New computer and agility debut

Last week my faithful laptop bit the dust when it met the hard wooden floor one time too many. Totally smashed. Thanks GOD I had backed up my pictures and things in December so if my hard drive can't be recovered I'll still have most of them. So anyway, I've been compter-less for nearly a week but now have a brand spanking new computer yay. I've been so used to my old faithful and all its applications and photo and video editing software that its going to take me a while to figure this new beast out. We'll get there eventually.

I'm also house/pet sitting for a friend and with work thrown in I've just had no opportunity to blog or visit others blogs. Will try to get round them tonight at work (if its quiet, crossing my fingers!)

So I'm looking after Bruno, a golden lab

and Misty, a weimaraner

(plus a Guinea pig, a cat and a frog)

Walking three dogs is not the easiest thing I've even done but we had a lovely time out at woodhill forest yesterday.

Misty didn't really get on with Pepper initially (Misty was very snappy and growly to her) but they've since become the best of friends and play relentlessly for hours, totally wearing each other out.

Anyway, our first agility competition was the weekend just gone. No pictures/video (sorry!) but I still don't really know all that many people in the agility scene and felt a bit too embarrassed to ask a stranger to video, especially if we were terrible!

This was a "champs" show (so you and the dog need to be Kennel Club registered and the wins and placings depending on the amount of dogs entered, get you points to progress up the levels) as opposed to "ribbon trial" where you don't need to be registered and its a bit more low key.

The lowest level in NZ is elementary but they don't offer that at a champs show so we were in starters. which doesn't have contact equipment.

The first run was fairly straight forward except for a bit of a tricky twisty jump combination at 11, 12, 13. We had a miscommunication at jump two - after the lead out she jumped number one and then hurtled past the second jump and then back to me, so counted as a refusal (5 faults) but the rest of the round was great, nailed her weaves, no problem with the tricky jump combination, and did the collapsible tunnel (chute) which I'd been worried about as she's only gone through it 3 times ever! Luckily the wind was blowing it open a bit so it made it easier. A good start I thought.

The second round was probably easier than the first - again she did the naughty looking at and coming over to me after jump one instead of going on to jump number two but the rest of the round was good, with good weaves, although I would have liked them to be faster.

The next day was torrential rain (A section of the motorway was flooded and several houses in Auckland were evacuated) so I decided not to go, better to give her good experiences in this early stage rather than have her slip and scare herself.

We have another competition (this time a ribbon trial) this weekend, agility on Saturday and a jumpers show on Sunday, I hope the weathers better but sounds like rain is forecast for Saturday, fingers crossed it doesn't eventuate.