Hi

We have just returned from our super-duper Agility "weekend" in Bloemfontein. I say "weekend", because in actual fact it is 4 days of non-stop action. Mum says it is the second most important weekend of the year and Chippy and I gave a first class performance. Bloem (short for Bloemfontein) is a leisurely 4 hour drive from home and we left already on Thursday. When mum started to pack we just knew we could go as well - it was so exciting and I told everyone at the top of my voice how I was looking forward to the trip (and a little to make sure that mum doesn't forget me).

Just look at the picture - we won all that dog food! And it is not a trick picture - it is genuine and the rosettes that go with it on the wall behind us.


First things first. The trip was uneventful, with a nice little walk half way. But when we arrived at our guesthouse I was really busy ... there were another 8 dogs there who had all arrived for the competition and the owners had another 2 dogs of their own - all in all we were 14 dogs (Quincy and Cassie came with us as well), all happily mingling - of course with my superb supervision. Mum kept calling me, she has no idea how important my supervision is ....
The next day we started early. It was all so very exciting. I blew everyone away with a superb winning performance in the Agility round (beat Ricki's time by more than a second!). Chippy tried to keep up but only managed to stay second behind me. Mum was so excited, she said I had won another one of those important pieces of paper ... Me? - wellI I was excited because I won a huge bag of dog food ... and then there was one of those pretty rosettes as well. On to the Non-Contact round, which I thought someone else could win (Ok, so I was beaten, but only just ..). In Dog Jumping I made up for the slip in the Non-Contact and won again (another piece of paper) and Chippy won the first ever piece of paper in the new "Medium" Class, and his first ever paper (which, as you know by now, made mum very happy). In the afternoon I made sure that everyone understood that I am now a force to be reconed with and won the Agility class again, which .......DRUMROLLLLLL ..... makes me an Agility Champion - my third Champion title.

Mum was so happy, she bought herself a whole bottle of Champagne (which she had reason to finish during the course of the weekend).

The next morning we had an "Interprovincial Dog Jumping" competition. Mum says that is another big deal thing. The best dogs in each Province get selected into Teams to represent their province. I was in the Small Team and Chippy was in the Medium Team for Gauteng. Our other Team mates were Gracie, Ricki and Razu in the Small Team and Tyla, Rusty and Bonny, an "illegal from Bloemfontein", who joined our Team, cause we were 1 short.
And .... another DRUMROLLLLLLLL ...... both our Teams won this competition! Mum was so happy and had a reason to have some more Champagne ...
The Large dogs from Gauteng came fourth ... it's only because there wasn't one of us in that team - we could have helped them for sure ...


In the afternoon we had the Nationals. I was supposed to defend my title from last year, but mum made a really silly mistake in the Jump-Off - just too much of a hurry ... :-( and I lost out on that one. But Chippy kept up the good work and won the National Midi Dog Jumping Title 2010 - the first ever in this category. (and yet some more reason to celebrate for mum ...).

Sunday wasn't such a great day, I think mum was getting really tired. Still, Chippy won his first Agility QC (those papers we are collecting). But other than that we were just in the placings ... 3rd and second ... well, need to let the otehrs have some fun too.

Monday Chippy showed that he can do it in any discipline when he puts his mind to it and won the Non-Contact class, but mum and I were not on the same page.
Anyway, 1 National Title (Dog Jumping), 2 Interprovincial wins (Dog Jumping) and 7 QCs(3 DJ, 3 Agility, 1 Non-Contact) and a resulting new Champion Title - not bad for a weekend's work.

Mum collected all the prizes on Monday afternoon and then we just "chilled" in our room. Of course mum did give us lots of treats during the weekend and special bones on Monday afternoon - what a fun weekend.

We are now back home, and I am really sorry that all the fun is finished again. Back to normal life and mum is tired, cold and moping around .,... oh, talking about cold - Look at this picture, mum took it this morning before we left Bloem - look carefully, thise things hanging from the fountain are icecicles! ... In Africa, I ask you!