ADAA Grand Prix at Uralla in NSW - September/October 2001

As Narrated by Billy...

Friday 28/09/01: Seven hours in the car! Six hundred or so kilometers! Oh come on Mum, really, are we there yet?? That was how we all felt about getting down to Uralla- it seemed a long drive, but then not really any further than going north to Grandma's I suppose. But WOW once we got there we were impressed! Huge grounds with lots of excellent smells for piddling on- and nearly all our agility friends were there plus all these new dogs we hadn't met before. Apparently they were from the "other" side of the border, and Mum said we had to be very polite because we were on their turf now- lots were up from Sydney, a couple from a place called Canberra and even one from South Australia. And being Uralla, Sue was there with Socks, but we all missed Heidi, not as much as Sue and Socks must be, but it just didn't seem the same seeing Sue without her constant companion Heidi. And of course after my "other" little adventure around Kingaroy just a few weeks ago, lots of people were happy to see me and comment on how far I'd managed to travel (yes it was really 200km away that I was found), ask how my paws were and say to Mum- you are so lucky to have got him back! And Mum would just nod and get this faraway look of relief on her face before giving me another hug. So Friday was all about setting up camp and then going into town to meet the locals and get some supplies- like food for us- what a nice butcher!

 

Thanks to SDM Photography for this photo of Billy over the spreadSaturday 29/09/01: Saturday saw the start of competition with two rounds in the Individual Challenge (Open Agility and Gamblers) and the first round of the Teams Challenge. There was also a nice lady called Sara Moss who was taking photos of us all so we had to try extra hard to look photogenic! Missy was the first of us to go in the Open Agility round- she wasn't really on fire, it was a bit warm at 1pm in the arvo and some distractions, and I think Mum was a bit nervous, but they still managed to go clear. YAY! That was Missy's SAAD title, and she came second overall, so valuable points towards the individual challenge. It was so nice to be competing against so many other Mini dogs- usually there is only four or five of us- but we had about 13 in the individual challenge. The best part was that Mum had time between Missy and I to catch her breath! So when it was my turn I tried hard but got five faults on the home run and was over time- but it was fun to be out there doing agility again. Mum carefully checked my paws after- but I was A-okay! The next course was gamblers- Mum sighed knowing that I was not going to be able to get out far enough to complete the challenge- but Missy should be able to do it- she'd practiced these ones before when Bud Huston was out here. This time I was first to go, and Mum had picked a course full of fast corners, picking up the spreads (see the above photo), tyres and broad jumps for extra points. At the end of the opening sequence I had collected 31 points and was well positioned for the gamble- I went out over the first jump, then turned and came straight back to Mum, missing the return jump, so she just sent me straight to the table for a quick time but a failed gamble. Then it was Missy's turnThanks to SDM Photography for this photo of Missy through the tyre- Mum had planned to launch straight into the joker and send Missy down the far side of the dog walk over the line of jumps- but Mum got herself out of position around the weave poles and stuffed it up- still they accumulated over the 30 points needed if they were to get a quali. When the whistle blew Mum swung Missy around for the gamble, but Oh No, she went up the A-Frame, oh, they are going to be short on time- quickly Missy- out over the first, back over the second-go Missy- straighten up for the third and then ppphhhtttt, the whistle before the recall over the fourth jump and onto the table. Well Missy did the gamble okay but not in the time so no bonus points for a quali this round. The last event for the day was the team challenge- the first round was just a normal round of agility with the three best rounds from the team counting towards the team challenge points. Missy was the only one of us in this event, as I didn't have a team. Her team was named the Shockers as it was a combination between shelties and cockers. So she went out there very business-like and did a neat tidy clear round. At the end of the round though, the team had still accumulated a few faults to put them in second place behind Pot Luck. Now we all had to wait till tomorrow to see how the challenges would conclude. To celebrate a good day of agility Mum gave us some really yummy raw liver she'd brought down- but it turned out to be a mistake as Kate and I got a bad case of diahorrea which kept Mum and Missy up all night as we kept needing to go out of the tent to the toilet which didn't bide well for tomorrow. Mum was especially worried we would dehydrate so she was keeping a close eye on us.
Sunday 30/09/01: Sunday dawned very early as I needed to go to the toilet again- my stomach was really churning! I only had the one event this morning and Mum wasn't sure about running me. Missy was first in the draw. She was actually leading the mini challenge points overnight, but the competition was close with five dogs all within one or two points of each other. So they both went out feeling a little nervous, and of course stuffed the entry to the weavers for five faults- all because Mum didn't trust Missy and send her on to the weaves- but nevermind, just five faults and an otherwise nice round. But no quali points would put them out of contention for the individual challenge. Meanwhile I convinced Mum I was keen and I wanted to have a go. We were doing really well, but as we turned for home, my stomach lurched and I had to tear off course to empty my bladder yet again. Oopps, aw well, we tried, and at least we were well off the course. So Mum took me back hosed me down, ensured I was drinking and let me rest out the remainder of the day. Missy, of course, still had the team challenge to run. And run she did! This round was in the format of a relay with two dogs running over the white course and two over the black course and the handler's had to exchange a batton in between within the changeover zone. Missy was second on and ran nicely with a good batton change to Mal, but alas, the team were eliminated when one of the dogs took the wrong course. We all had heaps of fun though- and made promises about next year being better! Thanks to SDM Photography for this photo of Missy over the spread
For the evening we had a strategic pairs competition- this is always heaps of fun! We were paired with our other Queensland sheltie friends- Breeze and Flicker. The scene was set by the big dogs with everyone having lots of fun with quite a bit of yelling and cheering. Missy and Breeze were the first Mini pair to go and they just blitzed the course and went well under time even with a little confusion at the end of the course and lots of cheering. The first quali card towards their teams title for both of them! I was last to go and was paired with Flicker who was having an excellent weekend- but was not really keen on pairs events. Well being the last event of the night everyone had crowded round and were cheering us little dogs on. This unfortunately was the undoing of Flicker who was overwhelmed and muffed the weaves which meant I had to run all the way over from the other side of the course to fix the mistake- and oh hell, I missed one too, so back over to Flicker who was still very concerned but managed to complete them and continue on. It was a bit of a comedy of errors. So we were quite a lot over time and Flicky was a little upset, but we had certainly entertained the crowd who were calling for more!
Monday 01/10/01: Monday was a public holiday and was the last day of our agility fun. It was only a short day to give us all a chance to get home in the afternoon. Missy had both open agility and open jumpers- I just had jumpers. We were also running under a new judge from NSW, Liz Barker, who set two great courses- challenging but flowing. Much like all of our courses over the weekend. The agility had a discrimination between the dog walk and the tunnel and then out over the wall as a distance challenge for handlers. Well Missy and Mum muffed it right from the start, taking the walk instead of the tunnel- ooppss. But they made up for it in the jumpers with a quick clean round and their first quali towards the MAAD title. The highlight of the jumpers though was Geronimo who flew around the course in a time quicker than the maxi dogs- we were in awe. He was a good half-second per meter quicker than Missy over the course- so she and Mum have a new target to work towards for next year. As for me, well that was a course better not talked about- though I bounced around and had a ball as my smile in the photo below shows! However I also missed all of my tunnel entries for my second E of the weekend. Which was really pretty good- between us we ran 13 Open standard rounds for only 3Es- and one of those was due to my stomach. The weekend was all sooo much fun, we were saying roll on Uralla Grand Prix 2002 so we can say hello to all our new friends again. We were so poopered for the trip home we even forgot to ask Mum if we were there yet, only waking up for a pit stop in Tenterfield and then home!
Thanks to SDM Photography for this photo of a smiley Billy through the tyre
A very special thank you to Sarah Moss of SDM Photography who gave permission to post these photos with our adventures. Sarah can be contacted on (02) 65472715 or by email at sdm@nobbys.net.au . Her photography (mostly equine) can be seen at www.cyberhorse.net.au/sdm Her photos of this great weekend of agility have given us a tangible reminder of our fun and memories - thank you Sarah.