Beau - Pet Detective

Our neighbour has put 50 sheep on our property as we have way more grass in our top paddocks.  Atilla thinks all his Christmases have come at once and spends most of the day watching them and moving them off the fence line if they dare to come too close to the house paddock.

Currently there are a number of lambs in the flock - including 3 tiny ones born just a few days ago. 

How's that for cute, cute, cute ......... I swear I am going to rethink eating meat or at least may never eat lamb again cos I will keep seeing these babies in my head.



Look - even their wiggly little butts are cute

And who could resist this face ?

 We lock the sheep into a smaller paddock at night to keep them together and maximise their chances against any roaming foxes.  Then we let them out during the day to do what they do best - eat !

Last night when we brought them in, one of the tiny lambs was missing - L's favourite and the one he regards as his special charge.

 

A bit of a background story on this one first :

On the morning that this little one arrived, L was letting them out of the night paddock when he noticed it on the ground, not moving, and the mother taking off with the other sheep at a rush to get out the gate. He picked it up and found it was alive but very weak - I'm a sucker and would happily have taken it and bottle fed it, but L. decided that the mother was going to attend to her duties so started yelling up the paddock - get back here and feed your baby, NOW.  Of course this worked a charm, not !  So then he starts chasing them, in his work clothes complete with fancy shoes, and yelling in his best impression of a school teacher (thankfully he is not!) 'I mean it, if you don't come back now then I will chase you all down and lock you all back in the paddock again and none of you will get out until you start looking after this baby you bad mother.'  That's the way to do it, punish everyone until someone confesses.
And so that's just what he did.

At this point it begs for a video to be inserted of L in his work clothes running around the paddock rounding up the sheep - if dogs could cry laughing Atilla was doing it - but I was too busy laughing myself to think of videoing it, dammit.   Anyway his plan for sheep domination worked, the sheep were locked back in the paddock, mother finally started feeding lamb, lamb was able to stand up and we both went 'awwwwwwww.'
(Not sure what L's clients thought about the sheep poo all over his shoes as he was too late to change them.)
Anyway, a happy ending, until this little fella went missing.



The life of a modern day sheep man is indeed lonely !



Did someone mention sheep man ?



Oooh .... it's sheep man !

We searched the paddocks with our neighbour for ages, but couldn't find any trace of him.  At this point we were thinking maybe a rogue fox out in the daytime grabbing the opportunity of an easy snatch - although it seemed strange when Atilla had literally been at the fence watching them for most of the day and hadn't barked at all.  We chalked it up to happening on one of the occasions when he went off duty to eat or hang about with me.  Even though Cruz took over his shift at these times, Cruz is not a barker and isn't as hard wired and obsessive over the sheep as Atilla either.
Both the kelpies were crying for a bit of active service in the paddock to help look for the lamb (ACD and BC would happily have been in that too !) but there are too many hazards in the long grass at the moment, not just the fear of snakes but there is an old gully that runs down the middle of one paddock with a partly underground water course that goes into our dam.  There are holes opening up everywhere after all the rain and I don't want to risk the dogs running into one of the holes and injuring themselves, especially as once there are sheep in the equation, all care and self preservation goes out the window. 
It worries me enough having my horse roaming around up there as it is.  Speaking of which ..........

Enter Beau - my old horse and fellow paddock dweller along with the sheep.

Once he saw me in the paddock he came over for a rub and the chance that there might be food involved.

On many occasions I swear this horse understands exactly what I say to him - or maybe that's my rationale for carrying on conversations with him and not feeling like a crazy woman.  So I've explained the situation to him and promised him several carrots if he joins in the search and comes up with the goods.  And he did on both counts!

About 20 minutes later when L. was helping me move some agility equipment (Sheep Man also doubles as Agility Ken ) we heard Beau making a fuss up the top paddock and looked up to see him pawing (hoofing?) the grass.  Up popped a tiny white head - so sheep man headed up there post haste to rescue him.
And Beau was very pleased with his carrots as a reward.  And now expects one every evening without fail as payment for his services.

Agility training has been a little slow lately, can you tell ?

After having 2 and a half months off thanks to my accident, the kelpies are in desperate need to get back to normal training again.  All this lying around the house is making them soft.......

Still More Rain - and a Totally Crappy Trial as well

Spring came for a few days and tricked us all into thinking that Winter was finally over.  I even got excited enough to take a few photos around the place as it looks nice when everything's green .... but then by the time Summer finally comes and it all browns off  I totally hate it and start to wish I lived somewhere else.
Luckily I only feel like that for one season a year as I so love it here the rest of the time.

Look - I even have a raised out of reach of dog pee vegie garden that's actually growing thanks to the rain.

It's nice to be able to play ball on grass instead of on bare dirt with clouds of dust flying up everywhere - the only challenge at the moment is avoiding the muddy bits.

Everywhere is green - apart from Cruz's self exercising track around the house paddock that is.
On the trialling front the year is nearly over and due to all the trials that were cancelled this Winter I hardly feel as if I have run at all.  Went to Sale for one day, bloody long drive and I was almost too tired to run by the time I arrived.  Getting up before 4am should be banned and if all the cancelled trials had taken place then there is no way I would have bothered, especially as I really don't like the ground there.

Cruz obviously agreed with me and his runs were less than spectacular.  Atilla on the other hand was at his leg humping pumped up best for most of the day because L. came to watch, which I really should ban as it sends Atilla off his tree. (And shuts Cruz down, LOL)  We managed a Q in Masters Agility and even came in 3rd which was nice, but it felt like a totally mechanical run to me as Atilla had one eye on L. and another on the judge, which just happened to be a judge that he knows and has a spectatcular crush on - having to stay with me and not being allowed to run up and jump on him must have really messed with his mind.  There was no real connection between us and it felt like he just went through the motions because he is a well trained dog.

The next Masters Agility run was one of those lovely runs where everything comes together - until the 2nd last obstacle that is, when someone outside the ring standing near L. called out, Atilla thought it was L. so he left the ring and started to go to him.  Sooooooo disappointed as it was a way better run than our first one, but that's agility.  Some more distraction work coming up I feel !  Yep- my bad that he's not proofed enough to totally ignore what's going on around him, stickybeak kelpie.

Last weekend we went to another trial that I won't name and shame, which turned out to be not one of my better ideas.  I usually enjoy this trial but after the weekend I don't think I will ever bother to enter there again. Total mess from start to end with catalogue errors, then an assembly steward taking it upon themselves to ditch catalogue order and move all their own club members up the line, despite the fact we were meant to be 5th dog in and had already warmed up and lined up.  Why not put them further up the catalogue then to begin with and avoid the chaos that ensued?   Disgustingly muddy ground meant I had one run with Atilla - who jumped out the weaves when I splashed him in the face as I ran beside him, sooky la-la kelpie- then I deemed it unsafe so pulled the pin and went home.  Their dogwalk also fell apart as the first dog in came off it which didn't exactly instil me with confidence - luckily it was a pretty bombproof dog and wasn't hurt or frightened.

I don't usually crack it like that but it really annoys me when clubs put the dollar before safety - although it's been a disappointing season with so many trials cancelled, I fully applaud those clubs that pulled the pin. 
What I don't get is the number of people that will still run their dogs in appalling conditions and continue to push hard the whole way round.  A friend who runs one of the fastest dogs going at the moment also pulled the pin and went home after walking the Masters ring but we were definitely the exceptions and I'm sure there were lots of 'sook' comments floating around.  Do people compromise their dog's safety for an agility run or are we just over cautious when it comes to our dogs ?  Guess that's a whole other topic in itself.

The Big Wet 'n Wang

Over the last few weeks we have had so much rain - everything in my life seems to be wet at the moment, the ground, the dogs, most of my washing that has taken up permanent residence on the clothesline and don't get me started on the mud.
If our driveway gets any wetter I might not be able to get my car out to go to work, which is not necessarily a bad thing.



Not long back we were getting so excited at even a little shower of rain but now everyone is complaining about it and actually wishing it would stop. It is definitely the wettest Winter I can remember for a long time and we haven't even got to September yet which usually gives us more rainfall than the Winter months put together.


The local creek has almost become a river - much to Bosnich's delight. Our usual walking path is under water at the point where it crosses the creek-river.


Even our smallest dam has water in it and is close to being full and covering the jetty entirely. Don't be fooled by the sunlight, it actually stops raining and comes out for around 20 minutes or so just to suck you in but then it disappears, everything goes grey and the rain starts again.


Training is very minimal for the kelpies at the moment as our agility area is under water.

(We are getting very good at shaping tricks and exercising on the balance discs inside the loungeroom though and Atilla's toy drive is currently through the roof which makes me very happy)

Luckily our Friday night training ground is still OK but that's not the case for many other clubs across Melbourne and trials are being cancelled as a result.

Poor Cruz won't get out trialling again until October now. I decided to give them a bit of 'one on one' time at a trial and entered Atilla in the State Trial at the beginning of September and Cruz at Croydon the week after, but Croydon has now been cancelled and it is too late to put an entry in for Cruz at the State Trial as well. The only other trial scheduled for September now is the Melbourne Royal and I never enter there as I don't like the undersized area they use and the tight courses you get as a result.

Even though I decided on the one on one thing for a couple of trials, I have really enjoyed running both of them lately, apart from the inevitable clashes between classes of course, and finally getting to run them on the same course for the first time has also been a good learning experience and has given my training some new directions - that's if this rain ever goes away and I actually get to train them again. Not holding my breath at the moment.

These photos of Atilla were taken by Steve from Akuna Digital Photography at Bendigo a couple of weeks back. We were probably lucky to get to run as there was only a small area of their ground left that wasn't too muddy and slippery from all the rain. If they had scheduled their trial a week later we might just have missed out.





Last Sunday was my favourite trial for the year - Wangaratta. I have been hanging out for this one for ages as I missed it last year after I wrote my car off. It probably ties with Warrnambool for my favourite trial actually, but the weather at Warrnambool is often not the best temperature wise (very humid) so Wang is a bit more pleasant to run for both humans and dogs.

This time it was wet, wet, wet so they had to move the rings which were still wet, wet, wet and started to get slippery in places by the afternoon.


Cruz got 2 runs, Atilla got 4 and I was pleased with all 6 of them. Atilla qualified in Open Agility (which I haven't entered for well over a year) and finished in 2nd place. He also qualified in Masters Jumping and finished in 4th place, running almost 7 seconds under SCT. I know this doesn't sound all that impressive, but considering I have had 5 runs over the past 12 months that have been either one or two tenths of a second over time, I was very pleased with his results. His fastest run for the day was Masters Agility where he was so pumped that he decided he just couldn't possibly wait for a 5 second count on the table and left just a fraction early. This is an absolute first - I don't think he's ever left the table early before, but I was still so happy with his speed and enthusiasm that it actually didn't bother me at all and I loved the run. He also put in a good performance in Masters Jumping in the afternoon - the only afternoon run I actually entered - but ran by a jump after I slipped in the mud.

Some more photos from Bendigo, this time with Cruz. Very high second hit on the upside of the A Frame although he completed the downside perfectly with 2 hits on this one. (Luckily the judge is visible in the photo so I know which run it's from)






I thought the ring set up at Wang would be a bit stressy for Cruz - no space between 2 rings so when you set up on the start line you often had another dog literally only a couple of metres behind facing the opposite direction. They also had the same entrance and exit so you had to come into the ring past the dog that had just finished its run, which he also doesn't particularly like doing. He coped with all this way better than I expected though. In excellent agility he popped the last weave pole when I pulled away early for the next obstacle- more proofing required there. The rest of his run was lovely. I also entered him in Masters Jumping for the first time and was prepared to make up my own course and just give him a big speed circle around the outside if I needed to but his work was confident on this course and I couldn't have been happier. I haven't been doing any long lead outs with him at trials due to his stress issues but I think I may have to rethink that and start biting the bullet - I got a 4 obstacle lead out with no sign of stress from him and although I know he's still got more in the tank, his speed was good. He put in a lovely run and handled everything with little difficulty so on the home run (3 jumps) I sent him on ahead and started running. Normally he won't go all that far ahead of me but this time he actually opened up and moved ahead leaving me in the dust - or the mud anyway. As he got to the last jump he turned his head to check that I was still coming behind him and in doing so actually ran past it.

So we were very close to having a qualifying run on his first try, plus even though he DQ'd right at the end, the timer still read out his time, which was almost 3 seconds faster than Atilla and would have put him into 3rd place and pushed Atilla down to 5th. To say that I was delighted with him would be an understatement.


I have only been entering him in agility since he finished his JDX earlier in the year in an attempt to play 'catch up' - at that point he still needed one more pass for his Novice agility title.


He has had 5 agility runs since then - Q in Novice agility (2nd place) for his AD, Q in Excellent agility (2nd place) at Sunbury, Q in both Excellent agility runs (1st place in both) at Bendigo - and something actually resembling speed on the 2nd run and then his run at Wang. Minimalist trialling seems to be working with him.


He also had a run in Novice Gamblers last month (which was the only run I entered him in on the day due to doing this minimalist thing) and also ran clear, finishing in 2nd place.


So I think I need to stop labelling him as a 'stress head' and to start expecting more from him as his results lately certainly don't match how I have been describing him. I also had some very positive comments about him at Wang. which was nice. The best thing about the day though was how happy he was each time he came out of the ring.


Atilla has also had some good results lately - 1st place in Excellent Gamblers to finish his title, also 1st place in Excellent Strategic Pairs to finish that title too. A couple of good Masters Jumping runs at Bendigo, with one fault in one and being 2 tenths of a second over in the other - lots of twists and turns in his 'stiff leg' direction. He also got a pass in Masters Gamblers on his first try and finished in 3rd place.

The thing that has really surprised me though (and I don't really know why as it should have been a no brainer) is just how much of an advantage it actually is to run 2 dogs on the same course. Cruz got to run first the day we did Gamblers and as the only thing that changed in the opening set up was the addition of a seesaw, and as Cruz had enough points in the opening not just to qualify for his Novice run but also enough for Masters, it made it much easier to plan an opening for Atilla and to have a pretty good idea where I would be when the first whistle sounded.

On the Masters Jumping course there were a couple of parts where I was a fraction late with a cue for Atilla which caused a wider turn than I would have liked, so I made sure I fixed this when Cruz had his turn.

So I am looking forward to running them both together again and hopefully getting it right at least the second time - that's if it ever stops raining !

RIP Yasser : 5 January 1995 - 20 July 2010

What can I say about this wonderful dog who was with us for so long and shaped my life in so many ways ? A total impulse buy not long after we got married , this funny looking farm dog with huge ears that he never quite grew into and of dubious parentage - supposedly a BC/ACD cross with a bit of kelpie somewhere in there for good measure. The last one left in his litter, we found out some time later that he was due to be 'disposed of' the day after we decided to take him, so maybe it was meant to be.



Although I grew up with kelpies as a child, I had never really been involved in training them in any way and don't ever remember having one as a young puppy. (I suspect Mum and Dad did some work with 'my dogs' first before they got put into my hands !) So into our unprepared lives came this goofy, tricolour pup who chewed everything he could get hold of - including every pair of knickers that ever got hung out on the line and my new bike seat, pulled on the lead like a maniac, barked like crazy every time he was left alone in the yard and totally shaped us to be his slaves in every way.



And for the first few years we knew no better and went happily along on one big 'Yasser-ride' in our inner city terrace home where he played happily with the other neighbourhood dogs on a tiny strip of grass near the railway station every morning, walked the city streets with me of an evening and learnt to swim in the Merri Creek on the weekends (eek!), progressing to the Yarra River once he got the hang of it.



When Yasser was 4 we discovered the Obedience Club quite by accident one Sunday when visiting a local nursery. L was impressed with all the 'good dogs' that were surprisingly obedient to their handlers and not a lead puller in sight. On the other hand, I was captivated by the dogs up the back corner doing agility and decided that I might even like to give it a try one day. (And so the seed of an addiction was planted.....)

L. and Yasser did pretty well at obedience, but there was never any joy in his work. At the time we put it down to him being 4 before he started, but looking back now I believe the training methods had a lot to do with it - my only regret with this dog is the number of 'corrections' he received in the name of dog training and if I could take every one back then I would.

Yasser had to be at Novice trialling standard before he was allowed to join the agility class. This took around 2 years (yes, there were a lot of bad habits to break first - courtesy of us!) and by then I was totally hooked watching the other dogs week after week and couldn't wait. Finally after our first agility class, another class member just happened to mention an agility only club where you didn't need to be at any particular standard to join and the rest is history. I couldn't believe that I had waited almost 2 years when I could have been doing agility all that time.

Yasser took to agility with a lot more gusto than obedience but having a foundation of 'working on the left only and not moving out of heel position' was a challenge at times. Although never a speed demon, he worked carefully and consistently and managed to do quite well at Novice level. Those who knew him used to joke at how revved up he would get outside the ring, barking and spinning around and giving every appearance of a totally driven dog. But the moment he got into the ring the 'driven' turned into something more akin to 'driving Miss Daisy' and he would amble around at my side, happpily taking any obstacle that I asked him to but never really moving out of half pace. This really did make him the perfect beginner's dog - fast enough to make time easily in Novice but not so fast that I couldn't get into position easily enough with my clumsy handling. Even though he was 7 before our first trial, he moved through Novice easily, with 2nd and 3rd placings along the way and had a couple of one fault runs in Open (the old Excellent class) before disaster struck and he injured his shoulder after getting a fly off on a seesaw.

Although his shoulder healed it was never really the same and he would sometimes develop a limp after jumping at 570mm height. Then we discovered ADAC agility (the Australian 'forerunner' to what is now NADAC) where he could run as a Veteran dog with a reduced jump height and so we retired from ANKC and made the change. This was a big hit with Yass, his speed and level of enthusiasm increased and he competed quite successfully in this venue until his retirement at 11 years of age. The only thing he never liked was a set of winged jumps (thankfully these disappeared after our first few trials) that were shaped and painted like elephants. He used to run up to them and circle them and bark and never once jumped the crossbar in the middle. The teddy bears and the soldiers were fine with him but obviously the elephants were just too damned freaky.

Despite his elephant aversion, Yasser amassed quite a collection of ribbons and medallions that I was always so proud of. Although they bring back lovely memories of our time in the agility ring together and the start of an ongoing journey, I would happily hand every one back if I could just step up to the startline with him one more time and see the look in his eyes as he couldn't wait to go.

Yasser enjoyed our move to the country where his new dog run was bigger than the entire backyard he had grown up in - even if he did have to share with some additions along the way.

He was a wonderful teacher for all the puppies that came to share his life - and there were 4 of them. Patient and gentle for most of the time, but also quick to put them in their place when their lack of manners warranted it. Both the kelpies especially loved him and right to the end would tell Bosnich exactly what they thought if they believed he had hurt the old man in any way.

Even when he was deaf, arthritic and his body was beginning to fail him, Yasser still loved to watch the kelpies training agility and would bark encouragement from the verandah. Although he got to spend less than a year with Ivy, once again he was a patient teacher and I loved seeing my young and old tricolours together - regretfully I never got a photo of them together.

So farewell my lovely boy and true friend. May you run free at the Rainbow Bridge, chasing tennis balls, sticks and frisbees, chewing bows off knickers and of course happily flying over those lower jumps. I'm sure Wolfie has found you by now and you are revisiting old times together.

Yasser was a beautiful dog and truly one of a kind. He was much loved, loved in return and is very much missed. Please give your dog a good rub behind the ears on his behalf.

Casterton Revisited

Is it a trick of the light or can you really see the ghosts of Jack Gleeson and Kelpie by the banks of the Glenelg River ? Is that the sound of distant hoofbeats echoing in the wind as they make their hurried escape ?

Probably not, as I just made that up. True, the photo really was taken by the banks of the Glenelg River, but it's just Atilla and L with a bit of help from good old Photoshop.

But I'm sure that if the aforementioned ghosts ever did decide to pay a visit back to Casterton, it would have to be during the Kelpie Muster. After attending every year from 2003 I missed last year when I decided to go agility trialling over the long weekend instead, so this year it was time for a return trip, even if it does mean that it will be July before I get back to trialling thanks to all the trial cancellations this year and restricted trials over June that we're not eligible for. (Apparently putting kilts on kelpies for Scottish breeds trial just doesn't cut it.)

Anyway, back to Casterton we went for a weekend of kelpie fun with no agility equipment in sight.

There's a ton of information about the muster on the net, and I did a detailed write up on this blog in 2008 http://agilitykelpies.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-09-23T09%3A40%3A00%2B10%3A00&max-results=7 so this year it's going to be mainly photos I think.

Henty Street Casterton with the Albion Hotel in the distance. It wasn't this deserted for the most of the day, but this was during the High Jump competition so no prizes for guessing where every man and his dog were.Big kelpie banner shielded the Rotary ? Lions ? (not sure which) Club while they barbecued. Atilla earned himself a sausage for sitting up and looking pretty while I snapped away so he was pretty impressed with the whole thing.

Site of the legendary hill climb competition. The dogs run from just in front of the truck to the top of the hill. You can just make out the white gates part of the way up - a 5 second deduction of your time if your dog goes through them on the way up.

Apart from kelpies, the next most common sight is probably cows - these ones watch the hill climb from the paddock next door, until Cruz pulled the lead out of L's hands and moved them off the fence that is.L watches the hill climb while Cruz watches me - or more likely the cows behind me after his bit of unplanned active service.

The trains don't come to Casterton any more. We did the kelpie trail walk and finished up at the old railway yards, a pretty spot but a bit sad really. Looks as if some effort has gone into preserving the old station at least.

And finally a trip down memory lane. First of all L and Atilla as a young pup back in 2003.


And in the same spot, 2010. The drizabone is a bit worse for wear, the kelpie is older and wiser, or should that be more 'street smarts' and sneakier ??

Happy Birthday Cruz

Lately I am obsessed with cupcakes. I'm not really interested in the cooking part and even the eating part I can 'take it or leave it' but I am mad for decorating them. There are whole blogs out there dedicated to the cupcake and some of the artistry leaves me with my jaw on the ground. If you haven't already, google 'cupcakes' and then allow yourself the next 2 or 3 hours to be totally gobsmacked by some of the work.

Unfortunately I don't have time to contemplate getting into cupcake decorating when I can't even find the time to train the dogs some evenings now that it's getting dark so early. But at least Cruz's birthday gave me an excuse to have a go. Pretty pathetic effort compared to some of the other stuff out there, but hey, you've got to start somewhere and it was a lot of fun playing around with designs.



Peanut butter and zucchini cupcakes (or should that be pupcakes?) with cream cheese frosting and a 'bones and flowers' theme. They disappeared even faster than the time it took to photograph them. (Photography hint for me - shooting them up so close shows up all the imperfections, don't do it again !) I am planning a very 'girlie' theme for Ivy's first birthday next month and can't wait to have another go. So move over Nigella and Jamie ....... not ! But at least the dogs are happy with the idea.