Security briefing
4 Comments Published by Gussie on Tuesday, November 27, 2007 at 11/27/2007 07:47:00 PM.
Once a month, Chief Security Officer Jake is faced with a most perplexing challenge.
He is used to surveying the street from his command centre: the bay window of our first floor flat (for those in north America – this translates as “second floor apartment.”) . From on high, Jake watches the world go by at street level. He keeps an eye out for his people and his other friends. Everyone is small and far away.
Except then a MAN WITH LEGS A STOREY HIGH appears right at face level, tapping at the window. ALERT! ALERT! All security systems activate! Jake bounces up and down, ger-WOOFing at the man, who stares straight ahead, stony faced, wiping the window with his squeegee.
Chief Security Officer Jake is pleased to report that he has seen off the suspicious character. Except – next he reappears at the kitchen window! ALERT! ALERT! All security systems activate! Ger-WOOF!
And then the study! And … and… and…
Strangely enough when Chief Security Officer Jake goes downstairs to check out who rang the doorbell, the man at the door collecting money for cleaning the windows has somehow telescoped his legs and appears to be normal height. WAG-WAG-WAG-WAG
He is used to surveying the street from his command centre: the bay window of our first floor flat (for those in north America – this translates as “second floor apartment.”) . From on high, Jake watches the world go by at street level. He keeps an eye out for his people and his other friends. Everyone is small and far away.
Except then a MAN WITH LEGS A STOREY HIGH appears right at face level, tapping at the window. ALERT! ALERT! All security systems activate! Jake bounces up and down, ger-WOOFing at the man, who stares straight ahead, stony faced, wiping the window with his squeegee.
Chief Security Officer Jake is pleased to report that he has seen off the suspicious character. Except – next he reappears at the kitchen window! ALERT! ALERT! All security systems activate! Ger-WOOF!
And then the study! And … and… and…
Strangely enough when Chief Security Officer Jake goes downstairs to check out who rang the doorbell, the man at the door collecting money for cleaning the windows has somehow telescoped his legs and appears to be normal height. WAG-WAG-WAG-WAG
2 rosettes! Jake’s second agility show
3 Comments Published by Gussie on Saturday, November 24, 2007 at 11/24/2007 07:25:00 PM.
Once again we were up at the crack of dawn, driving over the Forth Road Bridge as the sun came up. Another exhausting but entertaining day at the Fun Dog Agility Show in Fife. Everyone was very welcoming and friendly.
We came back over the bridge rather stunned to have scooped a 6th and an 8th place in the grade 1-3 agility class. We had a run-off to settle 5th and 6th place (5th went to a super-speedy grade 3 black lab who took 2 seconds off her round in the run-off … we were just pleased to go clear!)
Not bad for our second show, up against grades 1-3. Not bad for the Seafield graduate and his unsporty handler. We’ll just draw a veil over the greyhound-out-of-trap on the jumping class (jump-jump-race-past-weave whoops… ). Need to think of a way to channel all that first-run-of-the-comp oomph.
(I’ll add the courses when I’ve finished the transfer to my new laptop and download a non-trial version of Course Designer.)
Now Jake is sleeping the sleep of the just on the sofa, roaching like he’s never been threatened with micro-briefs.
We came back over the bridge rather stunned to have scooped a 6th and an 8th place in the grade 1-3 agility class. We had a run-off to settle 5th and 6th place (5th went to a super-speedy grade 3 black lab who took 2 seconds off her round in the run-off … we were just pleased to go clear!)
Not bad for our second show, up against grades 1-3. Not bad for the Seafield graduate and his unsporty handler. We’ll just draw a veil over the greyhound-out-of-trap on the jumping class (jump-jump-race-past-weave whoops… ). Need to think of a way to channel all that first-run-of-the-comp oomph.
(I’ll add the courses when I’ve finished the transfer to my new laptop and download a non-trial version of Course Designer.)
Now Jake is sleeping the sleep of the just on the sofa, roaching like he’s never been threatened with micro-briefs.
Labels: Agility shows
Mad dog lady rained out of local park
0 Comments Published by Gussie on Thursday, November 22, 2007 at 11/22/2007 12:06:00 AM.
With a show on Saturday, I had planned to use my afternoon off today to take the agility kit to the park and get some weave and jump/turn practice with Jakey-Boy. But it has been persisting it down for nearly 24 hours! I’m not risking any of our six ankles jumping and weaving on soggy, boggy grass.
I used to feel self-conscious at the start of summer when I first took the weave poles to the park. (We don’t have the sort of back garden for setting up equipment. It’s too full of washing on the line and overgrown bushes. And we don’t do lawn). We get crowds of kids, other dog walkers, the wife and its world stopping to watch. At first I though Jake would be somehow miffed not to have his usual park experience (mooch. Sniff. Raise leg. Chase pals if any are there at the same time. Mooch. Sniff. Play training games or fetch with human companion. Mooch. Sniff.). But the other week I caught him pawing at the bag with the weave poles in. He wants to weave. (He wants the ham he gets for weaving.)
There is a small element of triumph and yes, showing off. When we got Jake he was the park yob – boisterous adolescent leggy hound from hell. So now when he ignores the teenage collie that tries to entice him out of the weave into a game of chase I’m chuffed to bits. With the extra practice once or twice a week Jake’s weaving is getting pretty good. He’s pretty reliable entering the weave from both sides, accurate going through, and we’re working on speed.
I can’t quite believe that I now carry a sack of poles to the park once or twice a week. Jake of course doesn’t think there’s anything odd in it at all. Of course the world will revolve round me! Why wouldn’t it?
I used to feel self-conscious at the start of summer when I first took the weave poles to the park. (We don’t have the sort of back garden for setting up equipment. It’s too full of washing on the line and overgrown bushes. And we don’t do lawn). We get crowds of kids, other dog walkers, the wife and its world stopping to watch. At first I though Jake would be somehow miffed not to have his usual park experience (mooch. Sniff. Raise leg. Chase pals if any are there at the same time. Mooch. Sniff. Play training games or fetch with human companion. Mooch. Sniff.). But the other week I caught him pawing at the bag with the weave poles in. He wants to weave. (He wants the ham he gets for weaving.)
There is a small element of triumph and yes, showing off. When we got Jake he was the park yob – boisterous adolescent leggy hound from hell. So now when he ignores the teenage collie that tries to entice him out of the weave into a game of chase I’m chuffed to bits. With the extra practice once or twice a week Jake’s weaving is getting pretty good. He’s pretty reliable entering the weave from both sides, accurate going through, and we’re working on speed.
I can’t quite believe that I now carry a sack of poles to the park once or twice a week. Jake of course doesn’t think there’s anything odd in it at all. Of course the world will revolve round me! Why wouldn’t it?
Things Jake made us buy
4 Comments Published by Gussie on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 11/14/2007 09:55:00 PM.- The car. We were car free for seven years, then along came Jake, and … sorry, planet. Gus now has to cycle everywhere by way of compensation.
- The camcorder. Nuff said.
- Fields of tatties and greens. Many, many turkeys and pigs.
- URLs. OK, we did have previous websites, but this is the biggest/longest standing
- Enough toys to fill a crate on a freight ship from China
- Football boots for Gus, she who was always last to be picked in PE.
Labels: Whimsy
Getting more serious now...
0 Comments Published by Gussie on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 11/11/2007 10:47:00 PM.
It’s some time since we updated this blog. In that time, Jake has been to his first agility show. It was great day, though the killer early start threw us all. (On the road out of Edinburgh at 0650 on a Saturday morning in the pitch dark?) Next time we’ll be much better organised for all our meal and toileting needs. (TMI?) Anyhoo, it’s a good way to see if we like this agility show lark enough to start entering Kennel Club competitions and using Jake’s KC Activity Register name.
In the first jumping class, Jake was so hyper and I was so in-a-strange-place that he ran amok and we aren’t sharing the video evidence.
Then we ran an agility class. I completely missed one of the jumps! Sorry Jake.
We got better as the morning wore on and we found our feet on the second agility class.
There has been a lot of practice in the autumn dusk since then … weaves and turns coming on a treat.
The other side-effect of Jake’s new show career is that the videos were so useful in seeing why we were eliminated and what we needed to practice that Rod went and bought a long-wanted camcorder. Chalk that up alongside the car as Things Jake Made Us Buy.
In the first jumping class, Jake was so hyper and I was so in-a-strange-place that he ran amok and we aren’t sharing the video evidence.
Then we ran an agility class. I completely missed one of the jumps! Sorry Jake.
We got better as the morning wore on and we found our feet on the second agility class.
There has been a lot of practice in the autumn dusk since then … weaves and turns coming on a treat.
The other side-effect of Jake’s new show career is that the videos were so useful in seeing why we were eliminated and what we needed to practice that Rod went and bought a long-wanted camcorder. Chalk that up alongside the car as Things Jake Made Us Buy.
Labels: Agility shows
