Boy oh boy have I got lots to tell you.

I can't hold myself back any longer ..... WE MADE IT, WE MADE IT, WE MADE IT ..... Chippy and I will both be on the Medium Team at the Agility World Championships. I am soooo excited .... Mum has been trying to tell me about it, and I must admit, I don't fully understand, but I do understand one thing, and that is that Chippy and I will be travelling with mum for more than a week - just the 3 of us and that in itself will be so much fun.
I have decided I love traveling. That is what this post is all about.

Last weekend Allez, Chippy, mum and of course I went off in the car - early in the morning. I was hardly awake it was so early. I realised this was different to normal car trips, as the car was full of suitcases and bags and stuff. Our first stop was really exciting. Mum stopped for petrol and then took us on a farm road for a long walk. That was so much fun. I can't even start to describe all the new and exciting smells to you.
After that it was some more driving and then we arrived in Pitermaritzburg. Mum got lost trying to find the place but eventually we arrived. There were so many people there and so many new smells and so much ... stuff ... Mum says it was an Agricultural Show and you can buy everything there from home made jams to cows (yes really, live cows!), to quilts and even tractors and stuff.
A ot of other dogs arrived. Some I knew from our normal weekends, but some were new. Mum said they came from all around the country to compete this weekend.
So, on thursday we just settled in and had a practise round and mum said hi to all the humans and we said hi to all the dogs ... it was quite fun.
Then off we went to our new house. Yep, I have a new house. Mum says it isn't "my" house, we were just there as guests, but I felt very much at home there and really I don't see the difference. The house even has a name. It is called
Elmwood Guesthouse and you can check it out on the web. I like the idea of a name, I think our house here in Johannesburg should also get a name. Anyway, Anne also lives there (mum says she owns the house, but as I said, I think that is just semantics, I think *I* own it ...). John and Alexandra are Anne's children and they really liked us - well who wouldn't? And of course they had seen Quincy on TV and were very pleased to meet Quincy's family. Anne promised us that she would check out this blog, so the children could see all our adventures.

Next day we took it easy in the morning and that was a bit hard, 'cause mum kept saying I must be quiet, but there was so much to discuss. There were dogs next door which we couldn't see, but we could hear, there were the 2 Yorkies who also live in my house, there was the neighbor's cat who walked along the wall behind our room and generally, I would have just liked to tell everyone that I have now moved in. But mum kept saying to keep quiet ... Chippy of course was his usually Whuss-ie self and just lay next to mum's feet. Allez and I would have had a ball there if we could have had free rein.

Finally at about lunch time we went off to the competition.
The first round I got a little carried away on the dog walk and just couldn't stop myself in time from jumping off, but other than that I did good. Chippy DQd - one of several that weekend and Allez went clear. In Non-Contact mum just blew it. She did one of her really odd moves again and I did as I was told and the next thing they tell me we got disqualified 'cause I jumped the jump from the wrong side - mum told me to go there ... I was most displeased with that. Chippy got about half way round and then mum didn't keep an eye on him and he ran into the tunnel ... another DQ. Allez went clear again. o all in all it wasn't a great day (except for Allez who did really well and was lying second at that point). I must tell you about our judges. mary Rose is from Johannesburg and she built courses like we normally have. But the other judge came all the way from Croatia. Mum says that is close to Austria and almost where we will be going later this year. Anyway, you should have seen the courses Allen built ... WOW ... no time to sleep on those, that's for sure. A few more of those and we would keep mum on her toes.
Between the rounds I had to attend to my fan club ... you don't believe me? It's true, my fans that read my blog came to say "hello" and to take pictures of me and to talk to me, and, well you know the stuff fans do .... OK, OK, so it was just 1 fan, but still, no other dog had fans there. My fan's name is Jocelyn - Hi Jocelyn, I promised I would write about your visit :-). She found my blog on the internet and when she heard I would be competing she came round to see me. How is that? It is great to be famous! Chippy tried to steal all the limelight. He kept pushing in front of the camera ... I think he is a little jelous - hope you got a good shot of me anyway.


The following day we started with a really bad round. I think mum didn't sleep well or something. She was really not with it and managed to blow both Chippy's and my round. By now I was furious. I mean everyone can make a mistake, but mum was really not with it this weekend. Look, don't worry, I love her anyway, and I did give her a few kisses to try and cheer her up, but she knew she didn't do well at all and was really down.
So for the last round, which was Allan's again she finally managed to concentrate all the way round and we both went clear. Mum was happy, we were happy. Oh ... Mum *almost* DQd us on the last jump. I jumped and the next thing I see out of the corner of my eye is mum on the floor. She fell and somehow just managed to miss falling right into the jump ... Boy would I have been upset if she had messed that round up, because I WON that round. Yes, me, little Lollie won it. Chippy was second. Finally we could show what we could actually do, but by then it was almost too late. I thought we would continue this competition for a few days now, but I found out that this was the end.
Overall Benji won the SA Champs. This is his third time ... I did tell you that he is my friend, didn't I? Yep, my good friend Benji is SA Champion. Very nice. I ended up in 4th place.Mum says it's OK, we can try again next year. So, next year it would be nice if I would win and Benji is second ... oh, I forgot about my brother ... well, maybe he can be third ... Yah, I think that would be nice ... no point in moping about this year, better to look into the future. I think I can do it, we just need to train mum a bit better. But several people have offered to help her, I hope she doesn't find some stupid excuse and actually takes them up.
So, the AWC Teams were also announced, and the dog who was second this year, she is a Beagle and her name is Emma, Chippy and I will be Team mates and we will be competing at the Agility World Championships. We were all a bit surprised that Chippy made the team ... but there you go. It is the first Medium Team ever from South Africa. Quincy only ever competed as an individual, never in a Team.

Mum says we get special clothing for that and you should have seen the prizes we got already for making the Team ... Very nice of Royal Canine. Well, I am really excited. The Team for the Large dogs are Chase and her mum Julie. Chase has alreday been in Europe once. He competed at the European Open .. how exciting. The second dog is Dillan, she is a Springer Spaniel and mum likes her a lot, so I suppoe I better get friendly with her - just as long as she understands who is the boss ... Dillan competed at the World Champs last year already, so she knows exactly what is going to happen. The third large dog is Chase. He is a BC boy and ooohhhhhhhh do I like BC boys ... I hope my hormones are not going to distract me too much while I am there. In the individual competition there will be Freya and Ostara as well as Ziljin competing.
In the Small Team we have Ricki and Gail. Ricki is Tayla's "brother", and we thought Tyala would be the third dog for the Medium Team. But it seems he did even worse than Chippy did. Then there are 2 Mini Poodles, Vibe and Scoobie. All 3 of the Small dogs have already been to the World Champs, so this is a really experienced Team and mum says she thinks they may have a shot at the podium. I keep telling mum that I think we have a shot at the podium too, but mum just smiles ....

The following day mum had a boring judges seminar .. I mean she said it was very interesting, but it was terribly boring for us dogs. We just had to lie there and behave. Allez wanted to go ratting and I would have loved to just run around with all these people outside, but no, we had to just sit with mum ... yawn ... very boring.
On Monday however we had a great day. Allen (the judge from Croatia) obviously thought my mum and a few others needed some extra help and gave them a whole day of training. That was so much fun ... we ran and ran and ran and I don't think we even stopped for lunch. Wow did mum do well. I hope she remembers all that stuff for our next competition. Even Chippy did really good. I am not sure I like Allen very much ... he said he thinks Chippy will be better at Agility than me! Ha, I don't think he knows that much about Agility after all ... how could he say that? He also asked if we are sure that we are Pyreneans, 'cause we don;'t bite and we really like to have a good tug (especially Chippy). He said the Pyreneans he knows are sure different to us. .... They must have funny Pyreneans in France and Europe ... best they come to South Africa and see what Pyreneans are supposed to be like.

The following day it was time to go home. We had to leave our nice house, but I think Anne will take good care of it. By the time we left even the 2 Yorkies decided we wouldn't eat them and came out a bit ... maybe they just wanted to make sure that we actually leave. We ahd a short break and mum bought some food which she shared with us and we just had a great time all round. I can't wait for our next trip. Mum says it will be soon, but she says it will be very different, because we are going to fly and see our godmother June and her 2 Pyreneans. I have no idea what that will be like, but if it is half as much fun as this weekend we just had, it will be amazing.

Kisses to everyone and thanks for everyone's support and good wishes and good thoughts for the Championships