We Are Unstoppable

On Monday we went to Melbourne’s CBD by train. It was Sparkie’s first train ride and she was such a good little girl!

The following is copied (only slightly edited) from my diary, so forgive the rambling!

“Up at 6:30am, on the road at 7:30. Made it to the train station on time, caught the 9:02 train. Sparkie jumped on like a pro, slept under my seat the whole hour and a half to Melbourne. The CBD is incredible. So many massively tall office buildings. And the people! So many people. First we went to the toilets, and then we had trouble finding any grass for Sparkie to pee on, finally found a gravel patch with some plants poking out and let her use that. The place we were going was on the tenth floor of a VERY flash building, revolving door, heaps of people in each lift. Sparkie handled it all perfectly. She had a bit of a goofy moment at one point, rolling around the floor. And then she fell asleep again. She woke up when my anxiety levels started to rise – she sat up and started nudging me and licking me. Love my little dog! When the session was over I took Sparkie to look out the window, she was fascinated by the tiny people way down there! We rode the lift back down, another eight strangers crowding in, and then outside. Back to the plants. And then back to the toilets at the train station. Went upstairs for a sandwich and a bottle of water, and downstairs to eat it. Sparkie's heelwork was amazing. I gave her a little drink using the empty plastic sandwich packet as a bowl, and also a tiny bit of crust. Before we went back on the train, we gave her another chance to pee but she didn't want to go. Then toilet for us and back on the train. Sparkie stayed awake for a while but eventually fell asleep. When we got back to Seymour I took Sparkie's coat off so she could sniff and be goofy while we waited for the other guys to pick us up. Took nearly an hour because Jessica had turned her phone's volume right down!”

Some short videos:

Sparkie riding on the train. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phaNJbJVD_U

And this is us crossing a road in the CBD on the way back to the station. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4a9sQTYSH8

 

On Friday we’re off for our Public Access Test, Sparkie’s final assessment to see if she’s ready to graduate from “in training” status.

(resting on her mat during a lunch break at Southern Cross Station before we caught the train home)

We are unstoppable
That's who we are, that's who we are
For the impossible
That's who we are, that's who we are

– Unstoppable, TobyMac

Hiatus

I’ve been neglecting this blog again. So many things have been happening. This post doesn’t mention them all.

 

On August 25, we decided to cancel the Superdog shows we had remaining for the rest of the year. Shortly after that we were all sick with the flu, and then we found another diesel leak! We got it fixed, but now the bus has developed a new rattle, which seems to be in the engine.

 

With the pressure off, life seems easier. Mostly. It’s giving me a chance to focus on Sparkie’s service dog training, and we’re on our way to Melbourne for our certification on October 3. Which puts more pressure on me. But whatever.

 

Will we ever do more Superdog shows? I hope so. We might do some small events next winter. I want to keep the places we perform at small and our performances low cost so there’s less pressure to perform perfectly. For now, we’re on hiatus.

 

And here’s a bunch of photos.

Days In The Sun

So many things have been happening lately that I’ve come to the decision that I’m not going to get a special post for Auntie Beth’s visit. While she was staying with us we camped at the Maleny Showgrounds, which is beautiful. The day before she left we spent on Bribie Island. We went for a walk beside the beach and ate ice cream.

We have done some renovations to the bus this month – big ones like shifting bunks and seats. We’ve also cleaned out a lot of stuff we didn’t really need and done heaps of trips to the rubbish dump and to storage.

 

On Tuesday we went to Maroochydore, another beach, yay!

Today we’re doing more bus renovations, shifting one bunk forward to make room for a cupboard. Next up is making space for a bathroom! And we are done to just one computer again. Also, it has rained all day so far today.

 

Next post: Sparkie’s new lead and general training updates, and maybe more bus renovations.

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.