whooooo

I didn't get any photos or videos of the beach date because the beach was busy, and so I was busy trying to keep track of Barbie. Barbie didn't really play with Joc, but she did chase Desma's other dog, Swan.

Swan squeaks as she runs and Barbie found this irresistible. Swan is a bit indifferent to other dogs, and she mainly did her own thing while Joc and Barbie took turns chasing her around. Swan also loves to dig at the beach, so I used her as an earth moving machine and got her to dig a moat for a sand castle.

I took the dogs down to my folks place for Christmas. They were both very well behaved. My parents have two dogs, Harry and Nudge, and they all get along pretty well. Barbie even tolerated the other dogs standing on her while she was trying to relax on the floor! I wanted to take them down to the river, but I went kayaking with dad instead, and my mum didn't want to be responsible for them down there. I saw a few crabs in the shallows and wondered if Barbie would see them, and whether she would attempt to catch them. She would probably get pinched!

Anyway, Christmas has been incredibly hot so the dogs haven't been able to do very much. They have been down to the local river a couple of times. Today is a bit cooler and Barbie seems much more comfortable. She's actually sitting on the couch for the first time in 3 days. I think they enjoyed the air conditioning at my parents place.

Can I borrow your Greyhound?

Desma, the animal trainer who ran the CGC course that Barbie went on (and the exam was consequently delayed for), has a whippet x stumpy tail cattle dog called Joc. Joc has the best mix of the two for athleticism. At the age of two he is sailing over agility jumps like he has wings.

Anyway he has never met a dog faster than him. During our last few classes I suggested that Barbie and Joc might like to have a good run off leash. Barbie was definitely interested in him but there's not that much room to run at Billy's and there is not much traction on the concrete floors.

So we have set up a doggie date at City Beach on Sunday morning. It will be interesting to see how Joc reacts to being out paced. I'm sure Barbie will rub it in like she usually does. She will run past him, get him to chase, and then burn him off when he looks like catching up! He is quite a bit smaller than her but he has the cattle dog toughness so I'm sure he won't mind a bit of shouldering.

If they enjoy running together we can make it a semi regular thing.

This is Joc doing a jumping trial.

The Beach is Everyone's Favourite Place...

The traffic is two-way, and they have people to use as traffic cones....

They have each other to play with

to frolic in the sand...

other dogs can eat their dust!

or they can just stand by and watch the awesome speed!

Barbie makes new friends...

It's time for take off!

Bender's first words

I found my old hard drive and got old videos off. This includes quite a few puppy videos of Bender. I thought you guys would like this one, it was an early indication of the kind of attitude he has!

Blast from the Past - Bender's soccer skills

Here's a one year old Bender showing off his neat soccer skills. I was renting this house with a massive backyard. I think Barbie would have loved it there!

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.

Sirens! Oh the terror!

I had a work Christmas function at a house near the beach on Friday, so I got N to bring the dogs, pick me up, and let them loose on the beach. While N was parked out the front a few of my work mates came to see the dogs. Barbie got a lot of pats from one in particular, and when she left, Barbie tried to squirm out the car window to follow her.

Once we got to the beach, Barbie found a Dalmatian who was very happy to run with her, wrestle with her and generally play. Barbie ran big wide loops but the Dalmatian didn't seem to notice that she was faster. The dogs ran for a bit over an hour before we took them home. They certainly enjoyed themselves.

The CGC on Saturday was postponed because the independent assessor pulled out at very close to the last minute and a new assessor could not be found. The test is now in February!

As there was no CGC test, and it was Barbie's gotcha day, we decided to take the dogs to the river for a doggie date with the two mini schnauzers (Sonny & Taco).

Barbie showed a polite interest in them but when she realised they would not chase, she lost interest pretty quickly. She did run a little with a fox terrier type dog. She also bothered a little white dog which wasn't allowed off the lead. I had to shoo her away. After we had been there for a while (and Taco swam properly for the first time), I noticed some smoke rising from a point on the other side of the river. I didn't think too much of it until it started wafting over us. Then the fire engines came, and fire engines mean sirens.

Barbie put her ears back, her tail down, and started at a trot, which built up to a higher speed run. I didn't know where she was going to go, so I followed her. I called her name and she ignored me, so I gave up and kept my eye on her. She ran a wide lap around the area and ran along the car park where we had left the car. Our car was the only one there, but for some reason she didn't recognise it and went straight past it. She then ran to the next car park, where there were many cars, and picked out a shiny black car which looks nothing like either of the cars we own. She commenced jumping up at the driver's side door (I hope not scratching it in the process!) I was close enough to her that I grabbed her pretty quickly. I didn't see any damage done to the car. I now had her by the collar, and needed to go back down to the river side to get Nic, as she had the car keys. The sirens were stopped by then I think, but the smoke was getting thicker. She refused to go closer to the smoke. I got her to trot, and we got within yelling distance. I called Nic over and told her we had to go because Barbie just wanted out. We had been there too long anyway, Bender was overtired and had ingested too much river water while swimming for his ball.

We all got into the car and went to City Farmers to grab more dog and cat food. We met the mini schnauzers there again, but I couldn't spend much time inside as Bender was not feeling well and was likely to puke or poo at any moment. Barbie was fine. As long as we were not near the sirens and smoke, she was quite happy.

Funnily enough, we have been near other types of sirens and if it's an amulance or a cop car she doesn't react. I think fire engine and smoke together are the trigger for her scared reaction. It's going to be a difficult one to work with!

Mittens and the Laundry Basket

Mittens likes to sleep in the laundry basket. I'm not really sure why. I think it's just one of those strange quirks she has. She is a strange cat. Another one of her quirks is that she likes to watch you taking a shower, and when you are finished she meows and purrs and twirls around your legs. It's the only time she ever asks for attention - it's like she has decided you are clean enough to touch her because you just had a shower. Usually if you try to pat her she will pull her evil face, move away from you, and start washing herself vigorously.

Anyway, I digress.

I was at work typing away on my computer, and my mobile vibrated on the desk next to me. I opened up the message, and it was a photo. This photo:

The story was, N hadn't seen Mittens for a couple of hours, and was curious about where she had got to. N went into the spare room, and saw Mittens trapped under the washing basket on the spare bed. We haven't figured out how Mittens became trapped but she wasn't trying to free herself. She wasn't even meowing.

Funny how she doesn't mind being trapped somewhere, but if I try to give her a worm pill or try to put a flea preventing spot on her neck she howls and growls and huffs and puffs and squirms to try and get away.