Busy again!

Wow, what a busy month! Our computer is broken (again) so I'm on the internet at Gympie Centro.

The Gympie Show went great, we won 13 ribbons in all. The highlights were Sparkie's second place in High Jump and Tess's Grand Champion award in Novelty Dogs.

Lassie's now over seven weeks pregnant, and we can feel the puppies kicking! It's really cool.

Sorry, no photos at the moment. I'll post more detail about the show and stuff when I get a chance!

Wallumbilla Show 2012

Our rehearsals on the 4th left a lot to be desired, but we needn't have worried. The dogs seem to know when it’s a real show and when we’re just practicing. So, here’s what happened next…

I woke up and immediately wondered why my watch hadn’t beeped to wake me up. All was quiet. It was 7:11am. Eleven minutes since my alarm should have gone off. I looked at it and realized that I’d set it wrong last night. Amazingly I’d still woken early enough. Jessica moved from across the “hallway.” “Hey, Jess, are you awake?” I whispered. “Of course,” said Jessica, sounding wide awake. Chana was also awake, and Chantel was stirring from the top bunk. After quickly having our morning drinks, the dogs were walked, brushed, and sprayed with a “Show Shine” spray. We carried our gear up to our area, set up, Mummy told the announcer what times we’d be performing, then us four performers ran home, pulled on our Superdog clothes, and just had time to wipe down our boots before our first performance at 10:30. Then, grabbing the dogs and putting on their bandannas, we ran back to our spot and began our routines. Afterwards, even Chantel was grinning. The audience, smaller than I’d expected, cheered. Although I struggled to hear the next cue in the music for our Canine Freestyle because of the music booming out from the dodgem cars area across the road, I was pleased with our efforts. “Our next performance will be at 12:00!” Mummy shouted over the music. I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes. If they’d just tone down the music things would be better. The 12:00 performance was better, but the 2:30 performance was amazing. The audience was huge, at least 30 people and probably more. We got heaps of positive comments, and everyone seemed to love watching us.

After the fireworks, we practically fell into bed and were asleep in minutes. None of us were awake before 8:30 the next morning, and some of us were still in bed an hour after that. Well, I think that after such a big day, we deserved a sleep-in!

And wouldn’t you know it, we did it again. “Superdogs Trick Show with their entertaining dog tricks” were mentioned in three different newspapers.

Five days left!

…then we’re off to perform at the Wallumbilla Show! I still have no idea where we’re performing or what times, so I sent an email to the organizers on the 28th. Nothing back from them yet!

 

We got costumes, a couple of packs of dog treats, speakers for the computer, etc. etc. so I reckon we’re about ready! As long as Sparkie is motivated and doesn’t looked bored, we’ll do ok. Unless Chantel freaks out or Chana forgets her routine or holds Lassie’s collar too much or Tess jumps on the boogie board too early… But yeah, we’re getting there.  We finished shopping this afternoon and headed back out to Wallumbilla.

 

Some photos taken in the last week:

 

Meanwhile, we’re pretty sure Lassie’s pregnant. Her teats have grown an amazing amount in the last few days!

 

The weather’s been unpredictable – cold and rainy one day, hot and sunny the next. Not real good weather for dog training! A few other show guys are here now but not many. And we also finally got our Emergency season one DVD a few days ago! And we’ve watched all eleven episodes already. They’re awesome!!

Train rides and rain

Remember our trip to the Gladstone Gaol in February? We also went to the Peterborough Steamtown in December. And last week we went on the miniature train in Roma. The best thing about all of those things is that the dogs could come too!

That’s the driver, me, and Mummy in the left picture. You can’t see Sparkie but she’s sitting on the floor in front of me. The picture on the right is of Chantel (just her hair actually!), Chana and Lassie, and Jessica with Tess. It only cost $2 each for a ride – and no, the dogs didn’t have to pay. They got on for free! :)

 

It’s currently wet and rainy, not cold though but definitely cooler than it has been the last few days.

 

The other day I came across an old photo of me and Lassie, which looks a lot like the one of us that was taken just a few months ago!

Wallumbilla

No internet out at Wallumbilla and I’m a bit short on time right now, but when we come back into Roma next week I’ll tell you about our ride on the miniature train.

Dogs and routines are all doing good, everyone but me and Daddy are down with colds, and the weather’s been warm but not overly hot.

 

Check back Tuesday and I’ll have another post for ya!

Easter Weekend 2012

Last Easter we were still reeling from disaster upon disaster that had left our world not quite so cheery as it could have been. We were camped at Six Mile Creek in Gympie. Here’s the blog post I made about it. Anyway, THIS year…

 

Friday we spent at a gorgeous park in Coonabarabran, NSW. Green grass, lotsa leaves on the ground – it felt like autumn! (It is, by the way) We managed rehearsals before we left camp in the morning and did our heelwork at the park.

 

Saturday we were camped right by the bush, and we spent from about 9am to 11am training the team and rehearsing our routines.

 

We stayed in the same camp Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately the camera ran out of battery about halfway through Sparkie’s first rehearsal on Sunday.

 

On Monday the Easter stuff was on special in Woolworths, so we got a whole stack of goodies and went to a park in Narrabri where we had an egg and spoon race with some of the chocolate eggs! The nearest busy road was a fair distance away so we managed to practice our routines too.

 

Overall a decent four days – a little busy though but fun!

Tess

Yesterday was Tess’s third birthday, so I figured I’d better put up some stuff about her like I did for Gyvie.

I remember Mummy ringing the owners from a phone box on the side of the road at one point. How excited Jessica was when we found out they still had two female puppies left! We arrived in Rockhampton in the afternoon a few days later, and the owner walked down the long driveway to meet us. (It was a good thing, because we would never have got up there with the bus!) He was carrying two puppies. One was black with a spotted, lopsided, white blaze and spotty white toes. The other had full spotty white legs. Jessica held them both separately and although I was keen on the white legged pup, Jessica decided to take the other one. Sparkie didn’t know what to think when we brought the puppy inside!

After a bit of suggesting, we decided on “Tess.” She had a few aggression issues to work on – such as, if we touched her back she’d try to bite us. It was a bit disconcerting seeing such aggressive behaviour from a nine week old puppy! And after we broke her of that, we had to work on food aggression. After a few months of training, Tess finally settled down, only to start getting territorial over Jessica’s bed. She’d growl and snap whenever someone touched the bed. By the time she was nearly two, she was doing it to other little kids who came in to pat her. She also had dominance issues – she’d attack other dogs if they showed any dominance towards her. This led to her snarling viciously at the other competing dogs at the Gympie Show in 2010. When we got Lassie in July that same year, Tess was so aggressive we were afraid she was seriously injure little Lassie!

Nowadays, Tess still gets in the occasional fight with one of the other dogs, often Sparkie or Sambo then Lassie tries to join in. She still growls at new dogs but the actual attacks are getting less. She doesn’t get territorial over the bed anymore.

Despite her aggression problems, Tess managed to get a first place in Best Medium Dog at the Gympie Show in 2010. She also placed first in Best Tricks and second in Agility in 2011. She knows about thirty tricks – including jumping into Jessica’s arms, lifting her back leg, putting a toy in a bucket, pulling a towel off the handrail, and jumping through a rolling hoop. She loves to play disc, flyball, and agility, work cattle and goats, chase rabbits, and eat. Once we found her INSIDE a rubbish bin snacking on somebody else’s garbage!