I celebrated New Years Eve at a twilight dog show, with my three adult dogs: Clover, Chip, and Winnie.  It was lovely, and really encapsulates that doggy year that I have had.

This post is quite personal in comparison to my regular content, but I hope it may still be of interest to my readers. I’ve broken this post up into different doggy-interests, and described 2011 happenings and 2012 goals in each.

 

Conformation

I have been focusing my showing efforts on Winona, and she has accumulated approximately 70 points over the last year.  I have hopes that she will collect her remaining 30 points next year and so gain her champion title.  She has also had the most success, gaining several baby puppy in groups, puppy in groups, and a runner up in group along the way.  Her mum and dad, Clover and Chip, have been shown sparingly, but Chip has still been awarded points over the year gone. Clover… Clover had fun.

 

Earthdog

In South Australia, unfortunately, we have had some problems with our Earthdog judges, which meant that I was one of only two judges in the state.  This is problematic as passes at each level must be awarded by at least two judges and, as I can’t judge my own dogs, it made it difficult to gain titles on my dogs.

Chip, however, had passes from 2010, and so got his “Senior Earthdog” title early in the earthdog season.  He then went on to receive three “Master Earthdog” passes, but he needs one more under a different judge to get his ME title.  Unfortunately, he is likely to be leaving us before the next earthdog season, and so it seems unlikely that he will gain his ME title.

Clover is in a similar boat, also having three “Master Earthdog” passes. However, next year, she’ll still be here to compete and so should gain her ME title easily.  We then intend to pursue her “Master Earthdog Excellence” title, which involves a further five passes in senior and an additional five passes at master. It will be tight for us to achieve this in our short earthdog season, but I hope we may be able to!

And darling Winona… At 6 months, I took an innocent puppy to earthdog practice, and found myself coming home with a dogged rabbit hunter!  At 6 months and one day, Winona gained her first pass for her “Novice Earthdog” title.  However, she was not entered in anymore tests for the season. Hopefully we will be able to achieve her NE and her SE titles in 2012.  (But “Senior Earthdog” does involve a recall and this is not a forte of my independent Winona.)

 

Tracking

Clover completed her Tracking Dog title at the beginning of the year, but in poor style.  I was quite happy to pass, but understand that we will have to do a lot of training next year to get her through to her “Tracking Dog Excellent” title.  I doubt we will be able to achieve her excellent title next year, but may be able to obtain a couple of passes.

Chip completed his Tracking Dog title, in three trials (with an ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, and ‘good’ rating).  I am thrilled that he finished his title in the season, as he will not have the chance to enter tracking next year.  Chip is a natural at tracking, and I hope his daughter, Winona, will inherit his talent.

Winona has started training in tracking. So far, it seems that I’ll very much be at her mercy, like her dad, but when we start the tracking season again, we’ll see how much she retains… I should mention that her nickname around home is “Little Miss Scatterbrain”…

Myrtle hasn’t started any training context-based tracking, but has mostly mastered the ‘find’ cue… Not bad for 10 weeks! We hope to get this a little be more refined and enter her in some trials this year.

 

Other Sports

Really, I have not done more than dabble in doggy dancing, agility, and obedience. I am making it a 2012 goal to at least enter Clover is novice obedience. It will take a little polishing on my part, but I do want to! This is a goal I’ve been putting off for far too long, and Clover is not getting any younger.

 

Breeding

Clover climbed into the whelping box again this year, whelping a singleton litter of one bitch puppy, named ‘Myrtle’.  Her ample milk supply didn’t go to waste, and she raised two rescue puppies at the same time.

In 2012, we plan to have a litter from Clover again, and will try to have one from Winona, too, towards the end of the year. As we have sorely learnt, however, dog breeding is very much at mother nature’s mercy, and who knows what she has in store for us this year…

 

 

Fostering

This has been my busiest foster year yet. We have seen 6 dogs fostered and rehomed this year, all with their unique personalities and needs.  Mooch, the purebred Norwegian Elkhound, came first.  Then came Harry the terrier crossbreed, then Honey the boxer crossbreed, then Buddy, another terrier crossbreed.  And the two foster babies (Pocket and Leo) that Clover raised.  Our longest foster was Mooch, who was here for 2 months waiting for the home that could help raise her confidence.  Harry the terrier crossbreed was here for the shortest time, and for good reason!  Harry was the absolute gem of the rescue system, and I couldn’t of asked for a better home.

Interestingly, all but Mooch and Honey had their names changed in their new home – and Mooch and Honey are the only two that were surrendered with existing names!  I guess I’m not so great at this naming thing after all.

 

The blog

This blog had a lull in the middle of the year, where all my uni, work, and life commitments fell in a heap.  38 blog posts were made this year, mostly on dog behaviour and dog politics.  The dog behaviour posts were mostly based around the Paul McGreevy Seminar I attended, while the political posts were surrounding the changes to BSL laws in Victoria.

My favourite blog post was more the series I wrote on Belyaev’s fox experiment.

My most personal and emotive post was that made about Buddy the foster dog.

When writing my BSL posts, I was really quite distraught about the legislative changes and really felt the need to do ‘something’.  I was really satisfied with the response to these posts: 124 people ‘liked’ this post on Facebook, and another 111 liked this post.

 

Personal Life

I have been, and will stay, a member of several clubs and bodies.  One significant change is that I am no longer Secretary of the Junior Kennel Club of South Australia, but am now the president.  Additionally, I am now both a committee member and the training officer of the Tracking Dog Club of South Australia.

I am almost finished my honours thesis, and I got engaged to some guy that puts up with 6 foster dogs over the course of a year.

Things are busy, but things are grand. I look forward to spending 2012 with you all.