va va vroom

Went to collect our new car yesterday.
Want to know what car we bought? Click here !

Someone got tired of Automatic hence this car is *Gasp* Manual.
I had a hard time trying to learn how to drive a manual transmission car again and it’s obvious I need lessons again.

Luckily, Siew Lee from Garage R has been kind to offer me free driving lessons using her car.
So, our first driving date?? Next Sunday.
I must say I’m really proud to have bought our car from Garage R.
Lee is the vaso-constriction-handshake lady I mentioned before in my earlier post.
Her brother Lestor Wong is a racer who appeared in this month’s issue of Hot Stuff car mag.

She is by far the nicest and most sincere car dealer, or in fact any sales person, I’ve ever met.
She has no airs about her, and she took the pain and trouble to explain the littlest details to us, being first time car buyers (the ex-car was bought by Andy’s dad).

So happily, and rather awkwardly, Andy drove off the new wheels hehe and was very funny because he couldnt really get the hang of driving Manual again after so many years.
I think the other road users thought he was on crack!

And the lady owner’s duty?
To fix up a dog-friendly boot with poncho and car seat covers plus a short leash attached just in case the dog decides to jump from boot to windscreen.

Learning Weave poles

It has been a pretty hectic week (read: madness).

My attachment started, which meant I had to leave the house for work when everyone else is dead to the world.
Time flies when you are busy.

You’d think that with all running around and standing all day a nurse has to do, I’d be dead tired, but instead, I still had loads of adrenaline left for training Agility.
It must be my Mum’s genes!

Here’s what I do on most weekdays for this week:
– Go for coffee (for me, Milo) with the girls after work
– Head back and morphe into Training Gear
– Head to nearby lush and lovely field with Weave poles and dog in tow! (Yes, Weave poles!!)

And our achievement this week?
We’re into our 6th pole already!
I dont know how other people train Weaves, but I use a Clicker and start with 2 poles, and click for the right entry and the behavior.
After about 10 tries, I add on a 3rd pole. and so on…
We’ve been pretty lucky for the rain these days to keep things cool.

Today, we’ll take a break from Agility.
We’re heading to Venise’s party!

We’re invited!

Mavy says:
We’re cordially invited to Venise’s 3rd Birthday!
I’m just so excited!
You might not have met Venise before, but she is mummy’s friend’s GR Girl.
And mummy’s friend I’m refering to is Sharon, affectionately nicknamed Shaz by Mummy.
The Venue of the party – “Nicky’s house garden nearby” – Nicky is referring to Shaz’s GR, Nicky.
They stay in a HUGE house in Mayflower Gardens and the past few gatherings were held at the park nearby.See this photo of us marching on?

According to Venise’s humans, she is 29 yrs old! How did they calculate that?
It’s all too confusing to do such Math every year, even for a smart-ass Border Collie like me. *ahem* A week ago, the Mama was still deciding what present to get for Venise.
Uncle Kenneth (Kaiser-daddy) suggested she get Coach collar.. Good Heavens! She wont even spend such money on a collar for me!
So after some deliberation from the Mama and Shaz, these aunties headed down to Pet Lovers Centre to buy doggy treats for the Birthday Girl.

I sure hope Venise enjoys them! for I have no idea what they taste like, since Mama has put me on a strict weight loss program which involves only kibble diet and training treats and loads of Frisbee and running.. But I’m not complainin’ Heh.

Under Mama’s influence, Shaz is putting Nicky under Mama’s regime for canine weight loss! It’s no secret really, Shaz just changed Nicky’s diet to Eukanuba Reduced Fat formula, and no more rice and lesser treats.
Plus, exercise during Shaz’s free time.
I even overheard Shaz wanting to buy one Frisbee from Mama!
Here’s what Shaz said: “I want Nicky to be the neighbourhood star” HAW HAW HAW
Just in case you’re wondering, on the scale of 1-9 below, Nicky’s a whopping EIGHT!!

Memory lane: Gina O’ Keefe’s workshop

A recent trip down memory lane brought back some fond memories.
Here’s what:

Mavy-mummy had signed Mavy-puppy up for gina O Keefe’s Positive Training workshop organised by PUPS Training School
For the uninitiated, Gina O’ Keefe is one of the top trainers and competitors in dog sports in Australia.
Here are some of her dogs’ achievements:
Aust Obedience Champion Luftadastra Kiri ADM JDM ,(Top Obedience Dog W.A 1999 to 2002) -Aust Obedience Champ Kimari Crackerjac Pepper ADM JDM  , Max UD
Indie AD JD

Mavy-Daddy paid for the course (how nice), and 3 evenings were spent at a CC in AMK attending the workshop.
Later, we came to find out that the CC is just next to Shaz’s house! So near and yet so far…
It was an eye opening experience, very valuable lessons learnt and taught, and Mavy thoroughly enjoyed it!
It turns out that Gina is Shelley’s friend in Perth! 8)

There’s Mavy being the class clown. No prizes for guessing who was teacher’s pet! hahaha

The 3-hr per night class was split into theory part and practical part.
The ace student was paying full attention. hahaha

Erm… the last night, Mavy koonzzzz ZZZzz 🙄

During the 3 nights, we did theory work, laid down our objectives for attending the workshop (some wanted a well-behaved pet, some aimed for greater heights at trials, and me? I just wanted to know more about clicker training).
The practical part, we did Obedience and attention work, and also some basics to Agility the clicker way, like Right- and Left-hand handling, reinforcing Start-stays, and problem-solving.
And oh, we had lots of cakes and drinks too!

We hope that PUPS will organise more of such workshops with overseas trainers. I never thought clicker training was such a science. Yeah, now I know..