Feeling the Chill.....and victory at SKOOL

Hiya!!

Now that the Olympics is over in Blogville (wasn't it the best!) - things are grinding back to normal now.

Winter is being brutal here.... well as brutal as it gets here in South Australia anyway. We had a couple of cold fronts breeze through over the last couple of days - complete with big rain - and I've resorted to a lot of this:

Today - wrapped up in blue blankie.....

Last night - with Baa Lamb and mum's snuggie.

Because of the rains...... my parks and walking areas are nice and green..... refreshing on the paws

Me snuffling in the undergrowth.....

Dad dad has been letting me do more "off-leash" walking....

It's looking a little grey..... (but there is a sea view on the horizon here)...... I like it when the weeds grow higher in little clumps amongst the grasses - it's quality snuffling indeed!

Here we are arriving at my local oval.....

Zoomin' towards mum with the camera...... I'm just a blur!

And zooming back to dad dad who is hidin' behind a tree here...... don't ya love this off leash stuff??!!

The ducks are happy with the green grass and their nice and full pond (this pond can dry up completely during the warmer months)

I love my walks in winter..... I don't get so hot and puffed.....

Mum couldn't resist showing you this picture - she loves it - she was crouching in the grasses to get this angle of the hill - see how little dad dad looks!!?

The greatest news........ I've passed Grade 3 at skool (and ..... ahem..... guess who was doggie of the month??? ....... **pause to blow on my paw nails and rub on chest furs**..... )

Our Grade three requires the following:

All heel work: sit, stand, drop and all turns on loose lead

Recall: Off lead

Finish: On lead

1 minute Sit Stay: Off lead

2 minute Drop Stay: Off lead (I get bored during this)

Stand without moving for Exam: Instructor can walk up and stroke my back without me moving my legs. This is tough but I did it!

Grade Four is pretty serious and is generally done if you wish to go onto "trialling". Mum is not keen to do that because then she says "skool gets too serious" and she wanted me to learn the basics and just have social funs. So I'm not sure if we will persist with this yet. I'll miss the interaction with my fur friends the most if I stop.

We'll have to take it week by week.

Be good and sit nicely for your treats...... bye for now!

Obedience Skool (part two)

Hi. Today was a HUGE day at Skool!! Prepare yourselves, a HUGE day means a HUGE post......He he

First we did all the normal stuff that we do at Obedience Skool........ and me and Bailey could have graduated into Grade 2 today..... but, uummm, are still in Grade 1...... coz we didn't pass all the things we had to do to get into Grade 2.   ( It's called pacing oneself!!  I think Bailey is too!) Why do you have a pained look on your face ma??!

Here is my mate Bailey and me...... after we flunked paced ourselves.

We mucked around a bit.....

Bailey getting excited and trying to roll on me.... he's pretty heavy you know!

He has his "distinguished" moments......

And sometimes we just press noses..... we go way back you know!

Then we were able to watch an "agility display" by advanced doggies..... they were good.... but they didn't do stuff perfect! Even the advanced make errors apparently. Whew!!! (that takes the pressure off!)

These doggies were showing us their superior "waiting" and "staying" abilities. They stayed in their dropped positions for hours at least 10 minutes until their handlers came back to them. I would've started chewin' the grass or hassling the doggie next to me WAY before then!!

Halfway through the agility course - you can still see the dropped doggies in the background.

Hey - here is my other mini schnauzer mate Jazper, we are waiting to get some sausage from the BBQ the humans were cooking after the demonstrations. Ha ha, Jazzy had a bath and a haircut this week!!

Meet Maggie, oh, and my bum bum, sorry. Maggie is doin really well at Skool and agility, and she only has been here 3 times!! Maggie is currently being looked after by a foster mum, and she is looking for a permanent home. I hope she finds one soon.

We were doin' lots of playing and bitey face while waiting for the BBQ. (what IS taking so long!!)

Then we had to take to the field and do our showing off agility moves. Here I am rocking these jumps...

And Maggie is fully in the air too!!!!

Jazper runnin' through the tunnel.....

and me runnin' through the tunnel - my dad would like to point out his great level of camera mastery in capturing these shots.... we are so fast through that we are only a blur....but he got us....even kinda in focus! Well done dad!!!!!!!!

Hey..... who is this with me....?????????

This is my mate Merlin. Merlin is a mini schnauzer like me.  (Great pose Merlin!) He's 10 and a half years old, and his sister, Asta, is 4. Asta and her mum compete in high level obedience (she's in level gazillion!). I don't think I'll ever be that good. Merlin is lovely.... even though he has a nubbin and no tail!! I'm not sure if he lost it in a horrible accident or what. It might be a sensitive issue, so I haven't "grilled" him about it yet.

Here is Jazzy and me supervising the humans packing away our agility equipment.

But we got NEWS for ya..... we ain't moving until we get a sausage from that BBQ!!!!

It was a great day - but long and tiring! I think I will have a chilled afternoon now.  PS: (guess who scored from the BBQ!!!!!!!)   High 5!

Bye for now!

Obedience Skool (Part One)

Hi everyone. Right after puppy skool at the vets, mum and dad took me to "Big Skool" - I know some of you wanted to know what we do here in Adelaide - and I am only just beginning to work it out myself. So here goes:

This is me and my mate Bailey. We go way back. We met at the vet's Puppy Skool. He was a lot smaller then, look how huge he is now!!

This is my other fav friend (fellow mini schnauzer) Jazper. She and I met here. Her mum adopted her when she was already 5 months old - but she was very smart - and picked up this Skool business real quick. Kinda showed me up!! (our mum's are working on Jazzie coming to some "Play-Days" at my place with my cousins - I'm sure we will all have fun!)

We do this on a local primary school oval - where our Doggie Club has "Clubrooms" and a shed down one end of the oval.

We start off in "puppies", then go to "beginners" then into "intermediate". I'm now in "intermediate" level.

We sometimes have to sit "at heel" by our owners.

This is good.

This is what they call "unfocussed" (I'm very good at that!)

This is me walking "at heel" position - I'm good at this.

This is Jazper and me doing our "stands" - we need to work on these - I'm too far forward and she is too far back - our shoulders are supposed to be in line with our mum's leg. At least I'm not sitting. I like to sit- especially when I've been told to "stand"!.

Bailey is showing off in Grade 1 - I'll be there soon! Look how he's focussed on the "treat hand"!

Jazzie is showing us how to do a "come" to her mum. I'm waiting patiently for my turn.

So that is all I can show you for this post - we have to wait for more and better photos from dad who is in charge of the flashy box at Skool.

Tomorrow night we do "Puppy Agility" and that is way more fun than Obedience Skool. We have equipments to use and can do jumping, balancing and stuff.

Fingers crossed for good photos!!