Month: May 2019

Sat 11th May saw two of our members take part in the Gold Coast double Rally and Obedience Trial.

The trial consisted of two rounds of Rally O during the afternoon and a round of Obedience in the Evening.

Ruth & Biscuit competed in Rally Novice in both RallyO trials and the Obedience with Alex and Flynn joining in for the obedience trial, both doing CCD.

Our OIC Julia again headed down for support and to steward in the CCD ring as part of her judges training.

The first Rally trial, under Daphne Sellwood, was a definate case of where are we and what are we doing, as the first away trial for the pair. Biscuit had one novice qualification from a home trial but this was her first time travelling. They ended up with a score of 67 out of 100 with 75 being a qualification.

The second Rally trial, under Chris Pain, was a definite improvement with a couple of try again’s, scoring a very respectable 81 out of 100 and coming 3rd overall with a qualification.

The Obedience trial took place after the sun had gone down. Ruth and Biscuit were first in the ring. It turned out the ring had something very appealing on the starting peg, and after a few go arounds and nothing like a sit to start, they withdrew as the focus wasn’t there. It had been a long day and they were happy to leave with their RallyO qually.

Alex and Flynn were next in. Some great work saw them leave the first part loosing only 10 points. They followed this up with a faultless group section. It was a tough night with only 3 dogs making it through to groups, requiring stand in to make up the numbers. Flynn did an excellent job and Alex and Flynn left with 90 out of 100 and first place on the night. That’s two CCD qualifications out of two for Alex and Flynn.

Thanks go to all the judges and stewards as well as Gold Coast Dog Obedience Training Club for a lovely day. And also to Julia for all the work she is putting in to become an obedience judge.

Part of the judges training includes run throughs at Durak, so if anyone with a CCD level dog would like to help, the next session is on 26th June at 5pm.

by the Redlands Agility Ladies

We had a great turnout to our second Jumpers Trial of the year on Saturday 4th May 2019 with 280 entries!

This was a Double Jumpers Trial with two rings. A Jumper’s course has jumps including the broad, circle, double and single bar jumps as well as tunnels, but no weave poles or contact equipment such as the A frame, dog walk or see saw. Dogs are graded into height categories, 200, 300 and so on, to 600. The largest number of dogs are in the 500 category as there are so many borders and kelpies who do agility.

The evening started off wet and stormy during set up, but was followed by a glorious sunset and a cool autumn, slightly drizzly night.

We had seven Redlands members compete on the night. It was under wet and slippery conditions but Sonia and Winston achieved a first place and their first Qualification in Jumping Dog Excellent (JDX) 600. Well done to you both. Although our Redlands Team did not achieve any other Qualifications on the night, there were still some lovely runs.

Kate and Charli won Novice 600 in one course and came second in the other. This dog/handler team are doing so well and they both looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Anne and Strudel the dachshund, achieved two firsts in their height division of Novice 200. Strudel is running so fast around his courses, Anne thinks he is trying to keep up with the Border Collie times! He was so focused on his speed, he bumped one or two bars but ran well under time in an amazing 25 seconds when he was allowed 42 seconds. At the end of the night when the prizes were given out, Strudel behaved as though the whole evening was for him! Strudel was just delighted with his first place prize of a soft toy that he proudly carried aloft, well as aloft as a dachshund can go! His attitude makes up for his size, he is such a character!

Paolo and Chica, the Chihuahua mix, also gained a first place in Novice 300 Jumping. Chica did well on her first run but as the night went on the course had some dark scary tunnels in the corners so during her second run she decided it was time to head back to her crate where it was safe and warm.

Vicki and Elsa the Beagle, ran a beautiful course for their Masters Open 300 course, but at this skill level the courses are trickier and the times are tight. So even though she had a clear run, it didn’t allow any time for Elsa to stop and sniff which meant she ran over time.

Tess and Layla the brindle Boxer, also ran well in their first run for Redlands. Layla cleared the jumps by miles, including jumping the boundary fences together in an escape fun run, but she came back when called!

Jennie and Alfie were back competing after a long break recovering from an injury, but he is now good as new and running and jumping well. Handling mistakes by Jennie meant that Alfie took the wrong course in two events which meant Disqualifications. The dogs really take their cues from our signals and body language. It can be a raised hand or facing away from where you want them to go that results in these mistakes.

The Redlands Agility dogs are becoming quite a team too; an Allsorts team with a real mix of dog breeds and heights. They are used to being crated close together and behave really well. Chica sat near Elsa’s crate while both were not competing. This kept Elsa occupied and quiet which worked out well as she has been known to call out to Vicki when left alone. Chica and Elsa had the odd kiss at the crate door which was very cute, especially with Chica’s reactive background. Chica really felt part of her “Agility pack,” although Strudel may have been a bit offended.

Thanks to the two Judges, Murray Sharman and Jean Joyce for their lovely courses. It was the first time for these two judges and they did a wonderful job. Thank you also to all the volunteers who helped on the night. Even though there were only 2 rings, volunteers were required to scribe, steward, and marshal for each.

Thank you to Sarah, Tony, Stephen, Gayle, Sue and Ursula. And a special thank you to our regular volunteers, the mother and daughter team, Carmen and Keira. It was Keira’s birthday on the night and she wanted to spend it surrounded by dogs!

Thank you to our Trial Secretary Karen Deguet for organising and running the Trial. The night went off without a hitch and the prizes looked fantastic! Ruth and Sally Anne worked tirelessly in the Canteen and BBQ. There were plenty of yummy hot meals to choose from to warm everybody up! The Pulled Chicken/Slaw burgers were a big hit.

Ruth also took some amazing action photos. These can be seen on the following link at:

And as Ruth said – You really get to see ‘the connect’ between dog and handler in the stills. The dogs really do look for direction and follow the subtleties.

And lastly, a big ‘Thank you’ to our Agility instructors Shaaron, Karen, Vicki, Jennie, Sonia and Christine for giving up their time to train others.

Saturday 27th April 2019

Redlands Dog Obedience Club hosted its first Obedience trial for the year under clear skies and quite a warm and windy autumn night on Saturday 27th April 2019.

It had rained a great deal over the last month and during Easter so our club grounds had been closed resulting in only a few training days over the last 2 months.

We are very lucky to have such immaculate grounds. Judy Holt fields are used for cricket and they go to great lengths to maintain these grounds to a very high standard. The fields are manicured with very short, even and consistent grass providing an optimal surface.  So when there is a lot of rain the grounds are closed to prevent damage. It’s the sacrifice we must make to have the use of such lovely grounds.

As luck would have it, the sun came out a few days before our trial and the grounds dried out nicely.

We had a fantastic entry of over 50 competitors which included 7 rings and these were nicely spread over the cricket grounds so we were not all crowded on top of each other. Two rings were dedicated each to the Open and UD classes due to the large numbers.

Four of our current Redlands members competed on the night. We had Alex with her Border Collie, Flynn competing in her first ever trial doing extremely well and placing second in her CCD class from a group of 12 competitors. They gained their first Qualification with a score of 88 points out of 100. Well done and Congratulations to Alex and Flynn!

To compete at CCD (Community Companion Dog) level your dog must heel on a loose lead and handler and dog must work as a team. This heeling exercise is scored out of 30. Judges deduct points for tight leads, the use of more than one command or if your dog fails to sit, down or stand. The next exercise is the Stand for Exam (20 Points) where the handler leaves their dog in a stand and without the dog moving, the Judge touches the dog’s head and body. An off lead Recall (20 points) is done next, then the 1 minute Sit Stay and 2 minute Down Stay (15 points each) from a distance of 5 meters is done as a group exercise. A Qualifying score of 85 and above is required and once achieving 3 Qualifications you can then apply for the Title.

Colleen with her Collie Rough, Ceilidh and Ruth and her Koolie cross, Biscuit also competed in CCD. Both ladies did really well but unfortunately no qualifications this time.

Karin and her Golden Retriever, Caxton placed second in their CDX class but unfortunately no qualification either. This bouncy Goldie has discovered it’s fun to run over to say Hi to the Judge during his off lead heeling!

There weren’t a lot of qualifications overall on the night but there were some amazing dogs to watch. In the CDX ring a lovely little Sheltie achieved almost perfect scores, her heeling was truly amazing to watch, but sadly she sat down for the Stand for Exam.

Thank you to all our volunteer helpers. Julia and Sonia did not compete on the night but helped out with the stewarding. They have both recently gained their Titles in Obedience so are now preparing and training for the next higher level. Sonia stewarded in the CDX ring with Judge John Bauman and said it was a great opportunity to see up close what goes on in the ring at this level as well as getting some great inside information and tips from the Judge. Sonia said she learnt a lot on the night and it won’t be long before she and her black Lab, Jedda will be out there competing in Obedience again. Thanks also to Lauren who also stewarded in this CDX ring, hopefully she has also caught the bug to compete.

ulia stewarded in the CCD ring with Judge Andrew Holmes. Julia is training to be a CCD judge so this was also a great opportunity for her to watch and learn from a judge in a real life scenario. To become a qualified Judge involves a huge amount of study and practical assessment. The rules for the conduct of Obedience Trials are extremely complicated and Julia is learning how to apply them. She travels to other clubs such as Logan, Caboolture and Ipswich to do practical work and attend practical assessments as well as Judges training at Durack each month. Julia also is committed to stewarding and shadowing judges at other trials which have included Sunshine Coast, Logan, Pine Rivers and Jimboomba trials. It’s an enormous undertaking and we appreciate her commitment, especially as she still finds time to train our Tuesday night trialing class and Wednesday night Group 2 and 4 classes.

Jennie and Kathy helped out and stewarded in the UD ring with Judge Mrs C O’Shea and Marg and Phil were stewarding in the other UD ring with Judge Viv Mannion. These two rings were set up on the opposite side of the field and Jennie said things were quite windy over there and this stirred up some of the dogs. There was a gorgeous snorting Frenchie in her ring who was brilliant at heeling but was his ‘own dog’ for the rest of the exercises. He was a real character! When choosing the scent discrimination article, he found the last one perfectly, in fact he went to it three times but then just looked at his handler as if to say, “I’ve found it, you come and get it!”

In the other UD ring a tiny Pomeranian did zoomies every time he was sent to do every one of his exercises. For the directed retrieve with 3 gloves, he ran flat out in circles for several minutes, then retrieved the correct glove and then sat at his handler’s feet when she went to go get him.

Although it is disappointing when our dog doesn’t do what he is meant to do, it can be said that, even at a high level of Obedience, like UD, things don’t always go to plan,… they are dogs after all!

Thank you to all the other stewards also, Kalyn, Kym, Brendan, Jay, Sofya, and Kathy. Your help is greatly appreciated, especially from those who were competing, as this allowed them to stay with their dogs and concentrate on their own ring and not worry about stewarding as well. This makes such a huge difference. And also a big thank you to the husbands, Bill and Phil who also helped steward. These guys are not dog handlers and have to put up with their absent wives always being out at dog training a few nights a week, we are very grateful for your help!

We received some fantastic reviews from members from other clubs and Judges who attended. There were so many compliments about the food, especially the gourmet Pulled Pork burgers and the homemade brownies, apple slice and Anzac slice. They were delicious! Thanks to Nikki, Macayla and Natalie for working so hard on the BBQ and preparing the food.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered their time to set up rings as well as with the packing up at the end of the night. Many hands make light work!

Also, a big thank you to our Trial Secretary Jan, who organised the Judges and the smooth running of the night, her hard work behind the scenes is greatly appreciated. Jan makes it all seem so stress free, but in reality, the organising of Judges begins months in advance, involving contracts and a lot of back and forth correspondence as well as preparing a backup plan for when Judges pull out due to illness. Collating entry fees, sorting competitors into dog heights, printing catalogues and organising the night so it all finishes roughly the same time, as well as mapping out the rings the day before requires not only a lot of time, but skill and expertise that Jan has gained over the years.  She also was a steward on the night, thanks Jan!

Our next Obedience Trial at our home grounds will be held at the end of the year, in November.

If you’d like to compete or help in any way, let your Instructor know you are interested. It’s a fun night out and you will get to see what you will need to do if you decide to compete as well as see some amazing dogs and handlers in action!