After far more waiting than we were expecting (e.g. years), the Dragons are finally on their way! We are seriously looking forward to meeting Astrid & Thor's babies!
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End of Year Wrap Up (+ January, I still haven't bought a new diary so it still counts as last year)22/1/2020 We celebrated three birthdays in November (four if you count mine) with Dukino turning 6 and Astrid & Arn turning 4. I still refuse to accept that they've grown up at all!
We had several more agility trials with some great runs and great laughs! One of the most notable laughs has to be Arn's warm up roll at the start line for his last JDX run at East Gippsland. The judge asked if we were ready and Arn flopped over onto the ground and proceeded to roll around in the grass for a good minute at least. Apparently we weren't ready. He followed it up with a pass and 2nd place with less than a second to spare! Our biggest star of the season was definitely Astrid, who took home her first two JD passes and first places (one of which was the only JD pass for the ring) even in less than ideal conditions with a couple of scares throughout the day. She's also managed to bring home a couple more passes since then and is getting more confident with her weaves and A-frame again. She's never been the easiest dog to work with so I'm extremely pleased with how she's coming along. Wunjo completed her foundation agility training over December & January at Coimadai Park and will be continuing her training when we can throughout the year. Tunnels are definitely her favourite! And being fast.
We started hitting the show ring again at the start of October with Arn gaining his Championship title with a decent Best of Breed on only our second show back out! Wunjo also did me proud at the same show by taking out a decent bitch challenge having only just started her junior coat drop a week before. Our other achievements include:
An actual wrap upWith us being so busy out trialling last year we managed to achieve a few titles, and have made a start on a few more!
Dukino achieved:
Astrid achieved:
Arn achieved:
Wunjo achieved:
And not to be left out, Jaska achieved:
This year will see us focusing on some new sports and some better foundations for our current ones, and hopefully a little more family chill time and bush walks! We started up our main dog sports season with the Dogs Victoria State Agility & Jumping Trial on the 7th of September where Arn brought home two JD passes and a 3rd place, and his first two AD passes and two 1st places! Dukino came home with an AD pass and 2nd place, and a pass and 1st place for her very first JDX run! Astrid and I also hit the jumping ring again with an almost perfect run in the AM (scary tyre is scary), and a good laugh for her PM run. Dukino and I hit the rally ring again the next day at NODC for what I thought would likely be our last time after she was so unhappy in the ring at Bendigo in July. She worked like an absolute superstar however and was happy and engaged in the ring, bringing home a 3rd place with a score of 87 in the AM and a very impressive score of 98 and 1st place in the PM in the pouring rain with 3 drops in the course! Saturday 14th of September was ADCV's agility and jumping trial where Astrid made me super proud on our first JD run by absolutely nailing everything I asked of her. Unfortunately this included a bonus jump that I accidentally included in the course. She absolutely nailed the tight wrap back and tunnel entry from a less than ideal position though which made me even more proud after my silly mistake! Astrid also had her first go in the agility ring in the afternoon with only two faults which included going off to investigate the number sign sitting in the middle of nowhere near the weave poles, and taking a very happy flying leap off of the A-frame and missing her contacts because I didn't wait for her at the bottom! Dukino brought home her second JDX pass with another lovely run, but the absolute highlight of the day was Arn bringing home his last pass for his JD title with a 1st place run! We spent the Sunday having a lovely catch up with some friends at the Dogs Vic Open shows with Astrid, Arn, & Wunjo hitting the ring with Kira taking the reigns, and Jazmin and her handler Madi joining us for their 2nd & 3rd shows. Everyone also got to meet Shareen's keeper pup with Arn becoming quite smitten and Wunjo sharing her squeaky show mouse. HER SHOW MOUSE! Obviously they're going to be fast friends from now on. Wunjo celebrated her first birthday the following day including lunch with her father Aslak, a whole array of training and games, cake, and party hats! I absolutely love how this girl is maturing and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some more activities with her over the coming year! Sunday the 22nd of September took us to the Ballarat Obedience & Rally-O trial where Dukino brought home the last pass for her RN title (plus an extra one for good luck), and Arn managed to bring home his first two passes towards his RA title! They weren't the most graceful of runs with Dukino forgetting how to sit at one point (for a station with 4 sits of course), and Arn coming down with a minor case of the boy brain, but there were some great laughs along the way!
August has seen us on quite a few adventures! We've been undertaking at least 30 minutes of walking each day for PAWGUST in support of Guide Dogs Australia. Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us along the way! We finally managed to hit the snow when a cold snap brought the snow down to an almost record low 450 metres at our favourite alpine destination!
Astrid & Arn finished up their WPD titles with their 4th 16km ANKC backpacking hike on the 17th of August! We've worked so hard throughout this year to build up their strength and fitness to be able to undertake these hikes safely and comfortably, and I'm so unbelievably proud of my little man and my Squeaky one! The WPD is also Arn's first official ANKC title! Arn decided we were on a role after finishing his WPD and thought he'd make me even more proud by bringing home all 3 Rally Novice passes for his RN title on the 18th of August. Gaining two titles in two very different disciplines in one weekend is not something I even thought we'd do, especially as I only took Arn and Dukino to the trial as a ring practice day and to support the club! In typical dramatic Arn Monster fashion he gained his last pass with a score of 98/100 in the absolute pouring rain. He is very fond of the blankie teddy that he received as his 3rd place prize as well! The following weekend had us make a day trip to Hamilton on the Sunday to catch up with friends and finally get ourselves back out in the show ring for the day! Arn received a lovely critique and RuDCC, Wunjo was super naughty and bunny hopped her way around the ring after an almost perfect practice run, and Dukino brought home her first neuter of breed despite her complete lack of undercoat! Wunjo & Astrid also got to have some fun in the ring with Leesa. Wunjo went in with her for Puppy Sweepstakes where she made several new awesome puppy friends, and Astrid got to be judged by her in our after show pretend ring because she was desperate to have a go even though she was just along for the car ride! We also played a lot of ball games, and Astrid did a lot of hard yards with Astrid's Helping With Paperwerk ®! July has been a busy month for us with 3 different sports over 4 weekends! The first weekend saw Arn & Astrid achieving their 2nd WPD passes with AMCV, and this Saturday just gone had them coming home with their 3rd after a whirlwind trip to NSW for SHCNSW's first trial. Arn also picked up the most impressive amounts of speed (compared to his usual 4km/hr pace) to impress his lady friends during the hike! We had to stop for about 15 minutes at the next available shady patch to let him cool off since it was sunny out, but I couldn't be more impressed by his enthusiasm!
We hit the agility ring in the middle of July with some fantastic results. Arn managed his first 2 JD passes with 2nd and 3rd place, and a NQ 2nd in AD with a knocked bar on the spread for the 500 height class. Dukino came home with her first two AD passes and two 1st places proving once again that slow and steady wins the race! Astrid had her debut in the ring and while she didn't come home with any prizes I'm so proud of how far she's come with her training. Arn and Wunjo also represented Victoria in the lure coursing Battle of the States. Arn unfortunately had a minor slip in the mud about 30 metres in and decided that was enough for one day. He gave the lure a good pounce in the afternoon when it came back to him however so hopefully he'll be up for a fun run or two by the time November rolls around. Wunjo was our big star of the day with two perfect test runs of the 100 m dash and the loop around back to near the starting line. As she's only 10 months old she wasn't eligible for the time trial in any official capacity but ASTCV happily added her in to try out the lure for the first time! August will see the official start of our PAWGUST campaign where we will be walking at least 30 minutes each day to raise funds for Guide Dogs Australia. If you're interested in supporting us throughout the month please check out our campaign page here. We were even lucky enough to be featured in an article on Disability Support Guide. Remember to keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram pages, and Arn Monster's Twitter for the occasional adorable updates throughout the month! We're getting closer to our fundraising goal and every little bit of support helps! Arn and Astrid completed the 2nd leg of their WPD Adventure last weekend. Very proud of how these guys are going, especially since it was a little bit warm for Arn. It's just the human who still really needs to get fitter now. Two more trials to go!
I'm sure many of you have noticed that the news updates ended up being a little lacking for quite some time there. For quite some time it has been almost impossible to update the website from my laptop, but that issue has finally been resolved!
In terms of news since our last update, the Heilung Litter are all off in their new homes and thoroughly enjoying life with their new families! Except for little Wunjo who ended up becoming a permanent member of our home team! We've had a few achievements since then with Wunjo taking out a Baby Puppy in Group at Warrnambool and an encouragement award for her first time out tracking. Dukino finished off her JD title with 4 first place passes at Mount Gambier, along with the Best Team encouragement award. Arn & Astrid have been making progress towards their WPD titles as well with 1 leg down so far and another one coming up this weekend. We've also come home with a number of WODC Fun Day trophies in Agility and Obedience. Jazmin (Varulv Heilung Eihwaz) recently joined us for the FLCV Open show for her and her handlers first show, taking out Minor Puppy in Show. The home team managed to come home with:
We've got a few more fun things on the horizon and are really hoping to focus more on our agility training for the rest of the year once we've gotten our super busy July out of the way! On the 16th of September we welcomed our Heilung litter into the world! For more information about them (and some adorable photos) see our Current Litter page!
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