It has been a busy couple of months for us with lots going on. I had quite a few judging appointments which I really enjoyed. The courses worked so well and I saw some of the most stunning runs which were a delight to judge whether the dog and handler qualified or not. The overall highlight was when international judge Jan Eigl Eide from Norway was here for the second time. I feel really privileged to have had him as a mentor for my course design since he was here in 2017. Having him back in Perth and receiving his feedback in person for my course design after working on improving over the last eighteen months was amazing. Then to have him say that he liked my courses when he came over to check them out pretty much made my year 😌 Gosh he is just the nicest person. So lovely to talk to and discuss course design with and he makes course design look so easy. It's disappointing that Australia is still so far behind Europe and in many cases people are strongly resisting any change. It is challenging for us being so far removed physically from the international competition scene. But I don't think we can continue to use that as an excuse as the only thing of any importance is our dogs health and safety and too many courses we see here force our dogs to use their bodies in unsafe ways. There are so many options now for learning and improving. All you have to do is go to FaceBook. You just need to be open to doing better. I really do wish that some of our other long time competitors would consider being judges. We so badly need a greater injection of new ideas and allow for a greater evolution. That people won't is an ongoing frustration for me. It always seems that it is the same people who are prepared to make sacrifices for their sport. That is one of the things I admire about Jan, he reminded me that it only takes one person to initiate change and he is totally prepared to step up and take it on. I need to keep reminding myself of that every time I get disheartened.
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| The pappy is still cute as a button |
Rain and I had so much fun doing our very first seminar with Jan. She was only nine months so we couldn't do anything particularly complicated, but it was a start. I have got loads to work on and she is loving it, which means that I am loving it too. At the moment we are working on handling with the bars on the ground. I'm going to teach her a running dog walk so we have started the foundation work for that as well. The downside of a running dog walk is it is pretty time consuming but of course all the foundation work is not on the equipment so it's all pretty easy. She is definitely getting the hang of it so I recon we aren't far away from moving onto planks. We have really good sessions mixed with average sessions but we are getting there. I'm still doing lots of obedience and trick training with her. We enrolled in obedience at one of the local dog clubs. She came in season for the first time right at the start so we lost a few weeks of class but of course we have just been working away on things at home and she picks everything up so quickly. Not sure where we will go with it but good for building on our relationship even if nothing really comes of it competition wise.
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| Rain and her little friend Harli |
Next up we have Tamas Traj from Hungary coming to Perth in July. Tamas is probably the top international agility judge in the world at the moment. He has a gift for course design that is just mind blowing. I am always in awe of what he comes up with. I will be really interested to see what he designs when he is in Australia. To be honest I don't think that agility in Australia is up to his level of design but it is a wonderful opportunity for people to push themselves. I only wish Rain was old enough to compete so I could run his courses. Instead I will have to just make the most of our seminar spot and I'll be doing his course design seminar as well. Rain will be twelve months when Tamas is here so we should be able to do a bit more than when Jan was here.
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| Rain's first agility seminar |
I've signed up for the Jumping Gymnastics course run through Fenzi with Sarah Stremming and Leslie Eide which starts in June. Rain isn't old enough to actually do the course as yet but I'm keen to have it in my library so we can start some of the conditioning work and then be ready to do it in our own time once Rain has finished growing. Rain has a tendency to get over the top and then loose her mind a bit which has me a little concerned about the potential for bar knocking. I'm really keen to make sure I teach her how to jump properly right from the start and that she is physically ready in both her growth and the right physical condition to be successful. I'd rather do it right the first time rather than trying to fix something later. Plus I have great respect for both Sarah and Leslie and it's another great learning opportunity.
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| Sonic one week post THR |
Poor Sonic has not had a great time of it lately. His hip dysplasia had been managed really well for many years with medication but over the last few months I had thought he looked like he was showing signs that he was less comfortable. He was still fairly active and going swimming regularly. But then one afternoon when he was chasing the other dogs out to the agility arena he slipped and ever since has been non weight bearing in his rear left leg. So after multiple trips to Murdoch and an MRI Sonic received a total hip replacement of his left hip. A lot of people I have spoken to were really surprised that I'd spend that much money on an eleven year old but I can't see how I couldn't. My other choice is to leave him and then when he can't walk anymore I would have had to put him to sleep. I just can't stand by and watch that happen and he certainly doesn't deserve that. I have an opportunity to give him another four or five quality years of life and I want to give him that. The operation went perfectly. I know it's going to be a tough eight weeks through to six months as we go through recovery and rehab but it's the least I can do for him.
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| Sonic's crappy left hip pre-THR |
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| Sonic's new hip |
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