Christmas, Naughty Black Dog and more

First up - I hope everyone had a great Christmas. It has been very busy here with parties Christmas Day, Boxing day and thereafter ;). My brother came home from Sydney on Boxing day so have barely had time to be on the computer etc (shock, horror, there is a life away from here!). Went to the beach on Friday when it was about 35deg and generally just been having a good time out in the sun etc. Went down to the Kepala Pet Resort again today and both the dogs and I had a ball. We weren't too naughty either ;). Not too much 'in your face' etc.

Over Christmas we had quite a few families over, some with young children (eldest at 7yrs) so kept the dogs downstairs separated from the kids. All of which are used to dogs, but having smaller, *very* tolerant dogs doesn't mean that the kids are dog proof, but rather the dogs are kid proof ;). I was *very* happy with both dogs. Kinta gave a few *woofs* when people came outside, but was quite confident to come up and say hi. With the exception of one. I completely forgot about one of our family friends who is epileptic and loooves animals. She went to 'grab' Kinta (there is no other way to describe it) and Kinta got the begeezers scared out of her.... Thankfully in about 5 mins they were good friends again and Kinta's confidence came right up again when I pulled out the clicker ant C&T each time she went to say 'hi' to someone. We also have a few *woofs* at one of the kids' scooter on the decking (makes a funny noise) and the 2yr old (on Boxing day) climbing up the stairs as 2 yr olds do. Nothing major as a simple "enough" or "don't be silly" from me stopped her from continuing. So all in all I was over the moon, as home-turf seems to be where Kinta maintains her reserved behaviour. We did have a few drama's though. Once on Christmas day - I had the dogs briefly up with me and the young kids. These kids live with dogs, but given that theirs are smaller and less excitable, started to get quite excited. I was watching Kinta and somehow one of them (I thought Leo, parents of girl thought Kinta) got a little too excited and knocked her over. 5 mins later all was forgotten and just to make sure both parties were fine I got the dogs out (one at a time this time!) with the girl so that they could have a pat, do some tricks, get fed etc. All went smoothly then, and also gave me a good moment to point out to girl that getting excited around doggies is not a good thing as they get excited too (she was getting really excited at the tricks they could do!). So I was pleased with that!

What *does* annoy me though is that on Boxing day the relo's brought their dogs over too (not the annoying part), one of which is an 11 yr old Pom who wouldn't like to be mixed with the rambunctious puppies! So I kept her upstairs and the other dogs downstairs. Enter 2yr old toddler, also lives with a dog. She loved the look of Brandy (Pom) and tried to grab hold of her.... Brandy was not all that appreciative and tried to bite her.... but it was me who has to watch kids and dogs, not the kids parents or the owners of the dogs (enter annoying part!). What's more frustrating is that if a small dog snaps at a toddler, parents see it is 'nothing' and the dog didn't mean it/ won't do any harm... but as soon as one of mine *might* do something like that (even so much as 'bark' etc) then they are ones to *really* watch as they are dangerous etc..... *sigh*. I'd trust my dogs over 90% of little dogs thank-you!

Anyway - back on task - Christmas was really good and a great catch up with family. The Sunday before we had an agility meet at a friends place (full agility course) which was heaps of fun for dogs and family! I'm also proud to announce that I *can* bake!!! hehehe! I made a lemon tart from scratch - base and all and it turned out really well! Even the base! I was surprised as my mum, Queen of all cooking sometimes struggles with the short crust pastry, but for some reason, this recipe worked!!! I also made Caramel Slice, Shortbread and Brownies for the Christmas festivities! All seemed to go down well ;).

Since then I've had a couple of lazy days at home, travels to the beach and Kepala Park, and movies/ shopping with friends. Tomorrow night i'm off to Phillip Island again for NYE. Looking forward to it! I also have a stack of photos I took over the week (given clean dogs!).... Just look at Kinta.... *finally* some nice stacked shots:






And some candid shots I took mucking around:



Leaping for the ball:



Jumping for Joy!



and the main reason why my dogs hate me:



'nother great stacked shot of Leo (I think I'm getting the hang of this now!)




As for the Naughty Black Dog?! As many of you know - I have had tendonitis in my wrist coming up to 3mths now. It's a royal pain in the bum and *finally* has been on the improve. I am to wear my wrist out of the splint as much as possible and do various tendon strength exercises etc,etc. All was going well and I was marvelling in the car today (driving to Kepala) how much improved my wrist is etc,etc. Enter Kepala park and 2 hooligan Aussies. They were getting a bit much and running through the centre of people etc. I tried to call Kinta to get her to settle and come she did - *SMACK* right into my sore hand (I was seated) and the pain shot through it! When I tried to move my thumb again I couldn't! I swear, the pain was soo bad I was almost in tears! I couldn't even move my thumb!!!! I tried again and then *plop* somehow my bone slips back into joint!! She had dislocated it! Don't know which one, don't know how, but she had! Now I'm back to square 1 with the sodden wrist as I can barely move it again so back in the splint it goes!! *very BIG sigh*!

ETA: Exciting news - I had Kinta booked in on the 27th to get her hips and elbows scored - now waiting until the results come out! Next step in Feb is for her MDR1 DNA test :)

AWOL

OK - there is a reason for the lack of posts - mainly the fact that I've been away for the past week in Tasmania for our family holiday (minus big-brother ;-) ). So beware - shis is going to be long and jam packed full of photos!

We left for Tassie last Friday - just for a holiday in general, but also because Mum & Dad wanted to take me around to see where we spent our first few years etc. We were based in Hobart (one of the RCI resorts) but basically traveling around a little each day. The resort itself was relatively simple as resorts go (most usually have quite a few facilities such as pool, gym, tennis courts, squash courts etc) so there wasn't much to do around the place. Doesn't matter too much as we were never going to be home, particularly on this trip, but Mum and I usually like to spend a day or 2 at the resort doing nothing but reading, watching TV and using the facilities ;-). Didn't have any time for that here though!

Saturday:
Went to pick up car so wondered around Hobart for the morning (and had a glorious sleep in.... can't remember the last time I did that!). Took the car up to Russell Falls (can't remember the actual name of the park) which was a nice, easy walk, although a little disappointing as by the sound of it, the falls should have been fabulous, but because of the lack of rain/ drought, it was a little more than a trickle.







These are 2 different falls (the smaller one being Russel falls), but I can't remember the name of the 2nd one either!

Some photos throughout the walk:


(Giant tree!)



I think every night pretty much we ate some form of seafood or another - it's so fresh over there! Some were a little disappointing but most were delicious!

Sunday:
Went to the Tahune forest where there is a 'airwalk' or basically a suspended bridge that you can walk across for some decent views and admire the trees etc ;-). Swinging bridge is a highlight of Mum's considering she has a fear of heights... thereby a 'moving' bridge is not exactly the most enjoyable trip :p.



Monday:
Monday was our long awaited trip to Wine-Glass Bay! I think we walked about 15kms in total - and it is NOT an easy walk - you are literally 'climbing' up the mountain on rocks and a few steps here and there. Then of course we weren't sure where the next track was (to go the longer walk back to the car) so walked ALL the way across the beach only to find the starting point of the track was back where we started *sigh*! NO, I wasn't the one navigating! I highly recommend this walk to anyone going to Tassie. Stopped the night at Bicheno so that we could go visit Orford and Triabunna the next day.


Exhausted after the climb up the hill


View from the top!



Along the way we also came across some wildlife who weren't at all afraid of people so we could get quite close. I'm pretty sure this is a Potteroo being smaller than the avg Wallaby (sorry, 3rd yr M&M has slipped from my head... permanently!). We also saw an Echidna but the piccies didn't turn out!



Tuesday:
Started the day in Bicheno (after a lovely seafood dinner the night before!) and then trekked down to Triabunna, where M&D spent 4yrs and Scott and Myself were born.


View from Bicheno.

Triabunna is a teeny town about 1hr out of Hobart. Doesn't sound like much by Melbourne, Eastern Suburbs standards (with Cranbourne or Pakenham being that far out, if not more), but Triabunna is *really* small with a tiny supermarket, one butcher, baker and hardware store! Orford is the next closest town (5mins) and although smaller, apparently more popular! We certainly had scenery plus as everywhere you turn had ocean views and lovely beaches..... pity that it will never be warm enough in Tassie to enjoy it! Since we had some extra time, we made a surprise visit to one of M&D's old friends.... was great to see the utter surprise on their face as we had told no-one we were coming, lest we not have enough time to pay a visit. On the home journey, we stopped off at Sorell (about 20mins out of Hobart) to visit an older couple who used to baby-sit my brother and I. I was surprised how much I remembered of them as they visited us a few times in Melbourne. Was kinda nice remembering what I used to do with them when I was a kid ;-). I think we made their day, stopping by to say hello. As for what I remember of our house and Triabunna? Absolutely nothing!


Our old house with the 'ocean view'



Wednesday:
From all the travels of the past few days, we canceled our plans of another early start to head to Port Arthur and instead decided on a much easier drive to the Cadbury factory and Richmond (quiant old town). Cadbury factory was great and got the tastebuds reeling.... all that chocolate! And I was happy to 'proove' to my parents (and everyone else who didn't believe me!) saying that their seconds went to the pig-feed! so HA to all those who didn't believe me and thought I was joking (me? joke? NEVER!).


Richmond was a nice little town and we basically just had a quick amble around. By the end of it I was pretty tired (my poor little legs!) so wasn't the best company around ;-). We did go to the Richmond Gaol though.


Thursday:
Home time. We spent the morning visiting the Womens Factory (convicts and where they went before assigned to a 'job') as well as the Cascade Brewery. Both were very interesting tours, particularly the Womens factory. I think we made it a 'first' at he Cascade tour though as out of a grp of about 12, only 3-4 actually drank beer!!! That couldn't happen too often ;-).

Was a most enjoyable holiday - but all in all - it was great to come home to this:










And - what would a post be without some stacked shots of the dogs ;-) (Mind you, I *really* like Leo's one!)





Now - how was that for a long post! Hopefully all the pics didn't conk out your computers!!!

As for what I've been doing the rest of the time?! Some very in-depth research into the world of Grey's Anatomy and Gilmore Girls (the final season!!)..... all thanks to the wonderful people at Amazon! Of course this has involved many late nights (2am!) and considerable yelling at the TV (mainly for GG)....

End of the 2007 trialling year

Well - this has been quite a year for me and my crew. So this will be basically a brag post - summing up the year:

Leo
Starting off with 2 CCD passes for Leo and aspirations for agility. Kinta was the start of my venture into showing also. I think at the end of last year, I said that I wanted 4 titles for Leo - CCD, CD, AD & JD.


Obedience
First obedience trial of the year, and we are off to a good start - CCD in the bag - and some beaut work by Mr Leo. Glad to say he didn't stop there. Within 3 weeks of starting CD - he had also gained this title with some lovely scores too! I didn't quite expect him to get his novice so fast! In under a year, Leo had gained 2 of his obedience titles, which I was thrilled about. Rather than rush through, I decided to take time out of obedience, train him up for open, which also gave me time to concentrate on Agility and Kinta. We didn't enter obedience again until 17th November. First trial in Open (which is quite a jump from Novice) and we come away with our first pass (albeit, not that great) and 173. Today, we had our last obedience trial of the year. Considering the heat (30 deg) and that it was my first time as Trial secretary, I wasn't expecting too much from him. We ended up pulling off another pass, score of 189 and highest scoring Croydon member in trial!!!!! I couldn't be prouder of him, and considering the comments others have made about him, I should be ;-). So he has made a great end to the year, and set the bar high for our next trialling year!






Agility:
2007 marked the start of our agility career. Off to a shaky start, we had to scratch from our first trial due to Leo being lame. So we hit the rings in March sometime I think. First trial we did no good, but what can you expect! From there - we have pulled away one pass from each trial bar 1. Leo is a steady, consistent jumper, once he learnt to lift those legs (still a continuing issue!). By July he had attained his JD title in about 4 trials I think. Agility was a little harder as we like to do only ONE thing wrong ie: knock a bar, refusal etc,etc. As the saying goes, he does it great at training, but likes to stuff up at trials! Saturday was our last agility trial of the year and we didn't get off to a good start.... off with the fairies and just basically not focussed. A good novice agility run, but 2 bars down. PM was a bit better and we pulled off a Novice agility pass about 30 seconds under time!!!! I was even happier to hear we got 3rd place against some very tough (and fast!) competition!!!!

So we got 3 out of the 4 titles wanted, and some excellent foundation laid for next year - only one more pass to go for both our CDX and AD titles... and Leo is getting better and better for JDX too - so not far off for that! Every pass we have received has been a place! I'm just so proud of this boy.... for a 'dud' he isn't doing too bad ;-). Our hopes for next year? Lets set them high eh? CDX, AD, JDX, possibly ADX and some Games titles (SD, GD). Don't know if we'll get there due to the fact i'll be running 2 dogs! I'd love to be ready/ trialling in UD by the end of the year too ;-).

Kinta:

Showing:
Interesting start for us as it is a completely new venture. Filled with highs and lows. Everybody keeps telling me how nice she is looking etc,etc, but it was a long road before the points started rolling in. It wasn't until Kinta hit 15mths that the judges really started looking at her, but I feel it isn't far off yet. I have every confidence in her as I do think she is lovely and well 'designed' for a multi-talented career! Our year has included a:
Minor Puppy in Grp
Puppy in Grp
Junior in Show (ASCV Open show)
1st in Non-Champ sweepies
Reserve Challenge at our ASCV Open show
AND we finished the year with a 9pt BOB! Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come!

Obedience:
Although we haven't entered a ring yet, I couldn't be prouder with what I'm getting from her. She is a very enthusiastic, precise worker and is a lot more focussed than Leo. I feel we still need some exposure around unfamiliar areas/ crowds (summer project!) but I have high hopes for her. I am most proud of her heel-work (Thank-you Sarah!) and hopefully we'll be starting our obedience stint at the start of next year.

Agility:
Only started a few months ago and is going well. She is a natural at it, and while I think she will be 'competitive' I don't think she will be top-dog material. But who knows. I find with Kinta that her speed comes through confidence, and she isn't quite there yet ;-). On the 'known' she is quite a fast worker! I can't wait to get her out there competing!!! Seriously - though she is frustrating when she is just out of season (flat as) she is just delightful to work and live with at other times.

My hopes for Kinta - Hopefully - Aust Ch, CCD, CD, AD, JD. We'll see how we go ;-).

Adapting life to 2 dogs
Long story short I love it! I don't think i'll be a sole-dog owner again, I just love how these two get on - they really are best buds. I've found it a little hard to divide my time, as I really want to give each dog individual attention, and at times I find it slipping, but am able to pick up again real quick. Kinta has been a great addition - I just love her sweet 'mummy's girl' temperament, but at the same time, Leo suits me too - he just loves everybody and is so happy about life! Seriously - 2 great dogs!

Ok - I'll stop gloating now, but I just wanted to sum up my year :D :D!