HaPpY EaStEr EvErYoNe :)

[Jovial Monk]

Today! Success in obedience! Not a huge score, 174/200 but a pass nonetheless. One more successful trial and we will have the Novice title aka Companion dog. Nearly got a leg towards jumping dog, just one jump she didn't do. nevermind we finished the course anyway, Demi looking like a whippet in terms of speed--she can run fast on those stumpy legs!

Couple of nervous moments, thought she was about to run out the ring so told her to come to me. In the stays she did the sit OK altho before going into the ring for the stays she was flopping into the drop position. Obviously, she did the sit just fine. In the 3 minute dropstay the dog next to her got up, stood for a little while then walked to its handler. Heart in mouth in case Demi would follow I kept sneaking glances at the judge, willing the 3 minutes to be over. Then they were "Return to your dogs. . .exercise finished" and we had passed the trial!

One more! Maybe Munno Para in 2 weeks? Man, plenty of times I have thought we would never get here!

[Jovial Monk]

This stuff is fairly hard, you are in the ring say 5 minutes and in the first few seconds you are in the ring the judge tells you to take the lead off the dog and give it to the steward—5 minutes that the only thing keeping the dog at your side and obeying commands is training and the bond you have built up—with a terrier that might be forgotten in a flash if it sees an interesting dead leaf on the ground

The recall is now 20 metres: dog is sitting, you tell it "wait" with voice and handsignal and walk forward a bit over 20 metres then on command of the judge turn around (remembering to turn to the left so you end up facing the dog who was on your left) and walk forward until told to "halt" when you stand there like a stale bottle of piss until judge tells you "call your dog" which you do loudly with exhuberant hand gesture—dog has had plenty of time to get distracted and over 20m can get up to a fair old clip (the return has to be very 'crisp' or as we say a fast run by the dog) and can easily, but for that training, run past you, bombing the exercise and the trial.

The last exercise (until the stays anyway) is retrieve over the flat (a dumbbell made for dog training) or, which I did, change of position from a distance where I tell the dog to stand, and on command from the judge tell dog to stay and walk straight ahead and you are then told to about turn and a second or two later to halt. Judge had me so close to the dog when I about turned that I stopped, costing us points but really, it was 1m instead of a more usual 2 or 3.

Now of course there are other dogs going through their paces in other rings around you (behind me was the jumping ring and dogs seem to get excited when running and jumping and that sort of stuff) and Demi stood there looking back towards that jumping ring. Luckily she lost interest in that and faced forward just as judge said "down your dog" and Demi obligingly dropped straight down—moving forward more than half a body length would bomb the exercise and the trial—must get at least half marks in each exercise and a mimimum of 170 marks total.

Hopefully we will get the Novice title next month then we can train for the Open title: some of the cute things there are a 3 minute sit stay with the handlers out of sight! Judge stays in ring, if dog flops down and gets up again it is still a fail and in the recall we have to down (drop) the dog as it runs towards us.

Next week tracking—this is where Demi shines!

[lisa jones]

Well I must say .. all that sounds very good Mr Monk.

We've just finished day 4 of family and clan Easter celebrations here.

Our relatives from Melbourne and the Gold Coast are off to the airport tomorrow.

It's been lovely .. a bit tiring though.

[Jovial Monk]

Pretty full on Greek Easter kinda thing?

[lisa jones]

Greek and Italian actually (ie heaps of people and food over 4 days).

It's just the way Easter is each year with my family/clan.

Actually .. heaps of Europeans tend to celebrate Easter like this. It's also a great opportunity to catch up with everyone.

[Jovial Monk]

Well, wasn’t a huge gathering but did spend time with family we don’t often see and food there was!

[lisa jones]

For me .. Easter (and Christmas for that matter) is about investing some quality time with people we love/who love us.

In my case, the numbers of such people keep growing every year.

( It must be because of all those kisses and cuddles I love giving them Mr Monk .. smirk )

[Jovial Monk]

Especially Christmass. . .I am not religious at all but Christmass is a time for families to gather, even those drifting away, to heal quarrels etc and enjoy what it is all about, family, love and food!

[lisa jones]

Especially Christmass. . .I am not religious at all but Christmass is a time for families to gather, even those drifting away, to heal quarrels etc and enjoy what it is all about, family, love and food!

It's kinda like that for me too Mr Monk.

It's what makes these occasions so precious. I never take any of this for granted these days.

[Jovial Monk]

Nope! Have an ex-bil. He had the decency to turn up to my father’s funeral, was there for his ex wife, mil, daughters etc. Now he has aggressive cancer, not likely to see Christmass 2012, so it was very nice that he turned up to the big Christmass bash last year.

You never know what might happen in between two Christmasses, treat each one as if it were your last!

I never drink at the Christmass dinner tho would love a beer if it was hot and a glass of wine but I never drink when I have to drive.

I feel sorry for people who don’t drink, they miss out on a real pleasure, a food and conviviality enhancer.