Our first agility trial.... and some bad news :-(

Well I think I am slowly getting into the swing of things as I wasn't half so tired when I got up this morning. Mind you, I am getting sleepy a LOT earlier now! LOL! Other than the usual doggy things, I didn't do anything too exciting this weekend.

Leo and I had our first (finally!) agility trial. We were entered into both Jumpers and Agility, with Jumpers first off the ranks. I was glad I only entered the morning trial as the predicted temp was to be 36deg C! Our first jumping course was good - well set out and relatively easy, with only a few difficult areas (for me) which needed me to really focus on the right control with Leo to get him to follow what I wanted him to do. 15 mins was plenty of time to really work out how you wanted to run the course. Doubt i'll be able to explain the course properly, but Leo ran really well and I was able to call him off after the broad to pull away from the jump directly infront and follow me to the 'correct' jump. After he came out of the tunnel and over the next jump, I was a little late in calling him over to me again, and ended up going the reverse way over the broad as that was the next jump in line *sigh*.... after that he did the rest of the course faultlessly, until again I got a bit slack at the end and the last obstacle was the tyre - told him "tyre" but he ran underneath it :-(. On the whole, I was pleased with his whole run.

Agility was a hoot - the course was difficult, but not terribly so. I was worried about the entry to the tunnel as they had to go to the far entry, and it was a tight U shape (tunnel MAD dog here). Also didn't know how he would go on the dog walk and I was also going to have to call him directly off the A frame! He did all of that perfectly and then we came to a jump were I failed to run far enough out with him so he missed it (refused to jump)... after a couple of tries we moved on (he knocked the jump) and when we got to the weavers he did the correct entry and then exited after two *sigh*.... Did the weavers again, but s-l-o-w-l-y! Missed the Table, Got on the table and then jumped off again..... stayed on the table... continued through course until hander realised that she was doing it out of sequence :-O! Eneded up finishing..... eventually! Either way he and I had fun!

It did point out a few things we need to work on... Leo didn't seem that razzed about it and I realised that in training I always have the rewards on me - so am going to work on that, like for obedience - working for the rewards that are *away* from me. He really is a great dog as an introduction to agility as he is speedy enough, but likes to work at your speed. Should I want to - I could speed him up if I wanted to (and knew how!), but for the moment, I like his speed as it gives me time to work out my course more.... but I am sure once he and I get more confident he will be quite a good dog to trial with!

Had obedience on Sunday and Leo did really well. His heeling is a little off, but still pretty good- i'm not overly concerned about it as I am pretty sure it is the whole lead thing as both he and I hate it! So once we are out of CCD we can refine the off-lead heeling.... which is much neater! He held his stays really well and seemed to know that the rewards were there for him out of the ring!

Kinta is going well also in her training, but due to the general 'busyness' lately that has been going on, I have been a little slack with her training, which is showing as she is being a little miscievious and OTT, as well as being more manic on her morning walks (spinning circles infront of you like a OCD BC, while you are trying to walk!). She has also taken up pulling on the lead when I walk the two of them together, which is really hard to stop as Leo will back off and she will a little, but I can't train her too much as Leo starts to switch to training mode! I have to decide whether I want to live with it and accept it, or really train it.... Jury is out on that still :).

I also have *still* not recieved Kinta's papers from the VCA which means that to enter her in shows is a lot of fooling around and going through other people (namely Ana & Ben). I found out last night that Ana didn't realise/ forgot what shows I wanted Kinta entered into for March, so have missed the boat for those! So we have *another* month off showing and will be back in April *sobs quietly in a corner*! I didn't realise how much I would miss it! I LOVE showing!!!

I went car shopping on Saturday as I have decided that due to increased finances, the money already sitting in my account and the good re-sale I should get for current car, I want to upgrade. I am looking for a mid-sized wagon type car that has reasonable boot space to take the two mutts around, yet I can also fit all my show gear (namely a trolley!) and take passengers! The Echo is great, but I can only *just* take the dogs, myself and all the gear, which means that if anyone wants to come, they have to go seperate. I also wouldn't mind the extra space. It would also make long trips more enjoyable and comfortable (and I want to take more of those, going on holidays with the dogs!). The car I had in mind was the Toyota Carolla wagon which seems perfect, yet they DONT MAKE IT ANYMORE!!! When I look at the price for a reasonably new, low kms 2nd hand one, I wonder if it is worth it.... for a few thousand more, I can buy a new mid sized car... but as a hatchback.... so I don't know what I want to do. We did go and have a look at Mazda, but the only cars that would seem to suit are the Mazda 3 which doesn't have much room in the boot (less than current), or the Mazda 6 which is ideal, but only oh.. about $10k out of my price range!!! Ford was better, with the Ford Focus, which has a nice boot size and feels really nice to drive, but I think by it being a hatch, as opposed to a wagon, you loose a lot of room space. I was just thinking about Holden today, wondering if the Vectra came in a wagon... and came across the Holden Viva (Rrp $19490) which looks pretty nice, but not too big also! So I may go and have a look at this ;). Here is a comparison of the Focus and Viva.

Just found that the Holden Astra also comes in a wagon! For some reason it is more expensive than the Viva but smaller (?!). Here is the comparison between the two, and also between the focus. So at least that give me a few to look into... but now the question is when!


This was also the 'redbooks' est. re-sale for my car, which seems a little under what most people are selling it for. But I guess it depends on the kms the car has done.

as a reward for reading through all of that:







and the new age Aussie: