Agility

It was our show this weekend and I was helping out as Show manager.  Shilo had some lovely runs this weekend which shows she is improving all the time.  We came 11th in Starters 1 and got a lovely North Shore ribbon for the effort.  I was pleased with her novice run as she got all her contacts and her only fault was the last jump down.  Not bad for no training.  Rocky had a good run in Senior but was D'd when he went to go through the tunnel.  I was pleased as he didn't knock any jumps down.  It was terribly hot so we were all exhausted at the end of the day.

Sunday was at Orewa and Shilo really went clear in both starters but due to an interpretation error by the judge we were given 5 faults in one of the runs.  As the judge was consistent and couldn't remember who was affected the faults had to stay.  I was alright about it since it won't happen again.  The tide came in at about 1pm and I gave the dogs a swim.  Rocky really enjoyed that as he was very hot in his big coat.  Another hot, tiring day so pleased Monday was my day off.  So looking forward to my holiday starting next week.

RSA

We went to the RSA for dinner tonight.  Stuart is suffering from cabin fever so it was good to have a trip out.  My car went to West City Holden today to have some work done to get it's warrant of fitness.  It has been an expensive exercise at a time when we can least afford it.

The kitties are growing up far too quickly.  Chloe and Jake were both resting with Stuart this afternoon.  It was so cute.  Kathleen cam for her pullets and managed to cuddle Jake.  Chloe was elusive so she could only look at her.  Shilo had a great time playing in the duck bath and came out a horrible brown and black colour.  She had a great time.  I hate to think how she will go at agility tomorrow as we haven't had time to train.

Ethan had his operation yesterday and is doing well.  I went and sat with Heather after work as he was pretty groggy and she had a long night ahead of her.  One more week and I am on holiday.  I can't wait.

The temperature dropped today but the humidity is still high.  May get a decent sleep tonight.

Humidity

The humidity is high at the moment which makes sleeping hard.  The garden pixie misses Stuart and has started giving me cuddles.  He is worried she has forgotten him.  Poor Stuart was doing really well after his surgery but has had a set back with bowel and bladder problems.  Hopefully they are sorted now and he can come home on Tuesday.

Jake has come to visit and has that big tail of his bolt upright.  He smells very earthy so I think has been under the house.  We have had a bit of rain which cooled things a little but it heating up again.  We have Roxy staying for the week.  She is a border collie/ retriever cross and has been coming to stay since she was a pup.  She is a bit older than Rocky.

Norwest

We went to Norwest agility champ show this weekend and had a good time.  Shilo is starting to run better and managed to get a clear round in Starters both days.  She ran her first Novices today and I was really pleased with her as she stopped nicely on all the contacts except the A frame which was a bit slippery.  Rocky started off on Saturday knocking most of the jumps down.  I was told by someone that he needed to lose some weight.  He has a big coat and doesn't need to lose weight.  He did a lovely run in Senior and only had one jump down.  He had 5 faults in the Jumpers today and really enjoyed himself.  Rocky really loves his agility and is not really competitive now as there are so many really fast dogs out there now.  I will keep running him as long as he is enjoying it and is comfortable doing it.

Stuart has his surgery tomorrow and is currently holding Chloe, his little Princess.

Chloe

Here the Garden Pixie.  I wasn't fast enough with the camera.  Somehow she walked along the sill of the windows to the end of the car where she tried to turn around.  This little girl is amazingly agile.  Both her and Jake have taken to sleeping under the front seat of this car.

Shilo went beserk last night barking at something up the garden.  I raced out to look thinking it might be a wild animal and only spotted the back side of a stray cat running away.  Today Stuart found a dead stoat lying under the camilla's and thinks that may have been part of what spooked Shilo.  We think Arnie may have caught it.  It was a big one.  A previous cat brought home 2 baby stoats and Arnie had come home with a weasel once.

Agility training

Photo of Shilo with Jake and Chloe on the bed.  Shilo desperately wants to play with the kittens but her style of play is not theirs.  Every now and then Jake chases her and she thinks he is playing.

We went to Cheryl's last night to do some agility training with Shilo.  I want her to compete in Novice this year so want to get the contacts sorted.  She is certainly different to train from my previous dogs.  We can't use a toy as she totally focuses on that and food works but again it hard to get her back to the exercise at the time.  She did do some good contacts and I have to develop yet another style of running for this little dog.  At least I no longer compete with Casey or I would get totally confused out there in the ring.

She is more like Rocky in some ways but in others not.  Rocky at least does the course without distraction.  Shilo is so busy looking around at other things so misses the entrance to the tunnel or goes past the dog walk.  i now have to go right in to the middle of the cross over or she cuts the middle out and jumps from one ramp to the next.  Somehow I think running at Norwest is going to be interesting.

We got home late last night and the kittens were inside asleep.  We will keep locking them in at night for some time yet but was pleased they were in without actually being locked in. Chloe is definitely Stuart's cat as she calls out to him for attention but seems to avoid me.  It could be interesting next week when he goes in to hospital for his surgery.

Tree Climbers

Here is a photo of the Garden Pixie.  She was right up a cabbage tree and managed to walk across a ponga frond without falling.  Chloe loves to play.  Stuart has made her 2 possum skin toys and she picks them up in her mouth and throws them around.


Arnie brought in a baby rat again this morning for the kittens and once agin Jake was busy playing with it while Arnie watched.  Stuart tells me that Jake brought in a duck feather and was growling when anyone got close.

Jake up the tree.  While Chloe was up there, he climbed up a couple of times to play and then came down again.

I finally put the jumps and weaves out and did some training with Shilo.  She was terrible on the weaves so I must do more as we are competing in 2 weeks time.  There was a lot of barking which got Stuart out of his swing seat.