Last Agility Trial 2007 & friends from afar!

Saturday 15 December was the last Agility/Jumping Trial for 2007 … the middle of Summer and the weather delivered us a different kind of night with a damp, cool evening with gusty wind. We also had the company of our good friend (and agility enthusiast), Johanna Allanach, all the way from Denmark. Johanna borrowed Cash for the evening, running him in both Masters & Open, Agility & Jumping classes. Cash thoroughly enjoyed himself … after the first run (call it a practice run) they tuned in to each other beautifully … some lovely smooth runs followed and they managed to place 6th in Open Agility!

Johanna’s company is always a pleasure and it was fun to share notes, catching up on the last 2 years since she last visited. Johanna is a very constructive, positive person – she is fun to be with and her agility experiences in and around Europe are always fascinating to hear about. Johanna has been lucky enough to compete at the World Agility and also qualified three of her dogs for Crufts next year. As well as Agility, she is also very successful in Rally Obedience and Heelwork to Music. All of this reminds me of just how isolated we are here in Australia.

Saturday night also saw Ticket compete in three classes – doing some very nice work, well tuned in to me and very focussed. We qualified in Excellent Jumping on a lovely open course and “flying by the seat of my pants!” … we also won First Place! That was the best way to end the trialling year … looking forward to some training time with Johanna over the next week and now, I can’t wait for next years trials to start again!!!

Happy Birthday Cash!

Today, Wednesday 12th December 2007, is Cash's 8th Birthday … how time flies! I can clearly remember when he was conceived like it was yesterday … my we’ve come a long way since then!

Over the past eight years Cash has taught me so much about everything “dog” from understanding canine behavior and communication, through to dog handling and training skills needed to work as a finely tuned human and canine team. I have enjoyed every step of the way with Cash and if I could, I’d have him all over again without changing a thing. He has helped me educate new dogs and teach new handlers, he has happily worked with other handlers for me and been amazingly patient with me as I have learnt and practiced my own handling skills. Otherwise known as Edenbrae Western Mustang CD ADM JDM ADO JDO GD SD SPDX ET, Cash has been the best teacher I could ever have asked for. My best buddy and the best team-mate you could ever wish to have.

Cash loves to work with you; he is incredibly tuned in to your body movements and a graceful dog to watch. I have always said, on the agility course he doesn’t feel fast, however many a time he has been in the top few dogs and his speed has compared to the dogs I thought would have been much faster than him. I feel that his ability to cover the ground with such ease creates the illusion of him traveling slower.

Committed to the task, Cash is always focused on his job. His dedication to his work is faultless and he always gives me 100% of himself. A few years back we discovered he was affected by Osteomyalitis in his toe-nails, (he always had trouble with his toenails) and he had one toe amputated. He had about 6 months off from trialling altogether whilst dealing with the side effects of some of the drugs they used.

Following that we’ve taken things a little slower and over the last couple of years Cash’s trialling career has been more focused on Agility Games rather than running the standard Masters classes that he’s already titled in. We’ve really enjoyed the Strategic Pairs trials, partnered with a great team, Amanda Houston and border collie Sonny (Ob Ch Brynbank Magic Sunday JDM ADM JDO ADO SPDX SD UDX) … with all but one of our Qualifying runs being a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place!

Cash regularly visits our Bowen Therapist, Tracy Hockley, who has helped me keep him in good condition for his occasional trials, along with regular runs with the Frisbee and backyard fun runs on the agility gear. The rest of his time he now spends comfortably sprawled across the lounge with Dalmatian friend, Carrie, and manning the front window to announce new arrivals and departures!

Happy Birthday Crash-man … you’re a “one in a million” dog!

Fire! Fire!

I really hate this time of the year … the beginning of Summer, when there’s plenty of undergrowth in the bush after a lush Winter/Spring, everything looks beautiful and is just dry enough to BURN!

Yesterday, Monday 10th December, I received a phone call at work that there was bush fire in the area behind our property … within 20 minutes I arrived home to prepare for the onslaught. From the minute I left work, some 20kms from home, I could see the huge cloud of smoke over Canning Vale … fighting peak hour traffic, the closer I got the more worried I became and my “self talk” was getting louder, reminding me to “stay calm, think clearly”.

I was mentally preparing myself for what I might (or might not) find … I knew that Mum had put all our dogs safely inside and all the kennel dogs in their kennels.

She had turned the bore on to wet the areas around the house and kennels, closed all the windows in case of embers burning the fly screens, turned the air conditioner water on and blower off.

The smoke was quite dense and thick as I approached; Crufts Way (the street behind our house) was blocked off by fire engines and police. The Emergency Response Unit was parked at the edge of the park and jammed packed with firemen, police and other officials. The water bomber helicopters were everywhere … the sounds of sirens, trucks and helicopters was echoing in the sky.

All I could see was black scrub across the back of the park ... where the fire had already been. Flames were licking up against the house at the end of the street.

I pulled into our driveway, leaving the gate open in case quick access was needed for anyone, leaving the keys in the car I rushed inside, changed into more practical clothes and checked with Mum to see what else we could do … how hopeless you feel when the threat of fire is so close and all you can do is prepare and wait. So many “what-if’s” go through your mind ...

People could see the flames behind our block, from the house up the hill in front of us. My biggest worry was the vacant block directly next door to us – it is dry grass and low scrub and has never been burnt.

We got crates out ready for the cats and the little dogs, in the case that we had to leave in a hurry. I still don’t know if I would actually leave if I had a choice … you just never know what you would do in that situation until you are faced with it, and my gut feeling is that I would choose to fight for my property unless it was absolutely hopeless, and there's no chance that I'd leave if I had to leave animals behind.

They were preparing to evacuate Crufts Way … apparently the fire had traveled through the bush behind all the properties on the Western side of Crufts Way and dogs had already been evacuated to homes on the opposite side of the road. There were so many emergency vehicles going back and forth, with little room for residents to get in and out with cars of dogs, etc., and this time of year most kennels are fully booked so full evacuation is a huge job.

Mum went around there with our little van to see if anyone needed help but there were lots of cars with dog floats already there … rather than clog up the road with another car she just let some residents know that we had some empty kennels that they could put their dogs in if needed, and she returned home.

It is nice to know that, in the case of an emergency, the dog community always pulls together to help move dogs, evacuate and accommodate other peoples animals. People from the Southern River kennel properties had arrived to move dogs to safety, even calling in on us to check if we needed anything.

Fortunately full evacuation was not required.

The fire was eventually contained and by around 7.30pm the fireys were mopping up, however trucks were still driving up and down the streets at 10.00pm … phew! that was close!

It’s comforting to know that these “hero’s”, our fire men and women, are so quick to respond and always prepared to risk their own safety to help save the lives of others. I don’t know how many trucks came but there seemed to be a never-ending stream of fire trucks coming and going all evening … the sound of helicopters and sirens is still echoing in my head.

A quick check on reality this morning, with a glance around our home and an extra hug to each of the dogs before leaving for work … I am so grateful for what I have.

Malinois Keepers

The Malinois is one of four varieties of the Belgian Shepherd Dog. "Malinois" is pronounced "Mel - in - Waa".

I wanted a Malinois for years and after closely following Vanrusselhof Kennels progress for some time I visited Amanda Russell and her dogs in Queensland, Australia.

My agenda was for a “working” Mal … I guess you have the same comparison in the Border Collie breed – there are “show” border collies and “working” border collies and both are quite different.

‘Fate’ delivered me Chilli … yes she managed to get under my skin in just a few days. Chilli (Ch Vanrusselhof On Fire) is what they call a “show-line” Malinois. The working Mal was put on the back-burner for a while (but definitely not forgotten!) and Chilli began to educate us about the breed in her own way.

Chilli is … what can I say? ... I absolutely adore her. She is an awesome dog … outgoing, protective, intelligent, very affectionate and a great mate. Her appearance is quite stunning yet very pretty, and conformation-wise (slipping into “show mode” here) she has lovely free, balanced movement. I couldn’t have asked for a better dog to start me off with (and get me addicted to) the Belgian Shepherd Malinois.

At the tender age of 14 months she finished her Australian Champion Title at the Perth Royal Show 2007.

So then it was time for some real dog stuff (agility and obedience training). Although reserved in her learning, Chilli does a lot of watching and what seems to be “perfecting” things in her mind before she applies it. It’s quite interesting really … she seems to think about things for some time before she actually commits to giving it a go, hence she prefers luring rather than wasting all her energy on free-shaping and guessing what I might want.
Somehow, she manages to come up with the right answers most of the time. Initially I found this quite frustrating because she would give me an answer (behavior) but it was quite long-winded and very slow … but I soon found that the more I rewarded the right answer she would then add speed to it.

Interesting and quite different to other dogs that I’ve trained … it’s all part of the game I guess!

Secret "Summer"

Summer came to me by default ... she is from the last litter we bred and I had no intention of keeping any of these puppies for myself to train - goodness knows, I have enough dogs to fill my (limited) training time with. However, as things have turned out Summer is here to stay and her demanding nature means she WILL occupy a substantial amount of my training time!

Westurn Secret Summer … is a very active and alert little girl, a pleasure to work with and very determined. I can see Summer will challenge my patience, pushing the boundaries and taking advantage of my weaknesses. Already claiming a little spot in my heart, our relationship is growing yet we are both still getting to know each other.

She thinks she already knows all she needs to know about agility and just wants to get out there and do it! … every now and then you meet a dog like this and the journey from puppy to your first trial seems to fly … she is only 12 months old and I already feel like I’m running out of time!

We have so much foundation work yet to do and she is in such a hurry to do the “grown up” stuff … someone needs to tell her that you gotta walk before you run!