Two Weeks Later

Unfortunately this is not a blog about my auntie’s visit, which was awesome by the way. I am going to blog that at some point, hopefully, but life has been insane.

 

Just thought I should let you know I’m still alive and nothing awful has happened, because it’s been over two weeks since I posted anything.

 

We’re all good, apart from a few light colds that are practically gone now (and I didn’t get one, yay!). Sparkie’s assistance dog training is going good, and we’ve been focusing on riding lifts because that’s what she was scared of. She’s doing much better now. There might be a video coming soon.

 

And oh, we also have a new show lined up! Horsham Show on October 1, which is also Sparkie’s birthday.

Filtered

On July 10, we discovered an issue with the bus oil that prevented us from driving very far. We spent the following day trying to source an oil filter in Gladstone, with no luck. We spent two nights parked right next to the railway line, and then moved a few kilometres up the road next a football field. We were able to train and exercise the dogs, and even discovered a dog park within walking distance.

Meanwhile we’d ordered a new oil filter from Darwin, but couldn’t find the right tool to get the old one off. We had to drain out the old oil, and ended up having to unscrew a bunch of parts before that was possible. And then the new part arrived. Daddy jammed a screwdriver into the side of the old filter and used that as a handle to turn the filter until it unscrewed and came off.

So finally, with new oil and a new oil filter, we hit the road again on July 17.

Auntie Beth flew over yesterday, and tonight is camping beside us in a hired campervan. Fun times, and photos of that coming soon!

Life Goes On

It feels like the past three weeks have been both slow and hectic. We’ve travelled about 1500kms and now we are stuck again waiting on a part for the bus – an oil filter this time. I have been busy working on another blog over at LiveJournal for all fandom related things and working on the dogs’ agility. We’ve rebuilt our weave poles to competition specifications and added another 6 poles to them. We’re now working on upgrading our jumps so when Lassie clips the bar the whole thing won’t fall down.

 

Sparkie’s assistance dog training is going about the same. She’s decided travelators are the best thing EVER and wants to go on every one we come across. On the other hand, lifts are less fun – need to find more of those to get her used to them.

 

Oh, and that new training method is going great. Instead of the dogs being allowed to eat stuff unless we say “leave it,” they now are not allowed to eat stuff unless we say “get it.” Sparkie and me play the “recall  game” every morning and every evening, and she loves it. I throw a treat down the hallway and say “get it!” and once she’s eaten it I call her back for the treat I have in my hand. I really should video it some time. It’s reinforcing her recall and so far it’s working!

Mount Isa Show 2014

On Thursday we arrived at the Mount Isa showgrounds and met with the organisers, finding out where we were meant to set up and what other entertainers would be here with us. Roy Maloy was amongst the names she gave us. You probably remember the trouble we had with him and his agent a few months ago. So, feeling a bit anxious, we set up all our gear – fence, jumps and weave poles and tunnel, and our banner at the back of the ring. As usual, we had no performance times and were expected to work that out with the other entertainers.

 

We actually hadn’t rehearsed at all since we performed two weeks ago, so I was freaking out that our dogs would mess up. We did do a quick rehearsal on Thursday and it went ok.

 

Day One

After a quick breakfast, we grabbed the last of our gear and trekked to our area. We met up with Noah’s Pig Races, who we’d worked with before. And then I spotted Roy heading our way. I have to admit that I left in a hurry, not quite ready to face him. When I came back, Roy was gone again. We ended up performing at 10:45, 2:30, and 4:15. I pretty much avoided Roy the whole day. He did his show, which was pretty much exactly the same as last year’s, and we did ours. It was 28*C and we were performing in the sun. Tess kept trying to run off, again, so she was on lead for most of our shows. Sparkie was slower than I liked with her agility. We had a new prop for one of our routines – a box with a lid. We’d only been working with it for about five days before the show, but Sparkie did what she was meant to with hardly any problems. Freya was fast and focused as usual. At the last performance of the day, Lassie knocked down a weave pole and the jump.

The other entertainment for the show were the pig races, Roy Maloy, a couple of creepy stiltwalkers, roving musicians, a petting zoo, and a squeaking clown (more about him later). The stiltwalkers were seriously creepy – wearing masks and everything. I saw the guy bend down to talk to a little kid, who burst into tears, poor thing.

 

Day Two

A cooler day. Roy didn’t talk to me much, which was interesting because last year he was always talking to me. I was fine with him ignoring me though. Between our last two shows there wasn’t much time, so instead of walking all the way back to the bus we just hung around in the shade. Freya didn’t like that much so I was off walking her and trying to get her to calm down. The stiltwalkers were walking around and Jireh was getting scared, so Jessica was looking after him. There was a clown who squeaked instead of talking, and he came up to Chantel and offered her a lolly. Chantel said no. He then wanted to give her a high five. Chantel said no again. Then he squeezed her cheek. Chantel, of course, glared at him. He backed off a little, and then pointed a water pistol at her and squirted her in the face! Poor Chantel was really upset. After that we all went back to our shady spot and kept a lookout for crazy clowns! Chantel eventually calmed down and Roy had gone home after his last show, so we got our heads back in the game and our last show was great. Sparkie was weaving really well and fast, although Freya kept pausing in her routine to look at Lassie for some reason.

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So that was the end of the Mount Isa Show for 2014. Meeting Roy again wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. His show seemed flatter than last year, and he said to Mummy later that he was thinking of retiring. Fine with me!

 

We now have a two month break between shows, which we’ll be using to trial a new dog training method (more on that in a later post). My Auntie is coming over to visit from NZ at the end of July, so there’s that to look forward to as well.

Springsure Show and Winton Show 2014

Our patch-job got us to Springsure, and the show went ok. Tess was very unfocused for our first four performances, so she was on a lead for those. There weren’t very many people around anyway, except for the last one.

We went into the repair shop on Tuesday, and arrived pretty much on time, but still ended up spending half an hour in the full sun while the mechanics had lunch, before they even looked at the leak. After the repairs, we did some shopping and went to a playground, where Daddy checked the leak one last time, just in case. And the leak was worse. It was around 4:30pm. Panic ensued. Here we were, broken down (again) in a no-camping area beside a playground in Emerald, four days and 600kms away from our next show. We spent the night there because the leak was so bad we couldn’t drive anywhere at all, and the next morning a friend came by and fixed the bus – for real, this time. We hit the road on Wednesday afternoon, arriving in Winton on Friday afternoon.

 

The Winton Show was pretty much the same as last year, except neither Roy Maloy nor the stiltwalkers from last year were here. Instead there was a mouse circus and a clown. The crowds were big enough and all the dogs performed at their usual standard.

 

As always, for more photos check our the Superdogs Facebook page. Our next show is on 20-21 June in Mount Isa.

 

Another bit of good news – we just confirmed another show! We’ll be performing three shows a day at the Shepparton Show on October 10th and 11th.

Breakdown

So, a recap of what’s been going on since the Gympie Show/Million Paws Walk.

 

We spent a few days relaxing, and then it was shopping day and haircuts for some of us. On Thursday, May 22nd, Chantel was out playing fetch with Freya between our bus and somebody else’s caravan. They had a big Doberman tied up outside, which was barking a little bit. And then suddenly it snapped its collar. "It just wanted the ball," the lady said, but no, it went straight to Freya and started fighting her. Poor Freya was yelping and trying to run away. The guy tried to grab his dog but it was moving too fast and didn't stop even when he hit it with a dustpan. Sparkie ran outside and straight over to it. Freya hid under the bus and when the Doberman paused before going after her, Sparkie rushed in front of him. He started sniffing her and the guy grabbed him and I caught Sparkie. We were all pretty shaken up. Freya had a little injury on her ear and under her front leg.

 

On Sunday, the 25th, we were about 60kms past Rockhampton, aiming for Duaringa for free hot showers. It was about 5pm, or 5:30. The bus suddenly lost all acceleration and we coasted to a halt on the side of the highway. The engine sputtered and stalled. I looked out the front windscreen. We were parked half off the road. Luckily there was a passing lane, so even though we were blocking a lane trucks could still get past without crossing the centre line. Stress levels were through the roof. We were out of fuel. Crazy, because we'd just filled up a few towns ago. We put our hazard lights on and our reflective triangles on the road. A Landcruiser towing a horsefloat pulled in behind us about five minutes later, and they gave us some diesel, siphoned it from their tank into our fuel container, which we then poured into our tank. And then came more trouble. Daddy lifted up the floor hatch and there was a puddle of diesel on top of the engine. We have a leak!! It was now dark and the horses were stressing out so the people had to move on. We couldn't stay where we were, and we couldn't find the leak, so we cleaned the diesel up and drove about 10kms to the first truck parking bay we could find. And when we opened the floor - yep, more diesel. We’ve patched it up as best we can, because we have to be in Springsure for the show on Friday and Saturday. On Monday we’re taking it to a mechanic.

 

On a better note, our new Superdogs banner and car door magnets from Vistaprint arrived today! Our arena at Springsure should look awesome.

Gympie Show 2014

We weren’t able to get any photos of the High Jump this year because it was threatening to rain the whole time and Mummy didn’t think it’d be safe to have our big camera out in that weather. So we brought my video camera instead, which is small enough to stick it in a jacket pocket if it rained. It did rain a bit, right near the end, but we got some videos of it anyway. I’ll be posting the video soon. Also, our big camera is having trouble with its focus, so we didn’t get as many clear shots this year. Some of the photos are odd sizes coz I had to crop them.

 

RESULTS

HIGH JUMP

Tess 2nd, Sparkie 3rd

NOVELTY DOGS

Obstacle Course - Sparkie 1st, Lassie 2nd, Tess 3rd
Best Tricks - Freya 1st, Tess 2nd
Most Obedient Dog - Sparkie 1st, Tess 2nd, Freya 3rd

Freya also won Most Improved From Last Year. Suzanna (age 6) won third place with Tess in Best Child Handler.

 

There seemed to be less competitors this year. In the High Jump there were only two other dogs entering besides ours. In Tricks too, we only had two other dogs enter apart from ours. But both actually did real tricks! One jumped through a hoop a few times, and the dog that got 3rd place hopped into an empty ice cream container with all four paws. In Obedience there was only one dog besides ours.

 

We performed at the RSPCA Million Paws walk yesterday, but forgot the camera. No photos, sorry. Our next show is in Springsure on 30-31 May.