No dogs yet,,,,

I decided to practice driving and filming at the same time. Mittens is curious about the car but hasn't overcome her fear yet. Barbie and Bender both had a go at barking at it but there is no room to really chase it in the house. We will give it a go at the park tomorrow.

In the mean time, here's my new four wheel drive jumping over some bicycles (and you guys can enjoy my Aussie accent, this evening I feel like more of a draaaaawler than usual):

My favorite part about this new toy is the head & tail lights. I had fun driving it randomly up the footpath this evening. I also love the battery pack. The hard plastic wheels don't get much traction on the tiles, so it's kind of hard to control.

Lure Coursing - with a remote control car

I really want to buy a remote control car. I've wanted one since I was a kid, and my brother got to have one but I didn't. My bro's remote control car was cheap and crappy and ate batteries like they were ice cream cake, so I never really got a go driving it.

Anyway, I've seen a lot of footage on youtube of dogs chasing RC cars. I thought that it would be a fun game for Barbie, chasing some kind of off road RC vehicle dressed as a rabbit or towing something that flutters around in the wind.... my little Border Collie x Heeler used to chase one of those micro RC cars in the house. She would flip it over so it couldn't escape. She seemed to enjoy it, even when she wouldn't chase a ball.

The problem is that N doesn't think Barbie will be into it at all. For a car that will realistically have enough top end speed to evade the dog for more than 30 seconds, a significant investment is required. It also has to be electric, as those little nitro engines are too noisy and Barbie will be scared of them!

Then I got to thinking - how much of it is top end speed and how much is the skill of the driver? As long as the car can turn harder than the dog it has a fighting chance, does it not? ;)

Anyway I have decided that I am going to buy a cheapie from Dick Smiths. It just has to be all terrain and have a rechargable battery pack. It also has to look tough enough to take some greyhound pouncing. We have a nice, big flat grass park nearby that isn't very well patronised (and has fences, just in case...) which should be fun for the car and the dog. If she does get into chasing it them maybe I'd upgrade to something faster. If she isn't in to it, I'll give the car to a friend with kids after I've finished thrashing it.

Wheee.