20 April 2013

Northbound

Wow, it’s been a long time since I blogged! Nearly a whole month, in fact. Things have been pretty busy around here getting ready for the shows.

 

We spent two weeks in Sydney with our cousins, where I got my license. We’re now on the road again, with only two weeks until the Wallumbilla Show. I haven’t done any driving yet, but now we’re out of the big city I should be able to get some hours done! Sparkie and Tess also learned some neat new tricks, and I made a video of them.

 

The collars and lead from Naranja Orange Dog arrived while we were in Sydney, and they look great!

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24 March 2013

Blayney Show video

And this is 6 week old “Freya,” our new Superdog! She’s 3/4 Border Collie and 1/4 Kelpie.

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16 March 2013

The craziest month ever

So, what have I been doing since the Blayney Show? Well, we’ve had the bus up for sale off and on for the last four years, but never had must interest. Once or twice we had people say they would buy it, and then we never heard back from them. But on Monday, March 4, a man came to look at the bus and put a deposit on it! Tuesday we started packing backpacks, and that evening we drove from Carcoar to Bowning to look at a van. Wednesday morning we test drove the van, put a deposit on it, and drove to Young to sort out licenses and legal bit and pieces. On Thursday we piled nearly all of our stuff into a storage shed and cleaned out the bus. Then on Friday afternoon the bus went to its new home and we became the proud owners of a van we’ve named “Puddle Jumper.”

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The dogs have been a little unsettled, especially Lassie, but they’re doing quite good considering they’ve spent most of their lives in the bus, and now they’re living in a van and tents! We brought the bus when Sparkie was four or five months old and Lassie and Tess came home to it when they were about eight weeks old. So it’s pretty much all they’ve ever known.

 

Some random photos of the last week:

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The camp in Young, where we were staying, had really slow internet which is why it’s taken me so long to update! We’re finally on the road again. Travelling in a van is so different to travelling in a bus! Obviously. But there’s way less room, which means way less stuff. I’m fine with that, by the way, but some of the others wanted to bring EVERYTHING and had a hard time leaving it in storage! And we took the dogs for their vaccinations yesterday – it was neat being able to pull into the car park right away instead of driving up and down the street trying to find a park big enough for a 38ft bus!

4 March 2013

Blayney Show results

After two days of rain, March 2 dawned bright and sunny with a freezing cold wind. I don’t think it got much over 15*C all day. Our day started at 6am – the competition didn’t start until 9:30, but we wanted plenty of time to get ready. There was a balloon popping game really close to where we were competing, and it was so windy the big metal “Pet Dog Show” sign kept blowing over and making a huge bang when it hit the concrete! Sparkie was a bit spooked by that and not too happy about working for me, so we only entered two classes (Best Tricks and Speed Sit) – we got third place in both of them! So I’m pretty proud of her. Tess got first in Best Tricks, second in Best Biscuit Catcher, second in Speed Sit, and third in Waggliest Tail. Lassie surprised us all when she took second in Best Tricks and first in Speed Sit! She was obviously having a good day because that’s her best show results ever!

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25 February 2013

Trick Video 2013

And guess what? We found a show coming up on 2 March that has a dog competition with a “Best Trick” class! And it’s just 10kms from our beautiful camp too.

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20 February 2013

More agility

Sorry it’s been so quiet around here lately! We finally left Ariah Park last week. It was getting frustrating out there – the football people complained about dog droppings on their field and we got banned from running our dogs there. It was NOT our dogs’ droppings! So we then had no nice grass to run the dogs on, as everywhere else in the camp was dirt with clumps of spiky brown grass.

 

We’re now at a camp where there is green grass and heaps of space! We set up our agility stuff and have been enjoying cooler weather. After having ten weeks of 38-45*C heat, 25-30 is lovely!

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2 February 2013

Agility and stuff

Well, it’s February already and about 15 weeks until the Gympie Show! I still haven’t heard back from the Wallumbilla Show or the Pumpkin Festival people, which is starting to annoy me.

 

We brought an agility tunnel off Ebay last week and it arrived on Tuesday. The dogs love it and had no trouble when we incorporated it into our agility course!

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The dogs have had a break from tricks since Australia Day, but we’re planning on starting a more… (what’s the word)… rigorous (is that right?) training schedule soon. Our current plan is to start heading towards Gympie around the middle of the month. So very excited about the shows!! Can you tell?