Feeling a little lost ...

No pic's today ... just wanted to share my thoughts.

At the moment Ticket is officially “out of action” until further notice. Last week after training on Monday night she was lame in her right hand rear leg. I only gave her one run on one sequence, nothing extremely difficult or hard work, just a simple free flowing sequence. She was panting more than usual, it was warm but not that hot so I was immediately a little concerned … she wasn’t showing any other signs (that I could see) of pain or discomfort and was raring to keep going … as usual, no self-preservation, just chaffing a the bit to run!

I decided to put her back in the car for a rest and a drink, let her cool down then check her out once her adrenaline had stopped pumping, and she was quite happy to get back in the car.

I came back to her 10 minutes later and got her out to walk her around. She would not put any weight on her right rear leg … she resisted manipulation and was extremely tight in the stomach too.

She came home and we were lucky enough to be able to see our Bowen Therapist the next day. Her muscles were very sore all through her rear end down that leg … she was on strict rest for the next three days and “should be right for the trial on Saturday night”.

Well, Saturday came, I wondered if she still looked a little “tight” in the rear end but after keeping a close eye on her movement all day I decided that I was being paranoid … that evening at the trial we warmed up really well, we did some sprinting, sending out to goal posts and back with nice round turns, etc and she was looking quite comfortable, so we decided to give our first run a go (in Excellent Gamblers).

I didn’t push her for speed (not that I need to) and I was careful not to race her so she wasn’t frantic to get to me … she did some lovely work, did everything I asked her and exactly how she should … she knocked the 2nd last bar and ran past the last jump … I could see she was hesitating as she came back to me. I gave her a big hug and carried her back to the car, obviously fearing the obvious … yep, that leg was hurting again.

This time she was trembling – it must have been really hurting because Ticket is one of the toughest, hardest little dogs I have ever met! We brought her straight home and tucked her in on a soft mattress and pain killer …

For now we are treating her muscles which are very sore in the rear end. She is on strict rest for 4 weeks, light exercise (no jumping) and then we’ll slowly reintroduce her to some training …

Gawd I feel so lost! Yes I have other dogs to train but Ticket is the one that drives me, she keeps me determined and keeps me focused. She pushes me to my limits and gives me the inclination to get outside and do some training! She gets me thru a bad day … knowing that I can go home and have a blast training with her in the backyard that night! So motivating myself this week has been hard …

Training the other kids feels like a part time job! … Summer gives me a few minutes here and there, I always have to be the driving force behind her so she’s quite exhausting sometimes (if you’re not bursting with energy!). Chilli need motivating too … she’s not the most energetic Malinois you’ll ever see … so, there’s only so much of that kind of training one can do! So, we’ve been practicing lots of static exercises in the meantime, while these girls build their energy reserves up between bursts of agility training …

Group stays are the latest trick. Summer and Chilli, with Sketch (he feels important too) all play group stays … I heel one of them around the others and into a new position and they all take it in turns to be repositioned randomly … then we get another quick burst of energy where I can slip in some more agility training … but nothing replaces that feeling of the adrenaline rush when running agility with a fast, powerful dog!

Get better soon little Tick!

Take the weekend off!

Every now and then we have a weekend “off” … that means we have no trials or shows that weekend so we can get lots of work done around the block. So it’s not really a weekend off – it’s more like a WEEKEND of lot's of essential CHORES and HARD-WORK that we've not had time to do!

Anyhow, here’s the results after last “weekend off” … we got all the lawns done (mowing and whipper snippering), did some major pruning of trees (with chainsaw assistant in tow) because there’s a green waste collection next week, slashed the front part of the empty block next door, finished poisoning around the backyard and driveways, cleaned up all the palm trees we could reach with our long handled saw (need neck massage now), pulled up the huge double-g weeds up on the verge (they were nearly as big as me), replaced a couple of reticulation taps and connections up the palm garden and we still managed to squeeze in a couple of well deserved, icy cold beers on Sunday afternoon!

Phew! ... here’s the evidence ...

Proud Dad ... Malinois in the News!

Monday morning at work I walked past the boardroom and glanced over at the front page of the newspaper and to my surprise, sprawled across have the front page was Belgian Malinois … obviously I don’t need to say that the newspaper was swiftly tucked under my arm, never to be returned to the boardroom!




When I actually got to read the article, it was introducing West Australia’s Police latest recruit, Police Dog “Argus” ... son of our recently adopted boy "Krash". Argus comes from full working malinois parentage lines from the very successful Vanrusselhof Malinois Kennels in Queensland (owned by Amanda Camiller). WA Police also have Vanrusselhof Raptor in training … nice to see the Malinois finally coming to the fore in the service fields in Australia!


Anyway, I was so proud I had to take the article home and show young Krash what a clever boy his son had grown into!




Full reports here ...

• Front Page "Police unleash latest recruit"
• Report "Dog Squad plays a key role on Police front-line"
• Article "Dogged by a crim's worst enemy"

Lucky in Australia ... or just lucky I guess!

How lucky we are … I’ve just read a post on one of the discussion lists that 75 dog breeds have been banned in certain parts of the USA … and the Belgian Malinois is one of them, along with Australian Shepherds, Pugs, Labradors, Golden Retrievers, and many more. My god! What next? I guess we are very lucky here that, so far, we haven’t been fronted with this ridiculous rule … whatever happened to educating human beings? I guess half of them can’t train their kids so there’s no chance they’re ever going to understand their dogs! Actually, the more I think about it, I reckon I could list 75 human beings and justify banning them from the world! So does this mean that eventually all dog owners will have to all live in one place because they can’t have their dogs anywhere else? I wonder what President Obama thinks about this … did he ever end up getting that Labrador for his kids???!

Anyway, while we are still living in the lucky country, I have to share these pic’s of Krash and his new found friend Chilli, who has finally decided that Krash aint such a bad bloke after all … took these yesterday while they enjoyed each others company.

We are so lucky to have Krash in our lives. He truly is a lovely dog, although I am still learning about his likes and dislikes, he is teaching me so much about the Malinois breed, and he is still learning much about us. He is starting to acknowledge things that I say now, he knows that “good boy” means just that and that he can expect a treat for being a good boy. He is learning to come when called, and more and more often is coming straight back. He does tend to offer a snap at other male dogs if too close, however we are able to walk with other male dogs and he will offer attention to me in order to get a treat so he’s not obsessed with the thought … all the time, we’re still learning what pushes his buttons and to predict his reactions. He is still one of the easiest and most accepting dogs to live with … maybe he’s so good because he’s grateful for the life he has.

This week he has also spent some time with Summer and Ticket … we are gradually introducing different dogs to him so eventually he will have a small pack to socialize with, even if just the girls.

Happy Birthday to Me!!!

It's my birthday today!!!

My Mum and Sister bought me one of those Amorica bead/charm bracelets for my birthday ... something I have wanted for a long time ...

they started it off with 5 charms ...

... now, to set some goals to earn some more charms.

Thanks guys!

Dinner Time!

C'mon kids ... it's dinner time!

Busy Weekend! ... full of Agility

I'll warn you now, but there's lots of writing and not enough pic's in this post ... but there's some stuff I want to share with you ...

This weekend just gone, was three evenings of agility, jumping and games trials … phew … bit of a marathon but I really enjoyed it!

This was Summer’s re-introduction to the Agility Ring (she’s only been running in Jumping Classes so far). I wasn’t really happy with her contacts when she first started trialling so this weekend was her second chance to get it right in the ring. In training, she’s been doing really well and I felt the games were a good chance to have a “play” and see how she went. This little girl is quite outgoing and full of herself at home, but easily cut down to size with a frown. Out and about, around the trial world, she has slowly grown and gradually gaining more and more confidence. I still can’t identify all the little things that affect or influence her and she often catches me by surprise with some of her little behaviours that turn up.

For some reason, on Friday night she decided that the top of the A-Frame was a nice place to be, and after performing a really nice A-Frame in her first run the second time she decided to loiter at the top for a while … whilst I danced around on the ground, turning myself inside out, trying to get her attention and get her to come down! This behaviour is one of my pet hates and really frustrates me … she has never done this in training, and I mean never. Yes, in the very beginning she started to creep into her contact position (2on 2off) but she never stopped at the top!

She presented me with a few other new tricks over the weekend … just to remind me not to become too complacent and that my job is never done as her trainer. She had a few vague moments in the ring where she would take a detour, like she was taking in the scenery and sniffing the night air, totally oblivious to me or what I was saying, then she would suddenly snap out of it and come back to finish the course … displacement behavior maybe? Maybe she’s not comfortable enough in the trial ring environment yet, maybe she’s unsure about what I really expect of her, maybe I’m asking her to do stuff that's too difficult for her yet? Who knows … but we’ll work on it.

Her weave poles were really nice up until an Open Jumping run on Saturday night where she took 5 steps to walk r e a l l y s l o w l y around each pole … goodness knows what got into her. She ran the rest of the course OK - but still hesitant-like.

Dog Walk was nice and smooth, however (only I would notice) she was consistently a toenail away from 2on 2off each time – I battled with myself whether to release her and keep her on the course (stay positive) or whether to take her off the course and let her know she was wrong – I chose the first option, seeing that she wasn’t bursting with confidence to start with … maybe I made the wrong choice, who knows?

Ticket only ran in games classes this weekend, I wanted to give her a “no pressure” weekend where Q's weren't our priority … and we had a great time. Of all her runs, she only knocked 2 bars down, her contacts were AWESOME! Absolutely AWESOME!!! Now I’ve just got to work out how I actually taught this!? Oooh, bad trainer … I should know what I’ve done, have it all noted down and tracked in my training diary and be able to apply again … shouldn’t I?

Anyway, the results were still pretty good over the whole weekend and we also managed to pick up a couple of titles along the way.

Ticket Q’d in 2nd Place Novice Gamblers and 1st Place Novice Snooker on Friday night, gaining her GD (Gambler Dog) Title, then another Q in 2nd Place in Gamblers on Sunday night.

Summer Q’d in Novice Snooker, Novice Gambler and also 2nd Place Novice Strategic Pairs on Friday night. Saturday night she Q’d in Excellent Jumping and Novice Agility taking 1st Place. Sunday night she Q’d in Novice Gambler and 4th Place in Strategic Pairs giving her and her partner, Brynbank Juston Midnite, their SPD (Strategic Pairs Dog) Titles!

Chilli redeemed herself, after missing the last jump on a number of courses, she qualified in Novice Gamblers on Sunday night.

I'm happy with that ... and I've got some homework to do!



The Western Classic Dog Show is on this weekend, starting Thursday night thru to Sunday night. I am showing in the conformation ring Thursday and Sunday with the Malinois, and Mum & Rene also with their Papillons, and Agility on Saturday night with Ticket and Summer. Hope it’s not too hot!

Gum Leaves!

With the Summer months having nicely dried out our Australian bush, the remaining hot days become even more of a threat, along with the Autumn winds increasing each day, the fear of fire is ever present in our minds …

We have some beautiful big Gum Trees on our one acre block and they provide us with natural shade over our dog runs and kennels - without these trees our place would be much hotter. Therefore, each Summer we spend countless hours picking up (and cursing) Gum Leaves!

Guess what we the other day? ... it looked really nice afterwards!