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Pippa, the now not-so-scary-bird was happily sitting on the lowest branch in her aviary this morning. I guess she is finding Amber and I not-so-scary too. We are real pussycats.

Little Hunny will soon be staying with us. We are starting to count the days until her arrival. It is 5 years since we last saw her so we all are very excited. She now lives in NSW and will be staying with us for 4 months, until after Christmas. It will be great to see her again!

We don't have any trials now until September and, of course, the Royal Melbourne Show is quickly looming ... We'll see how we go this year.

Well, it's been a busy week. Karen pushed the very scary bird's cage around the sideway and we learnt the very scary bird isn't so scary after all. As a matter of fact Amber and I have spent the whole week quietly sitting by her cage totally mesmerised by our new feathered friend's antics.

Karen has told us this little lady is staying and so we had better be nice to her. I am taking my new birdwatching responsibilities very seriously and am certainly doing my best.

Pippan used to squawk a bit when she was unceremoniously relegated to the front door but is now exceptionally quiet. She doesn't seem too bothered about us, nor her distinct lack of privacy, we spend our day staring at her intently, watching her every move. We actually think she quite enjoys being the centre of attention and possibly thinks her new found furry friends are most likely part of her flock.

As far as Amber and I are concerned Pippa is great entertainment value. She spends half her life running up and down her perch ... and we watch. She climbs around her cage ... and we watch. She eats her fruit and seed ... and we watch. She goes through exactly the same routine each day ... and we watch. It rains ... and we watch... we are so enthralled and intrigued that we forget to seek shelter indoors. And when Karen gets home she is happily greeted by two very soggy doggies.

Off to Werribee last weekend for our Club's NADAC Trial. Karen ended up working in the office but Bryce and Vanessa kept me company while I was chilling out in between runs.

I worked well, very well, all day. It was a pity I had a few mishaps but, you win a few ... you lose a few. Such are the joys of agility.I ran past a bar in my first Jumping round. The rules are different in NADAC. Karen said the NADAC people are more forgiving if you make a mistake and so, jumped back over the bar... only to incur a 10pt penalty for my trouble. OK, I goofed ... you can make mistakes but apparently not this sort of mistake!

I also did two exceptionally nice Agility rounds and would have surely earnt a pass had it not been for the dog walk. 2nd last obstacle on the course and I was confidentally approaching the finishing line only to find the surface on the dog walk was different, I paused, then jumped off. Karen tried but could not entice me over.

Our final round was Jumping. A perfect round, a perfect score and yet another perfect Novice Jumping pass. :)

Back to KCC Park for the Schipperke Trial. I mucked up my weaves and a few other things in Excellent Agility however I managed to receive my 2nd Excellent Jumping pass in James Browne's ring this morning.  I was very tired and didn't do so well this afternoon.  Karen tried doing some fancy manouevres in Paul Gavin's Jumping course so I shut down and ran out the ring.

I did do a bit better in Stephen Pearson's Excelllent Agility course but I really would have been much happier resting in my crate.  Nevertheless Karen is 'over the moon' that we managed to achieve yet another pass!  One pass per trial is a pretty good effort and that's what I have been achieving since Easter.

 I was so eager to actually get to the trial this morning that I tried to jump in the car and squashed my nose on the bootlid!  Next time I will remember to look before I leap and wait for Karen to actually open the bootlid.  :(

Well, where do I start?  Karen hauled us out of bed at 4.30am so she could give Amber her tablet (the things she does for us dogs!) and we were in the car Bendigo-bound at 5.30am.

Karen said she will never ever leave so early again for a trial.  Her body clock was saying she still should have been tucked up in bed and she could hardly keep her eyes open.  We would have booked accommodation and spent a few days in Bendigo had it not been for leaving that scary bird by herself in the middle of Winter.  We will just have to book accommodation and stay overnight next time ...

Anyway, back to the agility ring. Bendigo kindly agreed to upgrade my entries and I had my first-ever run in Excellent Agility today. I went into James Browne's ring ... happy, eager and full of confidence.  The third obstacle was the see-saw ... hmm! I like the see-saw, I've never had a problem with the see-saw however I haven't really done it terribly much and this one was 'different'.  Up I went and waited just like Karen said however, this one seemed slower coming down and so I decided to hurry things up a bit by jumping off the side.  I missed a few weaves and went into the tunnel the wrong way however, Karen thought I did reasonably well for my first ever run in Excellent Agility.  Today was very much to be an experiment to see how I would go at the higher level and I certainly didn't disgrace myself.

Next round was in Sue Gonelli's ring.  A much tougher course.  Again, I didn't do too bad.  And again I encountered the see-saw.  Karen knew what to expect and guided me down right to the end this time and I had no problems with it for the rest of the day.  I did muck the weaves and a few other things up but I was still was working happily when I crossed the finishing line.

We then had two rounds of Excellent Jumping. Karen is really hoping I may achieve my Excellent Jumping title before I retire and we came dangerously close to achieving two Excellent Jumping passes today.  I worked well, really well in Ron Diamond's course, no mistakes until we hit the home run and I ran past a bar.  I think perhaps Ron was more disappointed than Karen.  Similarly in Heather Diamond's ring I saw the tunnel and ran past a single bar jump.  Karen has learnt not to go back and retake things ... it just confuses me and shuts me down. Instead we worked happily to the finish line with a good round but yet another disqualification.

The last round of the day in Roger Padfield's ring came as a complete surprise.  For some reason I don't normally work well in Roger or Paul Gavin’s ring.  Again Karen thought the course was tricky however we tried our best. I did stop and sniff the grass in Roger's ring a bit today (for some reason, I normally do in his ring) ... after working so well Karen looked so disappointed and so I put my mind into gear, did the only 3 obstacles left – the weaves, the see-saw and a bar jump and managed to achieve a pass and 4^th place with my only crime being a few seconds wasted. 

It is amazing to think last week we achieved our Novice Agility title ... this week we managed to achieve 4th place and our 1st Excellent Agility pass. That means I have earned 5 qualifying scores in a 3 month period. Not bad for a 9year old Cavalier who normally stops and sniffs the grass.  Karen also knows we have also had just as many good rounds and many near misses and she is aware I’m working well.

To achieve a pass in our first day in Excellent Agility was a much, much better result than ever expected.  Last week I was rewarded with some new toys, this week Karen rushed down to Bendigo Pottery and bought herself the biggest and most expensive vase she could find as a momento of what turned out to be a very successful day!