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By W S Myles
Today was a lovely, warm sunny day – too good to waste.
There are no recreational facilities within a long walk of home, so the five of us (the whole pack) jumped in the car and took a drive to where some green grass can still be found. It’s a sore point with me, actually – there is soft, green grass virtually everywhere else BUT where we live.
After running their legs off with the Aerobie, we took the long way round and walked for 30 minutes to another (!) green area and played there too… and then back again, the long way. By this stage, there wasn’t much running going on anymore!
Little miss Shadow doesn’t like to see other doggies having fun when she’s too tired to play, so she grabbed the Aerobie and trotted off a few times to rest under a tree with it. That way, you see, she isn’t missing out on anything…
Then, after a mass visit to investigate a computer issue, we all jumped back in the car and took off to walk in the remains of the Stromlo forest for a few hours. Truly, still, a disaster area. Including the five of us, we saw perhaps six species in total. All of them weeds, if you include the pinus radiata.
Somehow, the kids managed to stay on the straight-and-narrow. The only problem came when I realised that Heather wasn’t where she should be. She’d taken off after a scent and ended up in a tangle of species #4 – which for want of the proper name, I’ll call Brambles.
I don’t think she’ll be doing that again in a hurry! It’s amazing how high a puppy can jump when properly motivated.
Everyone was pleased to see the car again, despite the fact that ‘walkies’ were clearly over. Finn and Gemma (to a much lesser extent) had picked up a few dozen thorny seeds in their feathers, and Heather in her bib. They’re evil little red things, shaped like a pyramid. I wasn’t about to bring them home with us, so it was pick-pick-pick in the dirt carpark – and then out of the car one by one for a final inspection and brush before being allowed loose.
Needless to say, they’ve spent much of the hours since then fast asleep on the carpet or furniture – each in their favourite hidey-hole.
An hour or two of flat-out running and 2-3 hours of walking and running in a forest seem to be ‘just enough’ to slow them down for a while. For now.
By W S Myles
We’re back from EPIC, with our haul of trophies and quali certificates 
It was touch and go at the start, with the pre-arranged handler for Finn not arriving in time for the earlier-than-planned start… but thanks to the Herbas for organising a third rider in three days for Finn – Shane did a great job, a consummate professional.
The run itself was almost entirely uneventful, unless you count the mud, the rain, the standing water, the snow, hail, and cyclone. Alright, so I made up the last three
The kids did me proud – drawing a few “oohs” and “aahs” and “You’re brave!” when I did the “willingness test” without a leash. These guys know when they’re working, and they KNOW how to behave.
I just wish we could have done the entire ET without the crutch of a leash. I’m sure they would have enjoyed it even more. Of course, they would have enjoyed it even more still if it had been at 20kph or even 30kph, rather than this (somewhat insulting) 10kph average that means you can’t settle into a steady gait. Oh well, those’re the rules. We stood by them, and we passed under them.
Coming straight off a run, the highest heart-rate either of them recorded was 108, and it was typically more like 88-90. Truly, literally, a walk in the park for these guys!
So Gemma is now Clanheath Perfect Gem UD AD JDX ET and
Finn is now Clanheath Designa Knite ET (soon to be CD ET)
Ang crawled out of her death-bed to come along and view the proceedings with a very restless Rosie and Pepper. I guess next year it’ll be Pepper, Shadow and Heather’s turn!
Afterwards, in time-honoured fashion, out came the Aerobie. Not even the downpour could dampen Gemma’s enthusiasm for that. To watch them, you’d think they’d both been cooped up inside for days – they were running flat out On arriving home still a little wet and bedraggled, they both feasted on stew and chicken (some raw and some cooked) while the girls looked on enviously.
 Finn and Gemma waft their way to an effortless ET title
Photo courtesy Ang – note how Gem’s feet aren’t even touching the ground, and only one of Finn’s? That’s how effortless it was for them – they just wafted through it! Gemma is looking for Pepper, who is tied to the fence you can just see at the crest of the rise.
Oh, and I needn’t have spent so much time fettling my bike either – I didn’t need to change gears once!
By W S Myles
Talk about an endurance test!
It’s twelve hours to go before it even starts, and I’m exhausted!
Angela caught a cold this week, so she had to pull out of running with Finn, so at the eleventh hour, I had to scrounge – somehow – a Canine Association member who wasn’t already entered, and who was willing to help out at such short notice.
With weather threatening up until the last minute, there are so many contingencies to deal with that my head is spinning: there is only one chance per year, so you have to make the most of it. Anything forgotten or unprepared-for could mean missing out for one or both of the kids.
The bikes are adjusted and performing (mostly) as they should. Finn and Gemma are in tip-top condition. The only thing a bit frazzled is me!
Just call me Noah-plus: two bikes, seven leashes, three pairs of trousers, one pair of shorts, three pairs of shoes, three jackets, one rain poncho, five towels, two number-holders and a lanyard, a GPS, and even a couple of dogs! All squeezed (with a whole lot more!) into one little sedan.
As at this moment, the forecast is looking OK: showers before and after the critical 3-hour window. Fingers crossed!
By W S Myles
Not far from home today, but a long day nevertheless.
I joked with Alan (the Jumping judge) after walking the course…
<looks up at the sun in a blue sky.> “Looks like a lovely sunny day with just a chance of title.”
Gemma was on top form today. She won her Excellent Jumping class and her Excellent Agility class. We didn’t do so well in Open Agility (she dropped the second bar) but she blitzed the Novice Snooker course, but get this – even with 50 points in Novice, she was 17th! (That’s only one less than the maximum available, and 30 more than her first SD quali)
So the upshot is that Gemma is now Clanheath Perfect Gem UD AD JDX, and only needs another two passes to get her ADX and one more for her SD (Snooker).
She weaved beautifully today, and was smooth and quick to respond; she had a great old time, despite hardly ever seeing me for most of the day. She barely made time (by two seconds) in Jumping, but was waaaaay under course time in Agility. It came as no surprise that only one other team made time in Jumping.
The Open problem was probably two cases of handler error; one, of doing a cross while she was in the air (the jump) and the second of not micro-managing the discrimination between the tunnel and dog-walk. She decided that in the absence of a clear cue in what she thought was enough time, she’d take the matter into her own paws and take the tunnel again.
Today marks another first: for once, I am starting to think at a Masters level. We may not be entirely ready for it, but with a tail wind we may just be able to qualify. Especially if Gem keeps up her current speed. She’s by no means a speed-demon in Agility, but nor is she sauntering around like the old days.
The sixteen(!) people ahead of us in snooker chose to do a maximum-points round of 51; in the early planning stages, I was going to do the same thing (use the “black” three times) but just before our turn, I decided which of the four strategies would be more fun for Gemma – and used the pink for the second colour – making a nice curving arc over three jumps.
Yes, there was plenty of time to do the black three times, and the reds were placed to make it possible – but it all looked just a little contrived and repetitive in my head.
It’s not often you’ll find yourself in 17th place with 50 out of 51 points in Novice Snooker!
Three quali’s out of four attempts (with two first places) isn’t a bad day out.
Scoring your Excellent Jumping title with your first run of the day is just gravy
By W S Myles
Ang (Pepper’s new ‘mum’) kindly agreed to be Finn’s handler in the official ANKC “Endurance Test” next month.
Before inflicting him on an unsuspecting Angela on the day, we agreed it would be a good idea to have a practice run on the same grounds today.
I am very proud of my kids (and equally thankful to Ang!) that everything went exactly as expected. We even learned some things. Some, were really unexpected. We even ran into another pair of ET hopefuls (yes, I know who they were, but I won’t publish it) doing a dry run of their own.
The actual gaiting-with-the-bicycle part was as uneventful and easy for Gemma and Finn that they hardly even opened their mouths to breathe
The interesting part was the ‘willingness test’ (some basic heelwork and some recalls).
Finn surprised us both with his understanding of what ‘come’ means. It means ‘go and sit in front of daddy.’ No matter who says it! We both looked at each other and had a giggle about it as he ran to me instead. Finn also doesn’t seem to recognise vocal cues in a high (excited) female tone. When I suggested Ang drop her tone as deep as possible, he reacted right away
Ang can’t drop her voice nearly as low as mine, but he clearly understands the frequency as part of the cue. Fascinating. High-pitched cues (which I never make) had no effect on him whatever.
Afterwards we all retired to Angela’s place to go and visit Pepper and Rosie for a play in the park; a great time was had by all, make no mistake about it! After a few hours running around the local park, we finally called it quits when the sun started to drop too far and brought the temperature with it.
A great way to spend an afternoon. Thanks, Angela!
By W S Myles
Around 13 months, Gemma started to ‘get’ heeling. Around 13-14 months, Shadow did the same.
Heather’s brain arrived this evening, express post. A week early.
She’s still a little terror for the first 20-50 metres (because of the yapping dogs next door stirring her up) but after 100m or so, I unclipped the leash and off we went… and the next 500 metres or so was just me, Heather, a clicker and a rain of treats!
If she keeps this up, she may even get her CD in 2010! At least this little one will pick up balls and sticks, unlike her hedonist pater! If it ain’t food, why put it in your mouth?
Hmmm. On second thoughts, Heather seems to think that everything is food. Bones are to be swallowed whole, dirt is confectionery, muddy puddles taste better, Ethernet, speaker and power cords are fun to chop into little pieces…
Finn is finally losing interest in her, and not frantically sniffing everyone’s behind every 10.8 seconds.
Both Finn and Gemma did a near perfect round of their respective obedience classes this morning; a tough judge might have found more than 10 points between them, and Gemma’s faults were limited to a single sit-in-front that was 10 degrees off straight, plus a running commentary (I’m allowing 5 points for that )
By W S Myles
It’s been a thrill-a-minute here for the last couple of weeks.
Shadow did her utmost to convince everyone that she could come into season too; she still has me a little worried that she did, even though it is very unlikely that the bleeding was internal – it was just one symptom of a whole collection of things that should happen at once. I guess we’ll find out in a few weeks whether she had a silent season and fooled me completely. I believe the blood came from an ‘injury’ sustained during ‘sustained sex play.’ If you get my drift It would be one hell of a short heat at four days with no swelling!
Heather, on the other hand, exhibited all the signs: behaviour shift, clinging, swelling (and how!), a normal progression of ‘colour’ and a peak of interest from Finn at around the right time (whereas Shadow was interesting throughout, probably because she was putting on such an act.)
Now it remains to be seen how long it takes for Shadow’s cycle to actually turn, not to mention Heather’s next – which could even be around the same time as Gemma’s (early 2011).
What’s that they said about Eternal Vigilance?
By W S Myles
A lovely day today – good for long walks. Apart from the pocket JATO attached to my waist, that is. (JATO: Jet Assisted Take-Off booster rocket, used to get planes airborne)
It does indeed look like the blood from Shadow was nothing to do with her fertility. If she’d been in season, I would have expected swelling before and after, and at least 14 days of red hankies – not four.
I’ve just arrived home again with Heather, after a remedial heeling lesson. Just two responses: if she runs or stretches the lead, I stop. When she gets in the correct heeling position, she gets a click and treat. After a kilometre or so, she was walking 10-15 metres with me without a bribe. She clearly understood the rules, because she was trying very hard to repeat the behaviour that caused the reward last time (even if that means walking straight, looking straight, looking up at the clicker, looking straight…)
I do believe her attention span has now exceeded that of a concussed bee. Perhaps even 3-8 seconds now. The world is just too slow for Heather.
On the other hand, I took Finn and Gemma to the lame excuse for an ‘oval’ nearby. Just walking on it makes them limp.
I tried to get Finn interested in the ‘fetch’ game by showing how much fun and reward Gemma get when she does it – except that he was usually looking anywhere else at the time!
Far from being keen to learn and earn rewards, he was positively stubborn most of the time. I did get him up to about 8-10 seconds a couple of times with the dumbbell in his mouth before dropping it, but we still have a long way to go. He didn’t understand the whole “go and get the white thing” part. Once or twice, he did (after much hand-waving!) prance out in his own unique way, and nose the dumbbell – a major step forward – but it was more fluke than anything. He just doesn’t want it in his mouth.
A house of contrasts, indeed.
By W S Myles
Just home from the Obedience trial at Queanbeyan (just around the corner.)
The grounds were sodden; like a peat bog, but brown and lifeless.
Gemma gave a performance I never want to see the like of, ever again. Consistently very wide turns, wide rotations, forging ahead, and being way out of position generally. She even flubbed the metal scent discrimination for the first time in ages – she brought back a leather instead. There was plenty of scent on it, so I’m not sure why she didn’t get it.
Every time she went around me and faced down to the other rings (and the crowds of people and dogs) she rubber-necked and had a good long tourist look before coming around. In the Directed Retrieve, she showed everyone the payoff for having discrete signals for every glove: she was a metre in front of me and facing almost across me, but still managed to go to the right glove and retrieve it.
Somehow, when we got to presentations, she won anyway! Half-jokingly, as I made my perplexed way from the back to accept the ribbon, I called out “I demand a recount!”
All I can say is that if we won with that performance, I can’t imagine how bad everyone else did!
I dare not ask what points she actually did collect 
Finn was on after Gemma again.
Someone said before we went in that a dog in CCD had peed in the ring; I fully expected Finn to trump that pee (and thus incur a 10 point penalty) because that’s just the way he is. He MUST be the latest and the strongest scent.
Somehow or other, he managed to restrain himself to simply lagging a few metres behind me and giving it a really good sniffing. Other than that, his heelwork was pretty good. He managed to only lose 9 points there. Stand for examination, he was a little tentative but sailed through. The recall, he didn’t sit at first and needed to be told to sit, then did the recall and finish perfectly – 5 points off for that lapse.
However, those were the only points he lost; he looked a bit concerned during the stays, but was rock solid. He was much more comfortable and relaxed today than last week, so we converted it into a qualification. He placed fourth, with the top three clustered around 196-198. A tough field!
31 (-9) 30 25 (-5) 30 and 30/30 = 186, with four perfect scores.
Only one to go, and he reaches his limit; we might have to enter Open and skip the retrieving exercises. He’s well able to do the rest of them, having reached 5 minutes and 6 minutes respectively on his first attempt (yes!) at out-of-sight stays.
Gemma hasn’t had a decent performance since I started bringing Finn along to her trials. One of the reasons I let Finn qualify today is so we can knock over his title and concentrate on getting Gemma’s OC while he learns that a dumbbell won’t poison him.
By W S Myles
Ye gads.
I thought we were over this!
Over the last few weeks, the firewall machine has burned its way through four different hard disk drives. No sooner was it operational again, and almost fully serviceable… than it threw another hard drive. Not once, not twice, but four times in a row.
Needless to say, I ran out of hard drives last time. I sacrificed one of my “archiving” USB drives to feed the firewall’s insatiable appetite.
This morning, kablooie! again
Only this time (after much head scratching, testing, and a long walk) it seems that the motherboard is the problem this time! Luckily, I have four identical ones of those, too
There are a couple of machines with those boards that I rarely use, so one of those is now playing host to the firewall’s hard drive and ethernet cards while I scratch my head over this one.
It’s the most bizarre failure I’ve ever seen! The machine almost boots; it sees the drive, and starts booting but then chokes: it took a while, but I noticed that the drive only showed up as being 8.4G (strange size!) in the BIOS instead of 160G. Oh no! Another rebuild!
But wait… no. The drive is A-OK in the spare machine, and even boots. Shows up perfectly on the same cable, with the correct BIOS parameters.
This is a first – but at least I’m back on the ‘web now so I can try to find out what might have caused it. My guess is that the main chipset has failed (north/south bridge).
What a day!
Yesterday, I took Finn and Gemma out to the club to train. Despite expectations, they both did astoundingly well despite the heady aroma of pup-in-season they’ve been breathing all week.
So much so that the majority of points that Gemma would have lost would be for barking!
Oh well. It remains to be seen what happens in the real deal tomorrow; we took a flying visit to see the grounds at Queanbeyan yesterday, but all the gates were locked. From a distance, the grass looked brown and short-cropped. It’s anyone’s guess what the kids will make of it in the trial.
Yikes, I don’t need any more problems like today!
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