RIP Ryobi ................................
L. found him dead in the loose box a couple of weeks back when he went to feed the horse. We think he died in his sleep, possibly from old age. I googled how long goats live (11 years on average) and we have had him for 6. He was a 'rescue goat' and we think he may have been 5 or 6 when we got him, so that would add up. After being head butted many times I didn't think I would miss the cranky old thing, but I actually do. And the kelpies sure miss moving him off the fence whenever he dared to come too close.
The oak trees gradually started to change colour and a seemingly permanent flock of cockatoos moved in to attack the acorns. Cruz chased them off whenever they landed, but Atilla was fascinated by them. If they flocked on the ground in a group, he stayed in 'watching and silently stalking' mode, but if they separated at all it obviously offended his kelpie herding instinct so he scattered them and then backed off waiting for them to return and the fun to start all over again.
Now Winter has moved in, the remaining leaves are starting to scatter all over the agility area and the mornings are freezing ........
....... but on the clear days the sunsets are still pretty spectacular. 
Bosnich turned 10 - that can't be possible can it ? Although I can't imagine my life without kelpies any more, it still only seems like yesterday when we brought this little bundle of fluff home - and not a kelpie on the horizon at that stage.
And finally back to the kelpies ...... Atilla managed that last pass we needed for his Jumping Dog Masters title. For once we didn't suffer from 'last pass syndrome', after gaining our 6th leg, he finished his title at the very next trial on his first run of the day, then followed it up with another Masters agility pass for good measure.
And what about Cruz you ask? He has had 6 weeks off trialling as I decided that I wasn't going to put him out there again until he gave me some more consistent speed at training - after all if he can't do it at training then he isn't going to do it under trial conditions. The strange thing about making that decision was that he immediately started giving me a lot more speed off the ground at training - even when stressed by other dogs in the class barking in line. (That's a huge turn off for him)
So last weekend I entered him in 2 runs only in the morning and both his runs were beyond any expectations I may have had. First run was Excellent Jumping (his first time) and he put in a beautiful fast run - only my sloppy handling costing us a pass - I was actually unprepared for the speed that he came around a pinwheel and didn't get to positional cue for a front cross as a result. Crossing out of position actually put me behind for the next bit and I got a 'run by' on that jump as I didn't cue him to turn soon enough. But I was delighted with his run.
Then on to Novice agility where he put in another lovely run and qualified to win the ring - coming in 10 seconds faster than the second placed dog even though I held him on his contacts and on the table for a bit. So I am a proud kelpie mum once again at the moment - although I am not under any illusions that trial conditions no longer distract him. We will continue to work on this by trying to practice in unfamiliar environments as much as we can.
After L. mowed the lawn this morning (yes, I actually have grass again) I was looking forward to a good training session with both kelpies this afternoon, but ended up spending most of it driving around helping to look for my neighbour's dog, which they eventually found. As he doesn't bother containing the dog on his property, it runs onto the road (OK, it's a dead end, but still gets some traffic) and chases joggers, cyclists, etc. and this time must have continued to follow a couple of cyclists down the road. I would have little sympathy for him - he sees the dog as a farm dog and not a pet in any way - if it wasn't for his new wife who loves the dog and has constant arguments with him about not securing fences and gates. She would dearly love the dog to be allowed inside but he's not having any part of that ....... so we have ganged up together and are going to work on him - starting with the fences and gate.
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