sign of me getting old!!!

The Western Classic

Monday March 5th - Western Classic weekend. The Western Classic is one of the two biggest shows on the WA Calendar being 2nd only to the Perth Royal Show in October. We have Eastern States judges come over and judge our obedience and agility trials and International Judges for the breed ring. I put Cypher in both the All Breed Championship shows over the four days and asked Robyn to show him as I would be busy in the Obedience and Agility rings. He was quite well behaved for such little training and won best Baby of Breed over a number of other very cute just on 3 months baby Border Collies. He was a very good boy and not fazed at all by the bright lights and big crowds, in fact I don't think he missed me at all - little traitor! *g*
Raven had a great time over in the Agility and we had two sad luck stories with 1 bar down in both Master Agility and Master Jumping - it was a shame because her runs are always blitzing! We held it together for a win in Open Agility - so we got a nice trophy, sash and bags of biccies. She held her own in the Obedience Ring too after winning a spot in the Novice Invitational Challenge - she qualified and came 5th overall after doing the longest amount of slow pace heelwork we'd ever seen! We sure didn't train for that heel routine.
All in all a good weekend was had by all - and our team Threes A Crowd didn't do too badly either in the teams events.

Sting, Margaret River and Dogs

We took off down South early on Thursday morning, we being Tim, myself, Raven and Cypher. Took the road down to Margaret River Leeuwin Wine Estate and camped outside from about 11am onwards - we had scored the opportunity to see Sting live in Concert in a small, outdoor private arena. I was in heaven! The dogs were too...whilst we spent the day in the queue to drive in, I took them out on jaunts through the vineyards. They were made much fuss of by other concert goers who were impressed that Border Collies had such good taste in Music. They snoozed and napped their way through the afternoon in between our vineyard jaunts and I tried to keep Cypher's whites semi white since he was off to a show in Albany in the next couple of days. STING was awesome!!! I loved every second of it and was sad when it ended - the sound was great and the band was excellent and he played every single song I had wanted to hear. I'm sure even the dogs enjoyed it from the car.

Albany - Cypher is awarded Baby of Breed over the girl by SA judge Mrs R Tassie at Albany All Breeds Champ Show - despite not realising the collar is NOT a sled dog harness...hmmm perhaps sled dog racing is on the cards! Next day he is awarded Baby in Group in both the Open Show and the Championship Show - what a good boy!
Trial #3 for Raven: Albany All Breeds Dog Club - she didn't do so great in Masters Class this weekend - a dropped bar and a pull out on the weaves, still she managed 1st Place Open Agility. All in all a very pleasant four days away and indeed a concert I will never forget.

4 Hour Drive...125 seconds of Action!

Yes yes, I did indeed drive 4 and a half hours or so to Geraldton to run Raven around an agility course for 48 seconds (least she got to run round 4 times!) and yes to those of you unfamiliar with the agility addiction this would seem to be grounds for an asylum committment - but trust me - it's all worth it in the end. But more on that later!
Trial #2: Geraldton & Districts Dog Club Obedience, Agility and Jumping Trial February 5th and 6th, we have been working on the bar issue all week which left little time for Obedience training - was pleasantly surprised when she worked quite well and scored 181 and 2nd place in the Open class. The Agility and Jumping Trial was even better though - Masters Agility Class - 1st Place and her 1st leg YAY!! not only that she won 1st Place in Open Jumping, fantastic!!

The 2005 Agility Season Starts!

WHY Blog? Well why not? It seems to be a fine way of keeping a journal and lordy knows I need to keep track of Raven and Cypher's successes - they're like the little peanut bags they give you on those plane flights - can't savour them all at once cos then they'll all be gone and then forgotten and there I'll be sitting back wondering to myself - and I train my dogs so much for what was it again? This will be less of an introspective lets examine our deepest and most meaningful innards blog and more of the how does one train 2 Border Collies who seem infinitely more smarter than I ever give them credit for...blog. Meet Raven. That's her on the right --->
She was born on the 7th of March 2000 - just down the road from me. She has a very fancy pedigree name too - it's Australian Champion Rhonabwy (pronounced Ron-R-Be) Raven Ov Bear CDX ADX JDX ET. That Australian Champion bit means that she was awarded 100 points from lots of different judges who said she looks like a well put together Border Collie (if only they'd read her mind - good thing she didn't have to pass a Psych Evaluation don't think she would've made it!). She is sterilised now (which is easier for everyone concerned!) - the other initials on the end? well I'll save those for another post.

Trial #1: West Coast Rottie Club Agility and Jumping Trial January 28th - Well first trial of the year and the break from training has not done us a world of good unfortunately! No clear runs and the bar knocking issue is raising it's ugly head again!

Meet the Cypher.

Well this blog has his name in it and I haven't even introduced him - poor boy he's so deprived. Meet Cypher (pronounced Sigh-fur...which is what I will do when he grows a full coat and I have to vacuum everyday *chuckle - yeah like that will ever happen*). Here he is:
He's awfully cute isn't he? (There obligatory "awww cute" comment inserted) - he was born on the 6th of October 2004 which makes him a Libran so hopefully he'll be well balanced. He is NOT a West Australian! *Shock horror* He was born in New South Wales and came to Perth on the 9th of December. Of course such a boy of travel worldliness would have a fancy name as well - his is Nahrof Quick Change. Why did I give him such an unusual name you ask? (If you didn't too bad - don't you know that is exactly why people choose unusual names for their dogs and children - just so the conversation revolves around them??) Anyhoo - Cypher - I heard it first in the first Matrix movie - a rather evil wicked guy who betrayed Neo and Trinity to Agent Smith (wasn't Hugo Weaving superb in that film? "Human beings are a disease.."Best line EVER!) and I liked the sound of it. Then I found out later (through watching Stargate of course) that it evolves from the arabic word Si-fur meaning Zero....this left me slightly worried and hoping that there was going to be more than Zero in his head. Luckily for us all his head seems to be full of the infinite! Cypher came to become the new boy member of our family (Raven's Dad Bear had passed away nearly 2 years ago) - my new show,agility, obedience and generally goodlooking Border Collie. I asked the breeder Lauren Somers of Nahrof Border Collies for a well put together boy who had the attitude needed to be a zippy little agility dog. He certainly has the 'tude! But more on his progress later.

The Christmas Card

Well I just had to post the Christmas Card. We won't reveal how long it took to get this shot.