Sayonara 2013

And may I say from a vet bills cost p.o.v. a very good riddance. My main hope for next year is that dog health in the household improves.

 

So brings the close of our first year of Australian agility. I am for the most part pleased with our results. Sen would no doubt show improvement if we had a chance to go more often to compete, or at least to dog-rich training environments.

Results:
Bigi
15 clear runs from 26 starts (65% Q rate)
Winner, WA State Championship Novice Jumping (300)
ANKC Agility Dog title
ANKC Jumping Dog title
ADAA Australian Agility Dog title
+3 passes towards the next ADAA title and 1 ADAA teams pass

The bad news here is that this was more than likely (we can probably say certainly) his last competition year. Next year we will start to compete in Rally Obedience so that he has something to work towards.

Sen
11 clear runs from 57 starts (19% Q rate)
From these stats we can make two observations:
A. That is a lot of runs, too many, &
B. These are crap stats.

ANKC Jumping Dog title (in straight runs - fabulous!)
2013 Western Classic Novice Jumping Champion (300)
ADAA Australian Agility Dog title
+1 ADAA teams pass
+2 ANKC AD passes

I am pretty happy with her work, she just needs to settle down and think a little more. I am still adjusting to handling Sen, who is a different style (one could say opposite extreme) to Bigi. Fingers crossed she keeps her health so that I may have at least a few years of fun.

The New Year's Eve pies are sliced this way:

Sen's results:                                                                            Bigi's results:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL!

Bigi AD

Which is of course nice. The disappointing thing is that this was probably his last run. His back has an unknown dysfunction and his elbow arthritis is getting worse.

An Unexpected Journey

I am starting to wonder - what the hell is going on here? I fork out lots of cash, I get no diagnosis.

Bigi for some time has had a bit of a back problem:
- a month of not being able to jump on lounges or beds;
- strange lumps that come and go;
- a sore base of the tail/rump, and tightness in this area;
- wobbly back legs;
- a weak tail;
- scary rapido weight loss

Finally I thought work was needed. So of we went to Murdoch University AGAIN. After x-rays, CT scans, blood work and even a spinal fluid tap they came up with ZERO cause for these problems. On one hand this is a good thing - there is no hideous major problem. However this still leaves me with a dog in discomfort and not clue about what to do about it??? The only thing we achieved was getting some broken teeth fixed (oh yes, he falls apart at both ends, and ends the year with 5 less teeth than he started with).

Meanwhile, Sen and I filled in the waiting times road testing some new walk locales:

1. Bold Park (fantastic!) - you can see the city from here, out there over past the leafy suburbs in which we stayed with good company

The big GRIN (because I aint the one at the vet)

City on one side, beach on the other

and a neat pine forest (the team likes a pine forest)

2. Bibra Lakes - where there is potential for getting lost we learn

The banksia are in bloom

as is Christmas Bush

Beach Babes

Finally, a holiday! Two days in the sun, followed by some agility fun that we will tell you about later. Since moving here I keep hearing what a fabulous place Esperance is - and guess what? It lives up to expectations and then some more.

For once we also managed to get fantastic dog-friendly accommodation - a small cabin just off the beach with a HUGE fenced yard. Next time I will take some jumps as it will make an excellent training venue :). We spent most of the time exploring beaches, which we had all to ourselves - a dream come true! The only downside was that Bigi continues to be not at his best.