Monday, February 25, 2008

A room with a view

I have *finally* moved offices into one with a window!!!! ROFL! I can't tell you what a difference it makes... it really was getting quite depressing being in an office all on your own, often with no-one else around and to add to it all, no natural light! Charming eh?! Well anyway - we spent most of Friday moving the offices around and furniture.... I felt bad as one girl was doing most of the work because I couldn't lift/ move the heavy objects (tables etc) because my wrist still can't do the hard yakka stuff. Either way, my room is now much nicer..... and brighter :p.

Had a brief moment of excitement last week on the job front. A friend/ acquaintance of mine that I have met a couple of times at shows, was telling me that she had found a new job... still in the animal industry etc,etc. I asked her what her current job is - well she works at "Therapon" which is veterinary wholesaler and she worked in the sales dept doing the research behind diff products etc. Sounded pretty interesting and the type of job I was looking for. I was going to take her position, but when she asked her boss... boss said that she wasn't looking at finding a replacement for her role :(. I will still hand my resume in and talk to them etc, but at least I have an idea of the area of job that I would like to get into now :).

Well... I have had a *very* busy, but fun weekend!!! Friday night (after the big move) consisted of my much belated birthday party - a cocktail party (yes, dressed up to the nines too!)... Was a heap of fun... I don't think we ended up going to bed until about 3am, so I guess that means everyone had fun right?! I got a lovely present from the girls - an agility tunnel!!!! Sooo excited about getting out and using it now :).

Saturday - well 1/2 of it was gone thanks to sleeping in (ahhh... glorious!) and finally decided to move at around 3pm in order to get ready for our first obedience trial of the year. Considering we have only trained minimally over the break, I wasn't expecting too much. Boy - I swear - the whole of Melbourne must store it's whole wind supply and dump it at KCC park! It was sooo cold and windy Sat night - someone said it would be close to 100kms/ hr winds... so not easy conditions. Leo was on fire though - well... sort of... he was on fire with eagerness :P. With precision.... not so much LOL! We didn't pass... he missed his 'stand's in the heelwork (miss 2 positions and you're gone)... who knows why.... then he missed coming back over the jump with the d/b. He has been proofed for pathetic throws (with a mum like me, you need to be proofed for ALL throws!) but he must have thought it was a clever idea ;). You could see the glint in his eye when coming back though.... almost as if to say - "see mum, I wanted to try something new - what do you think?!"

Sunday I spent the afternoon lying on the couch and watching old Gilmore Girls episodes :). 'Tis bliss... then pulling out my new 'weaving' set and practicing some 2x2 with the dogs... I must say - I am more than impressed with this method - you move along REALLY fast... particularly since we haven't been all that consistent with training every night etc :). Went out *again* Sunday night to "The corner hotel" with Tracey and her friend Corrie to watch "Something for Kate" an Aussie band. I haven't heard their stuff for ages, but still love it, and it was a good night out..... but of course resulted in me sleeping past my alarm this morning!!!!

ROFL! So... busy weekend, followed by an undoubtedly busy week.... again! Ah well... if you are having fun, what can ya do?! :p

Monday, February 18, 2008

Weekend News

I swear - there was something I wanted to post about in here mid-week, but I have now totally forgotten about it!!! We have had a very busy 3 day weekend though.

Had a lovely, quiet birthday on Thursday - had to go to work (which was dead quiet - nobody in office) *sob*. Also had the pleasure of picking up a friend (met online - DOL of course!) and finally getting to meet Maria (from QLD). Maria was to stay with us on Thur night and we had a great day on Friday mucking around with the dogs, playing Genabacab (omg - our poor dogs! How do they understand what we want them to do!) and just chatting in general. My two loved the extra attention, got some Frisbee training tips and had a play around with some agility equipment. Kinta was a funny one - she barked at Maria the whole time she was playing tug with Leo like she wanted in on the game, but when offered to her - she *wouldn't* tug with M but kept coming back to me ;). Cheeky 'mummy's girl' :p.

Saturday was a busy and LONG day all around - Good thing I checked the gazette before going to the show, as rather than starting at 9am - our show was due to start at 8:30am! So - get to the park at 7:30 - get dog ready (kinda pointless really as she isn't in show condition at the moment, and I look at it and think 'i've entered, might as well have some fun etc') and finish show by 9am! We were knocked out of our Inter class, which isn't all that surprising :). Hung around to watch Group judging (looked like it was going to be over quickly..... but looks can be deceiving!)... then went to catch up with Tracey and Kylie. Ended up seeing a movie - "Fools Gold" which I really enjoyed :p. Back to the park at 4:30 for a twilight agility trial. As it turned out, there was no need to rush, as we didn't have our first run until at least 7pm!!! Leo and I had 3 runs - Novice Agility, Excellent Jumping and Open Jumping. So for those of you who have never seen us run before, I took my new 'baby' out and video taped (well not me, got someone to do it!) my runs!!! I was thrilled to bits with Leo's runs, he was fast, listening and boy is it great to see it on tape as I'm able to see where he and I need improvement. We ended up with 1 (almost 2!) pass - in Novice agility - 1st place and around 26seconds under time. This gave us our final pass for our AD TITLE!!! So Leo is now: Ellagant Full O Mischief CD AD JD!!!!! Not only pretty - but brains too ;) LOL!

Anyway - video is here:


If you are wondering what is going on in OJ - the first jump - I didn't call him soon enough, so he didn't see the jump, out the back it was so dark he couldn't see the jump. The end bit is a distance work - so you can't cross this line planted - I was thrilled that Leo did the first 2 obstacles (we haven't done OJ before) but he just *couldn't* get the last one as I had to push him out again (no thanks mum!)... as for Excellent Jumping - stoopid Mum forgot the course and almost took him on the wrong way!!!! Everyone was really impressed with Leo's runs though and kept commenting on how well he did!

Kinta was brilliant - I took her along for some social and focus work. It's time for her to come out and about now, get used to the environments and realise she has to *work* in these types of situations.... she did really well and I was thrilled to bits with her too!

I also have gotten Kinta DNA tested on Sat - should be about 2 weeks until we get the results. I was a little annoyed at the guy taking the swabs - he was such an a$$.... Kinta HATES those microchip scanners - so he just struts right over puts his hand over her neck (I didn't even have time to hold onto her!) and try to scan her chip.... she freaked of course, which is something I don't want..... then the guy has the nerve to say 'oh - she's a bit skittish isn't she'.... well wouldn't you be if you gave no indication and this big guy just crowded you, lent over and was sticking this thing over your back. Then he goes onto say - "she ain't gonna like me taking her cheek swabs..." :-O. I told him she'll be fine - she just doesn't like the scanners... sure enough - sitting there pretty as a princess while her cheek swabs are taken. I hate ppl like that - straight away assume things, and don't even take time to let the dog know you are about to do something - invasive or not with them!

Had a relatively quiet day on Sunday - all was well except for the fact that my computer doesn't love me and wouldn't let me do what I wanted to do!!

Another busy week this week - with our first FOOs training on Tue night - hopefully this will give us some good ground work for our obedience trials this year :)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Back to it!

Ok - so there has been a severe lack of posts! My bad!

Hmm.... what's the re-cap since the last post?! Leo's wound has *thankfully* closed up without any further intervention and seems A -ok at the moment. My guess it was a grass seed or something similar, which came out when the puss came out. His hamstring injury as far as I can tell is also clear, as he has been hooning around with Kinta and others and no ill-effects. Thank goodness for that!

After a few hiccups with the video camera, all seems to be working well - so watch out for heaps of training vids. I am sure most of you have already seen this - but this is the latest of Kinta strutting her stuff:





There are also some of Leo on there, but they are from 2006 - just old vids I *finally* uploaded.

At the end of January I said 'farewell' to my brother and his girlfriend Lily who jetted off to South America for 7 weeks. They are then stopping off at London for the next 3 years! EEK! It's going to be weird, as although I didn't see him *that* much (living in Syd), it still was an awful lot closer than LONDON! ROFL!

Pet Expo at the start of Feb was a whole tonne of fun and I was so proud of my crew. Kinta was the absolute extrovert which I was thrilled about as I was a little uncertain she might be unnerved by all the kiddies noises etc. Nope - she loved it! Not even a glint of nervousness/ uneasiness at all - with dogs or people :D :D. It's amazing how the little things make us so happy LOL. Leo was his usual self - selling his soul to anyone who might pay attention to him! Both had a go at the agility demo's and had a blast. Kinta was awesome considering she has only done about 3-4 obstacles together before, and did 15 in a row without even blinking. Fast too - she just was confused about the wing jumps when she was ahead of me ;) LOL!

Training has started again - last week for everyone, but I couldn't make it so went back Sunday just passed. For some reason I have been a little 'flat' about it and thus it rubs off on the dogs - could be a variety of things, but we are still enjoying ourselves enough - I think it's more about getting back into the swing of things!

Been to a couple of shows recently, but haven't done much good. As expected though as Kinta has dropped coat *again*. Woe be me, I think i I have a 5mth cycling b!tch. I have a feeling she'll be in season in March, which is 5.5 mths since her last season. Boy - THAT comes around quick!!! Trials for Leo start again this weekend with Agility twilight trial - I'm excited!!!! Obedience trial the week after that ;).

At the moment, I am house sitting for an obedience friend and their two BC's. It's been fun having 4 dogs around and inside the house etc. Very busy though.... they all get along pretty well, though Dash (6yr old BC) seems to pick on Leo a bit and I don't think he asks for it :(. LOL. This also might attribute a little to my 'flat' attitude to training - out of sorts in a new house etc.

Am re-teaching Leo the weavers and starting Kinta on it. I am using Susan Garrett's 2x2 method, and while it is initially hard to get your head around, I think the penny has finally dropped (for me!) and we now understand what is expected. I am pretty happy with the results and the methods behind it. We shall see how we go ;).

The job front is open for me again - as I think i'm going to start looking for a new venture yet again.... ah - the joys of finding your own little niche. Other than that - I think I have covered everything!!!!!!!

Ok - and to end... here is a pic I snapped of the hounds with my new video camera - not bad pics IMO.... Just snapped at the right moment - and ended up with this:

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Maybe one of them farted, or maybe one told a joke *shrugs* :p