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By W S Myles Time to get the thinking cap on. Shadow blew her sit-stay today, the first time this week (we did several on Thur, and one in the carpark just before) She then did a perfect 4 minute one after the ring finished. Of course.
Then after the trial, we went back in the ring to troubleshoot: (down after 55 secs); Ok at 5 mins; (down at 55 seconds); Ok at 5 Mins; Ok at 3m30s. I understand she was one of the last to go down (after 2m+) There appear to be at least three factors: dogs she’s not used to, having the sun in her eyes (she was turning her head away from it) and “peer pressure” from the other dogs breaking. The latter doesn’t seem to affect her when she trains with Gemma (Gem always goes down before I’ve even left the ring!)
I know it was a factor for Gemma, but I think posture may be a problem for Shadow as well. Gemma can’t hold a sit comfortably, but I thought Shadow could. I’m going to have to be pedantic about ensuring she’s in a properly balanced sit position. I think at least one of the ‘breaks’ today was from a lop-sided sit.
There is clearly another factor at play: she doesn’t perceive anything wrong with being ‘down’ when left in a ‘sit.’ She won’t even get up when asked, until I’m within a metre or two. We need to ‘explain’ that criteria to her.
I guess we have plenty of time. Only one other trial in Winter. I might see if Heather or Harli want to work with me and start on Novice. Harli has the smarts, but I’m hesitant to feed her anything but the ideal diet until she grows.
Shadow only lost nine points today in the individuals: six for heeling, two for the Drop on Recall, one for the Retrieve over High. Another 190+ bites the dust. I hate sit-stays even more than most dogs…
By W S Myles Gundog Society trial in the morning, Hounds club in the afternoon. Six and Eight runs respectively.
Fourteen runs in one day! A new record for me. By the last few runs, my legs felt like lead. Soft, squishy, and very very heavy!
In the morning, each girl had two runs in their respective Agility and Jumping classes. Gemma dropped a bar in JDM, and popped out of the weavers mid-stream in Agility. Heather dropped a bar in one and was over time (but clear) in the other.
Shadow saved our reputations by qualifying in both Agility and Jumping. Her ADX Q was her first, having started in August 2011 and then taking six months off for puppies. The BIG event, though, was her JDX title. She ran clear and fast, won the ring, collected her title, and picked up a nice prize – A trial bag from Clean Run. She rattled the second last bar, so it was a lucky run!
So the morning was 2 out of 6. The afternoon trial saw Gemma drop single bars in three classes, and just made it in the last run of the day for her first Q of her JDO2 title. Shadow was very unlucky in ADX, she took off early for the last jump (a spread-hurdle) and barged right through the top bar. Her JDX run in the PM was a ‘dead rubber’ in that it didn’t count, but she ran very well but dropped a single bar.
Heather was very slow in her PM JDX run and went clear, but over time – she was very hesitant and nearly shut down – probably because she hated being attached to a tree next to a loudly barking dog while I changed jump heights in the ring. Gotta watch that girl… she goes to pieces in the blink of an eye.
She turned around and collected a nice smooth Q in the ADX run after it though, with six seconds to spare.
The afternoon was 2 out of 6. Even worse stats than the AM. Again, the poor showing in “Q” cards does not reflect the quality of their work overall – just some niggly consistency issues, predominantly clearing bars!
All three girls managed all of their ‘tricky’ manoeuvers easily, including some that I’m sure Heather had never seen before – it was the simple things that tripped them up. Shadow in particular has developed a real pattern when it comes to the spread-hurdle; if it’s early in a course, she takes it fine. If it is near the end, or in a “fast” section of the course, she doesn’t seem to “see” it as a double jump and crashes right into the top bar. We’re going to have to do some more work on that.
It was really frustrating to have Gemma’s good runs in ADM today go to ruin; she did great work apart from the faults. She absolutely nailed the Open challenges too. I guess it’s “maybe next time” for her ADM title.
By W S Myles Just relaxing after dinner, and a night of Agility runs.
Gemma blew the first run (ADO) with a single fault, and the one we really wanted – ADM – with a bar down and a stumble at a tunnel layering challenge (She had to go through it CCW, then turn around and go around the far side, CW (clockwise) towards a jump, but insisted on going back in the tunnel. It became a moot point about four obstacles later when she dropped a bar. Otherwise, her runs were great. Fast, with good contacts, and great weaving.
Gemma was one of a very few dogs to manage the Open distance challenge, and one of only a couple to really nail it without a lot of screaming and gesticulating  We have been practicing long-distance handling the last few weeks, and it paid off big-time tonight. Even Heather and Shadow are now starting to get the idea of 5-10m lateral distance and ‘layering’ (having an obstacle between us).
Heather has now caught up to Shadow, and is now doing the same level: Excellent, as in ADX and JDX. Shadow ran fast and accurate except for messing up the weave entry. Good speed, good contacts – just didn’t make the entry clean. Once in the weavers, she did them accurately and quickly.
Heather was a little slower, but still faster than her usual. She nailed her contacts, her weaves, and all the jumps… and came home with a freshly minted Q card for her efforts. Not that she cares about that. She enjoyed the cubes of fried chicken breast and rice rather more
Even more amazing, my knee held up all through the night. As of Sunday night, I was planning to ‘rest up’ until the trials on Saturday (14 runs!) but the courses tonight were quite flowing, without the usual run-brake-turn-run-brake manoeuvers.
I’ve said for some time that Heather is not my fastest dog, but she is the most reliable. Shadow is yet to put it together for her first ADX Q after eight attempts (including tonight) but Heather managed that feat on her second. Go Heather!
By W S Myles With more sun and better settings on the camera!
By W S Myles Note to self: Border Collies are fast. A 30d with an F4.5-5.6 lens and a Polarising filter on an overcast day is not! Too many shots had to be thrown out because of motion blur 
Harli is growing fast. She’s only 3kg behind Heather (who is admittedly a little small) by the age of four months. If I can just keep her from burning all her energy chasing Heather and put it into growing, she’s going to be a fine girl!
Without further ado…
By W S Myles I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
When the drought breaks, boy does it ever break! I wasn’t quite the fairy-tale day at Tuggeranong Agility & Jumping trial today, but pretty close.
Gemma Qualified 5th in Open Agility and Open Jumping, rounding out her ADO and JDO titles respectively. Her fourteenth and fifteenth titles
Heather rounded out her AD with her third pass (3rd place) and ran well, if slowly (and over time) in JDX for a clear round.
Shadow did better on that JDX course and won the ring, but I was in the wrong position after the A-frame at the back of her ADX course, otherwise she may have broken that duck. As it is, Shadow’s JDX was her fourth, so she could theoretically earn her JDX title on Monday night
With puppies, quarantine and other downtime, it’s been a long time between drinks. That’s the fourth ANKC title for this household in six days. Maybe we can make it five in eight?
Heather has resumed her place as my “most reliable” dog now. Reliable, but slow Gem didn’t do so bad, with three clean runs out of four (to Heather’s 2/2).
Gemma is now O.Ch Clanheath Perfect Gem UD RN ADX ADO JDM JDO SD ET
Heather is now Eweturn Highland Fling AD JD
If Gemma had skidded just 15-20mm further down the dogwalk before leaping off, she’d be celebrating her ADM as well… the run was otherwise flawless.
By W S Myles For the most part, the weekend was one to forget. We had 14 runs between three girls (8 on Saturday, 6 on Sunday.)
It was only on the last handful of runs that things started to go right. Heather’s JDX run was smooth and clear, but four seconds over. Then she finally put a run together in AD (Novice Agility) and despite the new “beeping” table that she’d just seen for the first time an hour before, she managed to do a clear run with 10 seconds or so to spare, and third place overall.
Gemma had six runs on the weekend (four on Saturday) and was only one pass away from each of four titles… I’m afraid she didn’t have a good weekend, but her last run bagged the pass that was always going to be the hardest to get: Masters Jumping.
So Gemma is now O.Ch Clanheath Perfect Gem RN ADX JDM SD ET – her thirteenth ANKC title, and one that has eluded us for a while. JDM courses usually have SCTs set that are just outside our ability to complete them in time. Today almost resulted in her fifth “clean run but over time.” She only made it by a gnat’s whisker, with 0.06 of a second to spare!
Heather only needs a single Novice Agility pass now to reach Excellent with Shadow. She’s been rather unlucky at a few trials in a row – she runs a little slow and scared in actual trials, but rather faster in training. She’s easy to spook. It will be somewhat easier for me having only Excellent and Masters courses to remember… but the sisters run so differently they might as well be on different courses!
Heather’s AD run would have been even faster if she didn’t dawdle through the weavers. It felt like 20 seconds or more, and we were a little lucky – she popped out at about #7 but went back in and completed the job. Eventually!
Shadow has been dropping bars all weekend, and if I remember correctly she only left the top bar of the spread jump up once – three drops out of four. As I recall, there was one run this weekend where it was just a normal hurdle bar between her and a Q.
There were more bars on the ground this weekend than in a mining town – I know three girls who are going to be doing quite a few drills this week!
Next Saturday we are doing it all again: Gemma is up for her ADO, JDO and ADM titles, Heather is up for her AD title, and Shadow needs to get off the line with her ADX (none yet) and build on her JDX (3/5).
The star of the day was Harli. She had a grand time meeting dozens of people and their dogs. She was on her best behaviour, and made many new friends. Harli was the one member of the household that didn’t put a foot wrong today. Well, a foot. Lara did catch her gnawing on a Kopper’s Log. So she put a tooth wrong
By W S Myles Double Obedience trial at BDOC yesterday. To keep Shadow’s mind on the job, she was the only one with me – the others were cooling their heels at home on the last day of daylight saving.
Shadow’s AM performance wasn’t up to par. It was even worse than I feared. For the first time ever (as far as I can remember) she moved in the Stand For Exam. This time, it was definitive; she heeled around my U-turn in the ‘return’. Normally, she behaves as if her paws are set in concrete. I expected problems in the Drop on Recall, but didn’t know which it would be (staying put, or creeping on the first call.) She stayed put, then executed a reasonable second try (though still a bit slow.) She also needed an extra cue to ‘sit’ for the first Retrieve (on the flat.) I didn’t think she’d pass in the AM, but I didn’t think she’d flub anything beyond the Recall. She appeared quite contrite when we left the ring, and sought approval for the next couple of hours.
We were on in the first third of the PM trial as well, but this time she was fully ‘on song.’ She missed the final position in the heeling, but was otherwise very good – much better than average. Her SFE was her usual, rock solid without moving a muscle. I nervously left her for the Drop on Recall, fully expecting her to stay put or creep again (the latter is better, it’s only a deduction, not a zero!) and turned to give the signal. She trotted towards me before I’d even finished the signal! Good girl! She then dropped immediately and bolted toward me for a perfect ‘front’ and ‘finish.’
The Retrieves were perfect from her side; I flubbed the throw over the jump, but it was far enough to be legal (though way off to the left side.) She understands that exercise well – she went over, looked for it, then straightened up and came in for a curved jump and a straight front – again, very good! She stood a little crooked on the Distance Control, but executed all the moves swiftly and correctly.
So the upshot is that she dropped five points on the heeling, one on the first retrieve, and one on the final exercise – for a sweet 193/200 performance, topped off by two perfect stays
She sought approval, and got it. We went right from the ring to the car and scoffed an entire can of sardines after the individuals, and grabbed the aerobie for the Q after the stays. She received the ‘approval’ she wanted There were four other passes at 195 and above (two at 199) but this was her best performance yet in Open, so I am well pleased. Chicken for dinner, Chicken for breakfast, and there’s enough left for Chicken for Dinner again tonight.
I am certainly glad I didn’t decide to roll over and have a lie-in, as I was thinking of doing – her ‘practice’ performances have been good except for the Recall, which worked about one in five attempts, and even that was slow. Maybe seeing the other dogs’ routines helped her remember the proper performance?
Meanwhile, we’re off to have a romp in the forest!
By W S Myles Harli had her third Vaccination shot today, just a little early, so we could get on with life a little sooner. She’s been left behind when we go out soooo many times. In theory, we should wait another 4-5 days until getting out and about, so I played it carefully.
With all the errands we ran today, she ended up being with me for much of the day, and managed to meet quite a few dogs and even more people. She’s a real social butterfly, this one. Just like her Granny. We went for some on- and off-lead walks in safe areas too. She still doesn’t like walking on lead, but at least she doesn’t resent it to the point of digging her heels in any more
She tipped the scales at 10kg last night, two days before 15 weeks!
She didn’t sleep at all during the day, so I thought it best to leave her at home for our evening walk. Everyone wanted to know where this mythical new puppy was – they are all eager to meet her. Soon!
By W S Myles We aren’t having much luck with the weather this year, but Heather is luckier than Gemma and Shadow at getting to Agility class. She’s only lost one or two classes to weather, where the older girls have lost all but one or two This actually means we’ve missed at least two-thirds of the classes this year already
Last night, by pure luck we ran into the same problem as Heather had at BDOC a while back. She happily ran into a tunnel, and about half way, she turned around and came right back out! An excellent training/debugging opportunity then.
To cut a long story short, there are several ways to approach a tunnel entrance, but essentially there is “dog on the left” and “dog on the right” and the matter of which end you go in. Three of these presented no difficulty for her, but the on-course entry did – just like the AD course a while back.
So I got down at her level and had a good look. What I saw was a huge dark shadow of a tunnel bag on a brightly back-lit yellow tunnel. A shadow that looked just like a situation she ran into last year in training, which really upset her. A loose dog ran into the other end of her tunnel as she went in, and they met in the middle. It took more than a little while to get her over that shock. She was wary of tunnels for some time.
Put this together, and her reaction is quite sensible. See the shadow of what appears to be another dog, and what’s the safest course of action? run back before they run into you!
So we spent some time narrowing down the criteria for the problem. The angle of approach (the lead hand included) is a definite factor. As I moved around at the entry, sending her from various angles, there was a particular approach window where she baulked every time. Even so, she might be OK doing just the tunnel, but go back an obstacle or two and THEN do the tunnel, and she’d U-turn again after several good entries.
So we’re going to have to work on that.
Afterward, the course was turned into a Strategic Pairs Excellent (SPDX) course. I’ve never done pairs, and obviously neither have any of my dogs. There was noone to run with us, so we ran the whole course as if we had the “partner from hell” who failed every obstacle. She ran amazingly well. I got lost a few times, mostly because I couldn’t see through the cones to where the numbers were (on the far side!) Sure, she took a few “inactive” obstacles on the way, but that’s OK. No penalty for those. However, she did do ONE fault in both runs. In the same place. She ran in the wrong end of the tunnel (slipping behind me and to the left) while my right hand was out directing her to the other end.
Pretty chuffed for both of us. That was the only significant mistake (twice) that she made all evening.
By W S Myles ..and the tough guys tumble. Oh, that’s Bangkok isn’t it?
Gemma, Shadow and Heather were all on deck for the first time this year together. Gemma had four dances on her card: ADO, ADM, JDM and JDO. She started the night needing only one Q each in ADO and ADM for her titles (her thirteenth and fourteenth) and two for her JDO and JDM.
The fates weren’t with us in Agility. All three girls made mistakes, and so did I. It was the easy stuff that got us; the challenges were easy for us all, even the Open “distance challenges.” The ADO course had an A-frame/tunnel discrimination followed by a “flick” back in to the tunnel, all within the distance line – “piece of cake” said Gemma. The ADM run was nearly perfect – there was a 270 turn after the weavers which between us we stuffed up and ended up back-jumping because I lost “connection” with Gemma while trying to line it up.
It was a bar down here, or a refusal there in the easier bits all night. The girls worked very well considering the conditions.
The fates weren’t with us in Jumping either, but Gemma and I managed to rescue two Q cards from near certain defeat with barely a second left on the clock.
So that puts Gemma on loaded bases – her next Q in any of Masters or Open in Agility or Jumping will be her next title. There are four titles just waiting to happen!
Shadow was unlucky in Agility. She was too fast for the slippery dogwalk, and jumped off. A refusal. She did the rest of the course fine. She was unlucky in Jumping too – but the main problem there is that she caught me out of position on the wrong side of the jumps, so I had to “improvise” about six jumps’ worth of handling. The sixth is where it got a bit much – she dropped the bar at the back of the course, then came home strong.
Heather ran the same JDX course, a few minutes earlier (and as planned!) but didn’t make it, and wouldn’t have made the course time either.
Heather’s AD hoodoo continued – she ran the whole course extremely well considering she was soaked to the skin, but she backed out of the first tunnel for some strange and probably temperamental reason, incurring a refusal. She would have been easily in time, even so.
The champ of the evening was Gemma though. Saving our reputations at least a little, after six dud runs out of eight!
I nearly didn’t run the JDO course with her, thinking that there was no way we could make the time in the conditions. Just too slippery, and with Gemma soaked to the skin also (and probably gaining at least a kilo in lift-off weight from her long, wet coat.) Somehow, she made it around with 0.82 seconds spare!
The Masters run (JDM) was the pick of the day though; all through the night I was standing in line to enter one ring while the other ring was walking, or trying to remember two Masters courses, or similar. For the other 95% of the night, we were just sitting around getting soaked with nothing to do. Like weather, it was droughts or floods with nothing to do in between. 1.48 seconds to spare on a course I’d partly memorised before having to line up at the other ring. I made up the “handling” as I went, and read the numbers… I had a pretty good idea where the course went, but didn’t really work on any handling until the bars were being set to her height
Two very big thumbs up for the improvement in the BDOC grounds – the new surface is great! It used to be difficult to walk across it, let alone run, without twisting an ankle or two.
A pretty scrappy night’s work for all of us; Gemma was the standout performer of the four of us. Naturally, Gemma is the one who got the bonus quarter chicken with her dinner tonight. We did score a couple of consolation prizes though: in the lucky number draw after presentations, we won a “free entry” to the next trial and a prize packet of Chocolates, sweets, and (I think) a bottle of Red. Not that I drink it, can’t stand the stuff!
By W S Myles Three months old, as of about 10-11pm tonight. Harli is already up to 8.5kg in weight, and 18.5kg in attitude.
Time has absolutely flown – mostly because I’ve been flat out in the back yard.
Duff’s new family have decided to call him “Finn” after his dad, but it seems like Hamish, Clyde and Bonnie have all kept their initial “litter” names.
The other girls and I have an Agility & Jumping trial tonight. Gemma and Shadow have been dropping bars lately, but I gave them a really good run on Wednesday, and have been resting them up since then to recharge the “batteries.” We’ll go for a short walk around the neighbourhood now, just to get the blood flowing.
Won’t be long now (3 weeks or so) before the pups can venture out into the wide world and meet other dogs and other breeds for the first time. Harli already has, at the Vet. It was a real surprise to see a Lab there, a dog that was much bigger than any she’s seen, and it wasn’t even black & white!
By W S Myles I’m stopped and asked all the time how I get my kids looking shiny and clean all the time. “You must put so much effort into it.” Hardly! The kids do most of it themselves. Feed them right, train them in appropriate behaviour, and they pretty much look after themselves.
Food: a good balanced diet with all they need, and a few supplements like Sardines for Omega 3.
Training: a rare case where I use “Classical Conditioning” rather than Operant Conditioning in training. I associate the bad (dirty) behaviours with the words “DIRTY” and “BATH” when they are young. I use them repeatedly as a link… and then get them into an actual bath as soon as possible, repeating those words often. So they associate “being dirty” with “getting a bath.”
It seems simple, but it’s extremely effective! They don’t get dirty enough to need a bath, so their natural coat oils create a barrier against dirt. Normally, it just dries and falls off with minimal effort, if any, on their part. Shampoos strip this barrier, so the more you shampoo the dog, the more you need to. The converse is (self-evidently) true also.
For grooming, on those occasions where I do think they are starting to get a bit grubby, I use Aloveen (Oatmeal) shampoo which is great for their coats… and if the “whites” aren’t, I use Fido’s White shampoo which works on the same principle as the blue flecks in clothes-washing powder. I bought several litres a few years ago when it was on sale, and I still have several litres
As for brushing, I have a $2 hairbrush I keep handy for random moments, and a $40 “Denman” grooming brush which is purpose-made of Boar Bristle in a random length, and a longer nylon bristle at the core of each tuft. Works a treat.
Being seasonal, long-coated animals, they do drop their coats – so the simplest and most effective way I’ve found to clear away the dead hair is a $10 coat rake, with 4cm tynes at about 3-4mm spacing. Just slide it through the coat deep enough to brush (but not rip at) the skin until it comes away clean.
You will note that none of the bristles or tynes are tapered, nor do they have “balls” at the end to “protect the skin” – these just get caught up in the long hair and result in tangles and broken hair.
This need not be an arduous process for the human or the dog. When he arrived, Finn was mortally terrified of brushes. He could make himself melt into the ground whenever he saw one. Now, he’ll come for the relief and the attention it brings. Just work with the dog and try to make it less unpleasant for them.
Note: washing them weakens the roots of the coat, and when the coat is growing, can “bend” or wave the coat, so you end up with a curly coat. It is best to rake the coat before a bath, shortly after, and a few hours after. Normally some will come away – but frequently much more will come away in the rake about 24 hours later. You need to clear this out of the undercoat, or it will cause mats and cots which are just as unpleasant for both parties to get rid of. Prevention is better than cure! This will also happen if they go for a swim, or if they get soaked to the skin by rain. Towel-dry, then rake, then brush.
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All I really need is the shampoo on the right, the Denman brush, and the rake.
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Closeup of the Denman brush – note the longer ‘fingers’ of Nylon. The bristles are soft enough that they will bend with less force than it takes to crush a ripe grape.
By W S Myles A very productive day at Chaos Manor on Wednesday. Started just after rising, and finished under lights – the back fence has been excavated, re-weedmatted, snake-proofed, drains fitted, and even the topsoil is loaded in. I’ll have to fine-tune it in daylight, but WOW. What a day! I could have used some cloud, it was damn hot work out there in the sun all day.
Then yesterday the remainder of the turf went down and the kids were able to join me in the yard again, now that the perimeter is secure again (apart from the gate – which still has rubbish blocking the space under it. Next phase is to get some tanbark delivered and finish the area behind the pavers, and think about pouring a slab under the gate (including the uprights, for strength). Then, while I have the mixer at hand, a mower strip outside the fence to keep the Territory’s weeds at arms length!
But for right now, I’m going to limit progress to “site cleanup” and some housework – we have eight runs in Agility & Jumping tomorrow, and the last thing I need is another injury.
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Excavating to set a level for the drain and the mesh
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This is the worst of the old footings, repaired. 110kg of concrete to fill the hole – that’s what it took to find solid ground!
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All level following the fence “fall” just checking with a “dry fit” that everything sits properly
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Far more substantial footings now in place – the fence no longer looks like a Japanese fan!
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Excavated under the sleepers and pushed through weedmat (doubled over) partly as a weed barrier, partly against snakes
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Now the yard is safer – the mesh is all screwed down tight, and the holes are protected
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Drainage channel now screwed on as well (it’s more of a mower strip really)
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Now trim off the old grass to make it just the right size for a new roll of turf, and backfill with new sandy loam
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Next day, with the soil damped, stomped, and the turf laid down – gate closed and the kids are safe again (Ignore the wide-angle lens distortion – the fence is straight :))
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Looks a bit funny at the moment, but once the turf starts growing it’ll blend in. The kids approve. Especially as they are allowed in where I am now!
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Looking back the other way; still some excavated weeds from around the aircon to remove yet (on the pavers)
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…and this eyesore to get rid of. It’s a real wet-spot, so I’ll be putting tanbark in here instead of soil so it drains away faster (with Agi-pipe)
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About one week on, the old “goat track” is long gone, and the turf has already had a haircut – it’s bedding in very well!
By W S Myles CDC ran their first Rally-O competition tonight, and I tossed a couple of wildcards in the ring: Shadow and Finn. Because of the weather lately, neither has had any training at all. They saw their first and only Rally courses tonight!
Shadow did very well, losing only five points (to my 10, supposedly on the 1,2,3 back but I don’t know.) She was on the job the whole time, and worked really well.
Finn rather resented having a lead on (as I expected.) He lagged most of the course, and had to be called up more times than I can comfortably count. Again, supposedly on the 1,2,3 exercises, I got them wrong. He lost 9 to my 20. As far as I can tell.
Gemma was rather frustrated by being made to wait and see the others work (and get chicken) before her. She nagged me the whole course, and thoroughly discombobulated me on one of the really basic stations. I wasn’t aware that you could lose more than 10 points on a station, but after putting my hand up to restart a “Front, finish, Halt” sign twice (yes, embarrassing, but Gemma was really distracting me!) we completed it correctly as far as I remember, but were docked 13 points for it. However, Gemma being the trooper she is, only lost another two points on the entire course.
I think she’ll be much happier in Advanced which is off-lead. She thinks working on lead is for puppies. Finn resents them even more, and nearly shuts down. Which is the main reason we never did CCD, even though as a rule we don’t train on lead in this household. He associates a leash with “being told off for bad behaviour” which is clear in his body language – very submissive and nervous.
Anyway, it matters not a whit: Three dogs entered, three dogs passed, Gemma got her title and I lost three times as much as the three dogs combined in the scores. Can’t really complain about that.
By W S Myles Harli went in for her 12-week checkup and C5 shot today. Passed with flying colours of course. She’s as healthy as she is bright. Well, her brain anyway. Her coat is a little dirty from playing in the garden, but why put her through the stress of a bath when she’ll be just the same in 10 minutes back in the garden?
As we came out, we discovered that Clyde (who lives barely 300m away) was also in for the same thing – so we had a little reunion there in the lobby. Clyde tried to ‘dominate’ his bigger sister, and found that he’d bitten off a little more than he thought.
He looked very dapper in his stark white and deep black Tuxedo. Very much in ‘Formal Attire’ as his name suggests. He seemed to recognise me, and his sister. Even gave me a kiss. He didn’t like the car trip there, letting go of some of his lunch, but Harli was A-OK in both directions, even with me pushing the limits of lateral G’s. Gemma would have let go like a firehose if I’d tried those moves before she got to about 14 months. That’s one thing I’m glad she didn’t inherit from her Granny
Apparently, their brother Hamish was in on Tuesday… so it looks like this litter has been good for business at that practice!
Picked up an all-wormer tablet for Harli while I was there; enough to treat her for the second and third times.
By W S Myles It’s been a hard slog, and the weather has been anything but helpful. If it isn’t beating me down with hot sun and high humidity, it’s turning the topsoil to liquefaction – like walking on a waterbed! Somehow, despite everything, the project has progressed quite well.
The “bitch’s enclosure” is now more than half finished, with only about 10m x 2m to go, plus fitting the drainage.
The good news though is that the pebbles under the clothes line have been lifted and rinsed before transferring into the enclosure, and now all the drains and snake-proof barriers are installed, topsoil piled in, and the turf laid on top! I even bought enough extra turf to re-surface about 15 square metres around the air conditioner, which was very much worn, soggy, and unpleasant.
The next phase is already underway: the remainder of the back fence pebbles are cleaned up and laid in the enclosure, which was a *&^(*&^ of a job, and now I need to wait for favourable weather to complete it. Essentially, the whole length (15 metres or so) needs to be stripped, excavated, relined with weedmat, and snake mesh fitted. It’s one of those jobs that can’t be half-done – the next step will expose the underneath of the fence, potentially allowing snakes in. Once the mesh in place, I can let the dogs back into the yard while I fit the drains and backfill the topsoil.
The things I do for my Borders! Even with all the reused materials, it’s rapidly gaining on $1500 and I-don’t-want-to-think-about-how-many hours! The end is in sight, though. About 30-50 hours including some “tricky” ideas in the drainage area to stop water pooling below the lip of the drains.
If it weren’t for the kids, I couldn’t care less about the back yard. It’s theirs. The most I ever use of it is sitting with a book under a light on summer evenings when it’s too hot to be indoors.
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Weeds gone (and snakes!), but now to shift those pebbles
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Pebbles nearly gone – it’s slow work at this point because there is mud to get rid of before relocating the pebbles
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The principle feature of the exercise, as they say – new turf, new drains, and the weeds are under control in the enclosure at last
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15m2 of mud, track, and uneven ground around this corner now patched
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The back corner all finished. I had to rebuild this corner from scratch. The panel straight ahead wasn’t secured to the post, so it sunk at the left side. The next post towards camera had a broken footing, so I had to dig it all the way out and repot it (70kg of concrete, so it shouldn’t break again soon!)
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Gemma and Harli look impressed with the renovations. Harli is standing on the spot where the last rolls went down, including the mess between her and the aircon.
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The remainder of the back fence yet to do – pebbles are out, but the rest of the mess needs to be dug out, the fence made vertical again, and finished like the lower right corner of frame
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Looking back the other way. Need to fit some agi pipe into the drains on the fenceline and snake mesh the 20m from the grass to the front gate (inclusive) before the dogs are allowed in here. Makes a difference not to have 1.2m high weeds throughout this space!
By W S Myles Things were looking really good in our first run today (ADO) until the third last obstacle. There was a tunnel under an A-Frame and of the eight or more times I walked or jogged the course, I never failed to do an “RFP” to bring Gemma in close to avoid the off-course tunnel entrance.
Until the actual run, of course. She succumbed to ‘tunnel suck’ and off course she went. It was an otherwise brilliant run from both of us. Entirely my fault for not giving her clear directions – so she got her chicken as if it was a Quali run.
I’m afraid her next run, ADM (Masters) was a trainwreck. She racked up at least four refusals and dropped at least three bars before I stopped caring. She even refused the weavers, and then did them perfectly when she actually started them.
When I heard the course time for JDM (Masters Jumping) I knew it would be all but impossible for us to qualify, my best case scenario being at least 5 seconds over time. In practice, she zoomed around the course in only 36 seconds and change, a few seconds under the 40 SCT. Except for one pesky dropped bar
The last run of the evening was JDO (Open Jumping). A slightly more reachable SCT meant I could concentrate on handling a bit more than speed… and we rescued a victory from the jaws of defeat!
She qualified fifth in 35.35 seconds (SCT 48) in a masterful run. Very proud of her. She got the rest of the chicken as a reward, followed by her ultimate reward – her aerobie for 10 minutes.
One from four is not a particularly good performance, but it doesn’t reflect how well she ran in three of the four courses. I’m very proud of her performance, considering she’s hardly been out of the yard since mid December.
Such a shame that she missed out on her ADM and ADO titles tonight, especially the ADO… since it was entirely my fault However, it’s an ill wind, as they say… the JDO pass was well received, as it’s been a particular bugbear of ours. That makes three now, with two to go for her title.
She’s right on the brink of five more titles: ADM(1) ADO(1) JDM(2) JDO(2) and RN(1.) If she keeps up her current form, it won’t be too long before we’re celebrating.
By W S Myles Another mini-temperament test now concluded. I allowed each pup in turn to play with the adults, and closely observe the interactions. The characters played out their roles as expected. What I didn’t expect is that Dot and Clyde would perform a retrieve! No offer in front of course, but they ran out, grabbed the ring, and brought it back to me! Hamish got the first half. He ran out, grabbed it and ran away with it
After 10 minutes each, in turn, I opened the flood gates and let the black & white tide out. A brief comfort stop at the Bow-Wowser and they were off playing puppy games again while the adults tried to play *serious* games with me.
I’m glad to report that Shadow is finally agreeing with me that the Bow-Wowser needs to be shut off. They’re only getting one or two very short feeds from her per day now, and she is terminating it herself without guidance from me.
I am also pleased to report that the litter has now been registered on the ANKC main register for Pedigree dogs, which is the last major hurdle before they can go to their new homes. Apart from me knuckling down to work out where those homes are, of course.
I’ll be working on that this evening (Friday). Their formal names are:
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EweTurn First Impression (B1)
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EweTurn Formal Attire (B2)
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EweTurn Dark Energy (B3)
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EweTurn Storm in a Teacup (G1)
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EweTurn LightningStrikes Twice (G2)
Also, managed to pick up some rubber matting like the material used to protect truck beds, which should make a dandy snake barrier for the bottom of my gates. It’s quite thick, but not quite as thick as a car/truck mudflap, so it should last (it’s UV stabilised) and is quite flexible while still being relatively stiff to prevent “incursions.”
It’s been a hellish couple of weeks, and I’m only now starting to catch up with myself. One thing I haven’t had any time for yet is leash/collar training. With a bit of luck, I can start the collar training tonight and advance to walking on a lead over the next few days.
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