lollie

Update Easter 2011

Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:23:46 +0100

My goodness, how time flies.

I realise I haven't been here for a while, but I didn't realise it has been quite this long.

In the meantime I am a 4 Time Champion mum says we are working towards "Grandchampion" status (whatever that may be) and we are in fact also working in a completely new discipline. I'll have to post a picture, else you won't believe it. It is, shall we say, a change from our usual high activity events.

Thought I would share that I am lying joined 5th overall after the Qualifiers for the World Agility Championships. The Finals will be on the first weekend in June and we need all our fans to cross their paws for me. Mum says if I qualify in the top 9 I am allowed to run in the Individual competition as well as the Team event. I would really like that. Chippy is not doing so well this year in the ranking, but then he started the year off with yet another abdominal surgery and only slowly got back into form. Everyone was very worried - even me ...

This weekend we are running some fun competitions at the Nurtphase Animal Carnival. Boy, it is so much fun, can't tell you. Today we had a rest day, but we competed Friday and Saturday and mum says we will go back tomorrow (Monday) and Wednesday (a public holiday ehre in South Africa). I wished every weekend was that good.

So, yesterday I won the Dog Jumping event. Mum was really clear for a change. At the Jump-off she told me she wants me to run faster than Rikki and Benji and "show the boys" - so I did.

Picture: Melissa Wilson

Left to right: Candy Tothill, organizer; ME and Gaby, Bill Middleton, judge, Lucy Tothill, organizer.

Mum says I must be gracious and also tell you about Chippy's new freestyle routine. Well, I am really not in the best of moods about the freestyle event. I performed my new HTM routine. My FIRST HTM routine (HTM = Heelwork to Music, I also didn't know until recently), and NOBODY took a video of me, but they DID take a video of Chippy ... you think that is fair? No, me neither.

Anyway, no point in me TELLING you about the routine, like the fact that Chippy made AT LEAST 2 mistakes! and what's worse, mum made a really big boo-boo - so after all that, what is left in a routine? Exactly. Anyway, before I go on telling you about Chippy's routine and someone blames me of sour grapes and all that, I think you should check it out for yourself

Pictures: Melissa Wislon

Hope you enjoy the update

Love you all ... don't forget to cross those paws for us at the SA Champs and the selection for the Team to go to the World Champs!

Left a Double Champion - returned a Triple Champion

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 09:09:21 +0100

Hi

We have just returned from our super-duper Agility "weekend" in Bloemfontein. I say "weekend", because in actual fact it is 4 days of non-stop action. Mum says it is the second most important weekend of the year and Chippy and I gave a first class performance. Bloem (short for Bloemfontein) is a leisurely 4 hour drive from home and we left already on Thursday. When mum started to pack we just knew we could go as well - it was so exciting and I told everyone at the top of my voice how I was looking forward to the trip (and a little to make sure that mum doesn't forget me).

Just look at the picture - we won all that dog food! And it is not a trick picture - it is genuine and the rosettes that go with it on the wall behind us.

First things first. The trip was uneventful, with a nice little walk half way. But when we arrived at our guesthouse I was really busy ... there were another 8 dogs there who had all arrived for the competition and the owners had another 2 dogs of their own - all in all we were 14 dogs (Quincy and Cassie came with us as well), all happily mingling - of course with my superb supervision. Mum kept calling me, she has no idea how important my supervision is ....
The next day we started early. It was all so very exciting. I blew everyone away with a superb winning performance in the Agility round (beat Ricki's time by more than a second!). Chippy tried to keep up but only managed to stay second behind me. Mum was so excited, she said I had won another one of those important pieces of paper ... Me? - wellI I was excited because I won a huge bag of dog food ... and then there was one of those pretty rosettes as well. On to the Non-Contact round, which I thought someone else could win (Ok, so I was beaten, but only just ..). In Dog Jumping I made up for the slip in the Non-Contact and won again (another piece of paper) and Chippy won the first ever piece of paper in the new "Medium" Class, and his first ever paper (which, as you know by now, made mum very happy). In the afternoon I made sure that everyone understood that I am now a force to be reconed with and won the Agility class again, which .......DRUMROLLLLLL ..... makes me an Agility Champion - my third Champion title.

Mum was so happy, she bought herself a whole bottle of Champagne (which she had reason to finish during the course of the weekend).

The next morning we had an "Interprovincial Dog Jumping" competition. Mum says that is another big deal thing. The best dogs in each Province get selected into Teams to represent their province. I was in the Small Team and Chippy was in the Medium Team for Gauteng. Our other Team mates were Gracie, Ricki and Razu in the Small Team and Tyla, Rusty and Bonny, an "illegal from Bloemfontein", who joined our Team, cause we were 1 short.
And .... another DRUMROLLLLLLLL ...... both our Teams won this competition! Mum was so happy and had a reason to have some more Champagne ...
The Large dogs from Gauteng came fourth ... it's only because there wasn't one of us in that team - we could have helped them for sure ...

In the afternoon we had the Nationals. I was supposed to defend my title from last year, but mum made a really silly mistake in the Jump-Off - just too much of a hurry ... :-( and I lost out on that one. But Chippy kept up the good work and won the National Midi Dog Jumping Title 2010 - the first ever in this category. (and yet some more reason to celebrate for mum ...).

Sunday wasn't such a great day, I think mum was getting really tired. Still, Chippy won his first Agility QC (those papers we are collecting). But other than that we were just in the placings ... 3rd and second ... well, need to let the otehrs have some fun too.

Monday Chippy showed that he can do it in any discipline when he puts his mind to it and won the Non-Contact class, but mum and I were not on the same page.
Anyway, 1 National Title (Dog Jumping), 2 Interprovincial wins (Dog Jumping) and 7 QCs(3 DJ, 3 Agility, 1 Non-Contact) and a resulting new Champion Title - not bad for a weekend's work.

Mum collected all the prizes on Monday afternoon and then we just "chilled" in our room. Of course mum did give us lots of treats during the weekend and special bones on Monday afternoon - what a fun weekend.

We are now back home, and I am really sorry that all the fun is finished again. Back to normal life and mum is tired, cold and moping around .,... oh, talking about cold - Look at this picture, mum took it this morning before we left Bloem - look carefully, thise things hanging from the fountain are icecicles! ... In Africa, I ask you!

Trying to be an artist

Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:41:31 +0100

No, no, this is not me. Mum is trying her hand as an artist! This is supposed to be the silhouette of a Smaoyed. Now why she didn't start with a decent dog, like a Pyrenean I don't know, but anyway.

If you have any comments or sugegstions for improvements feel free to write to me, I will pass the message on - promise. You can also follow the "arty" discussion on clicktrain@tardigrade.net, Shirley Chongs (usually strictly training) list.

Speak to you soon

SA Champs and AWC Finals

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:21:45 +0100

It has been a long time. A lot of exciting things have happened recently.
Last weekend we had the South African Agility Championships. It was really cool - finally lots of action. Mum says we didn't do our best, and we have some training ahead of us - Yeah! Training ... you think she will eventually figure out that I only make those mistakes so we train more? Benji became SA Champion again ... the 4th year in a row - quite something. And it was tight, 'cause all the fast dogs from the Cape were here to compete against us. Mum says we had moments of brilliance and were second in one of the rounds, but the rest we didn't do so well.
Anyway, the SA Champs were not our brightest hour. Chippy and I still managed to get into the Team for the World Championships. Mum says we are only allowed to run the Team event, not the Individual rounds though ...

On Sunday we had the FCI Agility Show here and I showed mum that I really am in top shape. I won the CACIAG (another one of those pieces of paper, but mum says this one comes all the way from Belgium especially for me - imagine that!). And overall we were Reserve Dog (that combines the Jumping and Agility), as well as Reserve Best Jumping (Non-Contact) Dog. Chi beat us in both categories, but mum says that is OK, after all Chi is a double World Champion!

I have been doing really well lately in my Agility and we have almost collected enough papers to become a Champion - still need one more mum says, but there are quite a few shows in June, so you can all hold thumbs. Chippy is lagging behind us a little. I think he and mum are cuddling too much, he doesn't drive enough - he better shape up, I can't take such a slow coach team mate with me to the Worlds.

well, this was my news for today, hope mum lets me back onto the computer soon, as I have some freestyle news as well.

Love you all

Top Dog 2010

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:07:04 +0100

So, who's

2010

Need you really ask ?
Me of course - Me - Me - Me

We won this Competition last Saturday.
I won both the Dog Jumping AND the Agility. Mum says we were lucky in the Agility, 'cause I didn't touch the Dog Walk - you know, you can't do everything when you are in a hurry. Anyway, Marco was close on our heels, but he got a few time faults (see, rather jump off the Dog Walk and make the time, 'tis what I always say, it's just mum doesn't agree with me, even though I proved to be right - AGAIN ...).
The Dog Jumping was so much fun. We had a good entry in the small dogs and had 4 or even 5 dogs in the Jump Off, which was really exciting. I was the fastest and won, even though mum made a REAL bad move at the tunnel - showed me to come left, then right, then left - good thing I had decided beforehand where to go, else we would still be stuck there.
Benji wasn't his usual self in the Agility, but he went on to win Top Dog Obedience. Mum says that is almost better than being Top Dog Agility .... I don't think I can agree with it, but I am sure it is a good achievement as well ....
Chace, who was with us at the World Champs last year and who is the reigning SA Agility Champion in the large dogs also made it 2 titles - Dog Jumping and Agility. Mum really likes Chace, she says he is a fun dog and he can shake all 4 paws.
The Quailifiers for the SA Champs and for the World Champs has also started last weekend and mum says we didn't do well, but then there were very few dogs who did do well. Mum didn't like the Contact course and she was quite cross with me on the Non-Contact. Said it would have been a perfect course for me, but I went into the wrong tunnel entrance ... clearly this was MY mistake? I think not! How about her showing me the right way? She of course said I wasn't listening nor watching her and she did show me the right way ...Anyway, dad said we can have a "throw away round" and that will just have to be this one, but mum wanted a "safety cusion" ... Humans! I tell you, hard to understand, really hard.
So we are having a big party on the weekend and no Agility competitions. It's my dad's birthday ... I wonder if I get a birthday party this year as well?

That's all for now
Lots of Love

The year has finally started in the show world

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 18:28:18 +0100

Hi
As the titel tells you our dog show year has finally started. Good thing it is as well, else my mum will loose the last bit of condition she has left and will just collapse in a little heap.
Anyway, Sunday we had an Open show. It means that it isn't really a very important show and people can enter on the day and everything is quite laid back. I ran Agility, Non contact Ag and Dog Jumping. I am pleased to say I am still queen of Dog Jumping - although I have ommitted to tell you something ... I admit, it was ever so embarassing, but last year's National Dog Jumping League we did NOT win! Can you believe it? I won 3 out of the 5 rounds, I came second in 1 round and had a slowish clear in the fifth round and Benji still beat me overall! I am sooooo embarassed. My friend Richard says it has to do with throw away round and the length of courses and stuff (mum and I produced one "cricket score" round - or should that be a score the South African cricket team would love to get!) - I think Richard is on my side ... mum is much harder, she says Benji was just better. She says it's life and if I want to win next year (that would be this year), I just have to run faster (he beat us by 0,03 seconds - I ask you, you can't even blink that fast!). In any case, I don't think it has much to do with me, it's mum, she is just so slow - have I been saying that the whole time or have I been saying that the whole time? It's a fact. I don't know what I am going to do about it.

Anyway, back to Sunday.
Something wasn't quite right in the first round (Agility). I got all my contacts and we went clear, but I was just wondering if something wasn't quite right. So our time was off and Benji beat us by about 1/2 second. Mum then decided I could read numbers in the Non-contact and thought I could do the course by myself, so we got a DQ - I say no more. But she and Chippy had a cool round. My brother finally decided that he could actually run and beat Benji by about 1/2 second and was 3rd after 2 Border Collies. I think he could have been even faster, but by that time mum was REALLY panting (have you noticed humans never stick their tongues out when they pant?). Cassie was also allowed to do 2 rounds. Her leg hasn't been so good over the past year, so mum is slowly building her up again. On Sunday they were just running in the Medium with us and Cassie was good afterwards. So Cassie is very hopefull that she perhaps can go back into proper competition.

Then our little cousin Bijou from the USA who is Benji's little step sister went to her first breed show. Mum decided they needed some moral support and entered Chippy "for practise". You know Chippy's real name is "A Chippendale" and that is how he behaves. He thinks everyone must admire him, but nobody must touch him. Anyway, mum hasn't shown him since he was a puppy (he had several operations and always had some part of his body shaved off). On sunday they asked the nice judge if they could just do the whole thing but the judge mustn't touch Chippy (obviously he wasn't placed or anything). You should have seen my brother! He is SUCH a show off! He was so pleased with himself and said he loved that showing stuff. I then told him that they normally touch you all over and he was horrified. He didn't think that was a good idea, but just the running around in the ring was great. Mum taught him to run ahead of her - apparently that is what they do in the USA. She never taught ME that and I am a Champion already .... makes you think doesn't it?

All in all we had a really good start to the new year.

Now for some other news. I am most displeased of course, but mum says I must just be tolerant for a bit.
You see, my mum goes all over the world to teach people about freestyle. She says there are so many people who would like to start dancing with their dogs, but don't know how to do it.
Since she has actually been doing some freestyle work (well, yes, I have to admit, we have actually done some stuff and she has been playing around with music), and she needs to put a new routine together, well several new routines actually, she will write it all down in this blog. Now you would think, since this is MY blog, it would be MY routine. Now mum says, she thinks it will be Chippy's new routine! On MY blog - Chippy's routine ... well, I don't know .... Anyway, mum says it has been decided and that is that. She says perhaps it gives me a chance to have my say more often too. we will see about that.

So, in the next few days, watch out, mum will explain to you how to put a whole routine together for you and your dog (well, really it is for her and Chippy, but she says you can then adapt that for yourself).

And I, well I will watch from my little corner in the meantime, being bored to death ... I probably will eat that bar of chocolate that I won on Sunday (No, no, just kidding, I know dogs can't eat chocolate. Although I wonder if that is in fact true. I think some human who wanted to keep all the chocolate to himself just made that up!).

So, till next time lots of kisses from me and keep training those humans

NOTE from webmaster, aka Gaby, Chocolate is poisonous to dogs. Some react stronger than others, but do not feed chocolate to your dog.

Happy New Year

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:53:57 +0100

Hi fans ...
Hope you all had a smashing ending to 2009 and are full of energy to start the new year.
Here things are looking up. Mum, despite nursing a cold actually spent some time with us over the past few days doing "stuff".
Chippy and I are leaning to "back around" mum. I have basically got it - of course if mum were clearer I would have had it a long time ago, but with the handicap I have I am doing the best I can. Chippy is a bit slow. I think his problem is that he really likes to back away and doesn't see the point of now having to "zoom around" mum, rather than back away ... it will come - shame he gets confused so easily.
In the meantime mum says she thinks she has found Chippy's new music - boy am I glad she doesn't expect ME to dance to that and make a fool of myself - Chippy of course is fine with it - he is such a good sport.
Cassie has been working quite hard for her new HTM routine. She is only in Novice (time enough for me to still catch her), but mum says it doesn't matter what class she is in, she must still do the best she can. I fully agree - things must be done well and polished and accurate.
So, in the meantime it's poor old me with the same old routine and no new music in sight. The bright spot is that mum got one of those USB record palyers that allow her to put all her records onto the computer so she gets a chance to listen to lots and lots of music ... surely there must be something suitable there for a little grey dog?
In the meantime mum started tracking again with us ... well, OK, so we are only on day 2, but she said we will continue with it. She says I must be thankful to Phyllis on the clicktrain list who started her off again. Mum sais Phyllis is really knowledgable and she is putting a "starter program" on the list. Mum says clicktrain is the best list anyway, and Shirley, who owns the list is the most knowledgable person mum knows. You should check it out - me, I'd rather be training than reading e-mails, but then I am a little biased in that area. OTOH, if it pushed mum into some type of action, it must be pretty good.
So, what are our plans for 2010 - first and formost to survive the madness that is called the Soccer World Cup, apparently it is even bigger and noisier than the Agility World Champs - phew! that is hard to imagine, but they say it is true. Mum wants us to do well in Agility again (I would suggestwe need to do some harder training) and then she wants us to compete some more in freestyle this year, starting with the video competition in March .. I'll keep you posted how that is turning out, since we were already supposed to have competed in December and nothing, but nothing happened. mum has all sorts of excuses for that, but I think the end result is what counts - did we or did we not? and clearly we did not. But she promised us we will compete in March. She says Quincy needs to get her routines done for PDP, 'cause she is not getting any younger and those routines are really tough. You should see the 2 - I hope I will be as good as Quincy one day.

So in th meantime enjoy the year ahead and don't forget to have fun with your humans - despite their shortcomings, they are all we have
Kisses to all of you

Best Of The Best

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 21:03:12 +0100

Hi

Well, I am not going to say it - but time is just flying and my World Champs entries have still not been completed ...
In the meantime all my hard training has paid off and mum is really on a roll. We are the BEST OF THE BEST 2009 Medium dog and runner up overall behind a mean, fast Border Collie. Chippy is Reserve behind me and Benji is third. Here is my lovely winning picture with the 2 blond boys left and right of me (they both look pretty miserable don't you think? ;-)

That's all for today - love you all

Agility World Champs - part 3

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 14:06:43 +0100

On Monday morning the humans had breakfast - nobody asked me if I wanted any ... but at least we were allowed to come with mum to the breakfast room. Yep, the Austrians are very polite to their dogs. We were allowed to go almost everywhere with mum, even if some places required some very odd arrangements (more about that later). After breakfast we all went shopping. Everything was just around the corner, so we all walked and had a good time checking out the neighborhood. Although us dogs weren't allowed into the supermarket or the other food shops, the shopping was very worth while. Mum bought us some really nice veal bones. She said those we would never ever get back home, so best to enjoy them. They were really nice and crunchy but soft and had lots of meat on them still. Different to what mum gives us back home, but very nice and definitely better than the cubes. Some more walking and mum showed everyone the local pet store, which was a hit whichever way you looked at it. We got yummy treats and stuff and the other humans bought all sorts of leads and toys and things. Mum tells me the others went back almost every day to buy even more things!
In the afternoon we went off to the dog club in Hohenemms who had invited us to come and train with them. I suppose they really just wanted to see me, but realized they had to invite the whole team in order to do so. It was a really good afternoon. When we arrived our large dogs were already training and by the time we got ready they were finished, so we had all eyes on us. Our large dogs traveled separately and also lived in a different hotel which was a shame. However our hotel didn't have enough space for everyone. I must tell you, the equipment they use over there for Agility is quite phenomenal. It has a rubber surface and is great to run on - no danger of slipping. Chippy and I both agreed that we felt really good on it, even the first time we went over it - no problem at all. And the floppy tunnel was great - not this heavy stuff we get here, but a very light weight tube - I do hope we get one like that in SA. The club had set up a course from one of the World Champ judges. It was very interesting, but both Chips and I coped beautifully (as expected of course). After our rounds mum took us into a little forest nearby and we continued our Agility training there

Later in the afternoon the Canadian Team arrived to train as well. I checked out the competition very carefully. There wasn't a single dog as pretty as me there, so that was OK. In fact they didn't have a single Pyrenean on their team. Our human team members were very excited, because Susan Garret was on the team and they got to talk to her. She is a very good handler (so they tell me), but I kept at a safe distance, 'cause she likes to put her dogs into crates. I think I had had enough of crates at that point and rather stayed with my mum.

I have to tell you that one of the Austrian Team members was there as well to train a little, but most of the time he took pictures - as I said, I am not terribly fond of paparazzi, but Walter is REALLY good. He took some amazing pics and the best thing was that you didn't have to sit still or anything, he took ACTION shots - my type of guy. Mum promised as soon as we get them she will put them up on the web site.

Later that evening we had dinner there. Mum was very kind and shared her Wienerschnitzel with us. It was very good - freshly made there and then.I hope we get invited like that frequently, I quite like Austrian food. A lady was playing the Zitter. Mum says it is a very unusual instrument and very hard to play. All in all we had a great day - our humans were happy and so were we.

Hold your breath for the next installment of our journey ....
Love you all

Agility World Champs - part 2

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:14:44 +0100

Of course we are in fact already BACK home again, but in order to give you a good idea of how our trip went, I will just pretend that we are still traveling.
We arrived safely, but very early in the morning in Frankfurt. They were really careful when they off loaded us and we were taken to the "Fragile cargo" section - hmmm - not quite the first class counter, I must say, but at least mum and all the other humans were already there to greet us. Onto the trolley and off to customs. None of the dogs were allowed out of their crates yet, which caused at least one or 2 of them to protest loudly. Not me and Chippy - we are soooo well behaved.
Mum took us to customs, so they could check our papers. She said afterwards that she thinks we could have just gone through the doors and nobody would have stopped us. But my mum takes paperwork very seriously. At customs we had to wait for the Vet to arrive, who checked our papers and our microchip. I don't want to complain, but I am not sure if she was a real Vet - it took her for ever to find the chips, even though mum told her where mine was. Eventually, finally, we could get out of the crates and onto some miniature flowerbed. I must say, the urge to do anything left me quickly when I saw the bed.
On we went, the humans pushing the trolleys with luggage and crates and us walking next to them. I think the newspaper must have announced that I am arriving, 'cause all the people stopped and looked at me - the others too, but I am sure they wanted to specifically look at me. Eventually the humans got their directions right and we found the hire cars. It was well organized and in true South African VIP style, we traveled in German black cars. The cars were fine, but the packing was lousy. We only had 5 humans, 6 dogs, crates for 6 dogs and the luggage to load and the humans struggled to fit that all into 2 station wagons. Mum said the problem was that these weren't real station wagons, but what she calls "hatch backs". In any case, after much loading, unloading and re-loading we eventually drove off. Lloyd very kindly found us a very nice place to stop and mum took us into the forest for a walk. That was very strange - all new smells. Chippy of course couldn't have cared less, all he did was to find a big stick and asked mum to play. At least he was tired by the time we got back to the car.
A few hours later we stopped so the humans could have some lunch .... nobody offered me any lunch ... and we went for another walk and Chippy had another game. Back into the car and another few hours drive and we finally arrived in Dornbirn at our hotel. Some more pictures ... oh I forgot to tell you, the amount of ictures that were taken during this trip could fill a whole website. Mum says we can only upload a few. I am not very fond of pictures, if I could I would be wearing large sunglasses to hide from the paparazzi, but mum says I can't do that. So, after the pictures we went to the room and FINALLY got some food (they did give us water earlier of course and mum also made sure we got some treats). The food was boring pellets and Chippy told mum that he is not that hungry that he is eating those. I ate most of his, if he is so fussy. They weren't bad, really, they weren't.

Later on we went for a great walk. It was along the river and it was very, very nice. We even found some areas were we could go into the river and onto the big rocks. There are pictures of that as well of course. The river was just outside the hotel, so we walked there every day. Sometimes on the left bank, sometimes on the right bank - it was very nice. That first day we went to visit mum's aunt and uncle who live nearby. Everyone always wants to touch Chippy, I suppose that is because I am always well groomed and they don't want to mess my hair up, but Chippy looks disheveled anyway, so it doesn't mater if they put their hands on him. Of course he doesn't like it and mum constantly has to remind other humans to please not touch him - humans don't listen very well I have noticed ...

We all went to bed fairly early that first day. It was so cool having mum all to ourselves. She even shared the bed with me. She had brought a special cover for the bed. I think that was so it would be cosier for me ... someone mentioned it was so the bed linen would not get dirty. I have no idea who would make the linen dirty, so I don't think it was because of that - must have been to make the bed softer for me.

Day 2 to follow