Rene' is now a Group 5 Conformation Judge!

Just having a little brag here … my sister, Rene', qualified and finished her Group 5 Judges Licence last week. Now she can judge Group 5 (Working Dogs) at Championship Shows!

Next on the agenda … she will start studying for Group 1 (Toy Dogs).

Well done Rene'!

No "Q's" but plenty to Celebrate!

Not much to report on the results side of things from the GSDA trial last Saturday. However, I’ve got to say I was wrapped with Ticket’s agility runs … one fly-off on the see-saw but every other contact (Dog Walk’s and A-Frame’s) she did beautifully! I was so pleased that the judge had to interrupt my celebration at the end of Novice Agility to tell me we didn’t “Q”. Yeah, I knew that, but she did all her contacts, didn’t freak at the table (she hate’s stationery exercises) and she nailed a really difficult weave pole entry with me racing her thru to front cross at the end for a tricky finishing sequence! I was just thrilled with our little bit of personal success … Ticket’s contacts have been an ongoing issue that I doubted we would see improvement on.

OK, she’s not going to be the world champion or anything but geeze I’ve learnt a lot, and still learning. Some friends video'd most of our runs on Saturday and just watching us together on course, I am was pleasantly surprised. It's great to actually 'see' what you've done rather than assess your handling just from your memory of running the course. Thanks for the video guys!

No trials for a couple of weeks now so time to catch up on work around home …

Awesome Malinois wins Silver at the Worlds!

At the World Agility Championships held in Helsinki, Finland in September this year a Belgian Malinois won Silver Medal (in Individual Large Class). The team was Jan Egil Eide and his dog “Cirkus” from Norway … and wow, what a team. Just watching this clip of one of their individual runs sends shivers down my spine … have a look for yourself: http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KwiezTZAf-E.

I was surprised to read that Cirkus is a female and a fairly small one at that (measuring just 55cm). Her power and passion are awe-inspiring and her handler, Jan, is a remarkable handler.

Wow … what an awesome team! Certainly an inspiration to me ...

Had to share this as I was so pleased to see a Mal up there showing the world what awesome dogs they are, and giving the BC's a run for their money!

You can read more about Cirkus and his family at their website: http://www.agilitymalle.no/indexe.htm.

Ticket's Ultimatum

Last week I gave Ticket an ultimatum … she has until the end of the year to start showing some contact behavior control IN the trial ring, otherwise she will be withdrawn from all agility classes next year, and only run jumping classes. Over the past few weeks we have worked very hard on our contact training, ensuring that I clearly reinforced the exact contact behavior that I wanted from her, adding unusual distractions and not allowing any “grey-areas” on either side of that criterion. With Ticket, the slightest slip up on my part, in not being absolutely precise, creates an opportunity that she will most certainly take advantage of!

Last Sunday we trialled at the Agility Club of WA’s Agility, Jumping & Games trial (Ticket pictured above) … we had four runs that included contact obstacles, two of them being Games where I could, if I wanted to, legally do the contacts numerous times in the ring. Our first run was Open Agility and we managed to fault on the weave poles, only the third obstacle, so the run became a “training run” and Ticket did the most awesome contacts, holding both A-Frame and Dog Walk contacts until I released her! We pretty much destroyed the rest of the course and I’m sure the judge thought I was crazy as I jackpotted Ticket at the end of the run! Wow, finally a light at the other end of the tunnel …

Our next run was Snooker … she did a lovely dog walk contact but jumped off the A-Frame. I stopped instantly, picked her up and carted her off the car for a quite minute so she could think about what she had just done.

Novice Agility was her third run and, oh boy, what a ride!!! She nailed both contacts (above) and blitzed the course time, Qualifying and claiming first place easily! Although as a handler, I was a little naughty, I did release her off the contacts very quickly, not holding her there for a millisecond each time in order to reinforce her control … we had one more run in Novice Gamblers to resurrect this.

As you set your own course in Gamblers I picked a circuit where we could do all the contacts twice. At one point I actually took her back and asked her to get back on the A-Frame contact in order to reinforce the “wait” at the bottom … and we still managed to Qualify and take 4th Place!

All in all we ended up with 1st Place in Novice Agility and 4th Place in Novice Gamblers … and time will tell if we can keep this mission on track.

Credit: above photo's by Tim Abidin (www.yourdogphotos.com)

Perth Royal 2008

Another Royal Show been and gone and "wow" what a week! To sum it up we had a pretty good Royal this year.

Collectively (between Mum, Rene and I) we …

Monday 29th September (also Mum’s birthday!)

We competed in Agility & Jumping. Summer, Chilli and Rocket all did really well. This was Summer and Chilli’s very first time at agility for a Royal and I am proud to say that my two young novice girls did extremely well. Courses set with weave poles heading directly towards the crowd, the dog walk alongside the busiest edge of the ring and commentating blasting thru the PA over the ring areas; I think they both came away with a positive experience. Summer ended up with a 3rd place in Novice Agility and little Rocket placed 2nd in Excellent Agility, he has been to a couple of Royals now but this was his first “Q” at one. Summer & Rocket pictured below ...

Tuesday 30th September

Rene handled Chow Chows in the Conformation Ring and came away with a Challenge Bitch and Runner-up Best of Breed with her “little black bitch”!

Wednesday 1st October

Working Dogs were on in the Conformation Ring and young Hunter and Chilli were both entered. Hunter placed 3rd in his class, Intermediate Dog, and enjoyed the hugs and pats from the crowd for the rest of the day. Chilli showed nicely and was awarded Best of Breed Belgian Malinois ... pictured below ...

I also had the pleasure, once again, of showing "Quosh" (imp Germany), the most adorable German Shepherd I have ever known (pictured below). At nearly 10 years of age, probably the last Royal we will spend together - thank you Margaret & Eric. Quosh showed proudly and was the only representative of the German Shepherd Dog in the Veteran Class ... a great ambassador for the breed.

Thursday 2nd October

We assisted with one of the demo’s in the evening after conformation showing had finished. The deal is that the conformation exhibitors get to leave at 5pm providing a dog demonstration of some kind is done every evening. So that’s my bit for the conformation world at the royal!

Friday 3rd October

Papillon’s were in the Conformation Ring. Comet wasn’t impressed with the side show alley rides nearby and consequently didn’t show very well however still picking up a 2nd Place – strange because he quite enjoyed the Royal last year. On the other hand, young Satu won Bitch Challenge and Runner-up Best of Breed, only just gone 12 months old and now only needs some 15 or so points for her Champion Title!

So overall our week was a good one and we were pretty successful with all our ventures, and once again, with our eyeballs hanging out in exhaustion, we’re wondering why we do this to ourselves every year!