Hillcrest Jump'n Jive

Jive's Year in 2011

2011-12-14T21:25:00.000-08:00

Jive has had a fantastic year with gaining titles in AD, JD, JDX, and ADX with first places in every event.
He also has two first places in Masters Jumping, Jive and Kris both have grown together as a great team and will be better for it next year. Jive will be trying out for the teams event in March to be run at the Nationals, we will be travelling to the Nationals in June 2012 which will be a great event, as all states in Australia will be competing at the Nationals in NSW. Jive also fathered two great little pups Spark and Roxy in August this year. So he did have a rather busy year.

Jive was awarded his sash at club this year with his titles that he gained.

Jives Wins Masters Jumping Again

2011-12-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

Katie and Kris drove to Portland which is a five hour trip, a couple of weekends ago they did have a lovely weekend but only managed one pass all weekend and that was with Nakita.

So during the following week they had Jive all week and trained him nearly every day with front crosses, rear crosses, call offs from tunnels, and also some jump grids. So they were ready for the next weekend of trialling. It was the last trial for the year, Jive had some lovely runs but one or two faults nearly in every course, except for the one in masters jumping he blitzed the course by beating second (which is also one of the fastest dogs in the state) by 1.25 seconds .

Jive wins Master Jumping

2011-11-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

Jive has had several runs in master's jumping with lots of one faults, a bar down or a refusal, sometimes a tunnel suck but at Warrnambool he finally went clear and won the ring. He has now gained his excellent agility title and has just started running in Masters Agility. Katie and Kris are taking the dogs to Portland next weekend which is a five hour drive from home and have a whole weekend of agility, so Jive will have a ball.

Below is vid of Jive first place in Masters Jumping.

Catch Up - Jive's second birthday and Royal Melb Show

2011-10-18T04:39:00.000-07:00

Well I am very much behind in my blog but I will try and catch up on the news.

Its was Mr Jive’s 2nd Birthday last month on the 16th September and WOW what a full on 2 years this boy has been on he was born and raised in USA for 10 months, flew over to Aust on a massive flight, trained and trialled in Agility and now in Masters jumping and every qualifier he has had has been a first place. He also become a daddy with two great kids.

Jive ran at the Royal Melbourne Show last month, he was a very good boy, he perched himself on top of his crate and was very content to sit there all day getting lots of pats from the public walking by. He ran in four events and very close in each of them, he seemed to love the crowd, nothing phased him at all. Below is a vid of his Open Jumping course where the handler could not go over the pink line. He unfortunately knocked one bar as it was a very difficult angle, but he still came 3rd with an NQ.

Jive at the Royal Melbourne Show 2011

Jive gains his Excellent Jumping Title

2011-09-09T06:02:00.000-07:00

Jive has been having fun with lots with running in the bush every morning the last couple of months, he gets so excited when John gets up every morning he knows it is time for his run in the bush. He whines, runs in circles, in and out of the dog door, and virtually tells John to hurry up he wants to run in the bush. They all go for an hour every morning. But this week is the last week for a while as it is warming up and it is too dangerous with snake season. So the dogs need to be happy with a run around the paddock and lots more agility training.

Jive has excelled all of our expectations, we counted his quallies last week and for 17 quallies he has had 17 wins, what a great achievment. He now has his excellent jumping title and will be running in Masters Jumping in a couple of weeks. Jive will be having his second birthday this month. As we have an average of 60 plus dogs in masters jumping it will be difficult to keep his record of all first places, but I am sure he will have fun trying.

Photo of all his ribbons he has collected in the last couple of months.

Excellent Agility 40.52 61 1st Place Q 03-Sep-11

Excellent Jumping
State Trial 21.39 40 1st Place Q 03-Sep-11
Hastings 20.34 32 1st Place Q 27-Aug-11
Warringal 24.63 40 1st Place Q 18-Jun-11
Scottish Breeds 23.95 40 1st Place Q 05-Jun-11
Croydon 21.92 35 1st Place Q 28-May-11
Knox 23.93 40 1st Place Q 21-May-11

Novice Jumping
Ballarat 18.06 40 1st Place Q 01-May-11
ADVC 17.9 40 1st Place Q 24-Apr-11
Launceston 17.91 34 1st Place Q 26-Mar-11
Hobart 1st Place Q

Novice Agility
Moorabbin 27.63 58 1st Place Q 16-Jul-11
Moorabbin 26.63 60 1st Place Q 16-Jul-11
Sale 30.91 65 1st Place Q 13-Jun-11
ADCV 30 67 1st Place Q 24-Mar-11

Games
Novice Gamble pts
State Trial 2011 59.86 60 1st place 56 points 03-Sep-11
Novice Strategic Pairs
Tassie 1st Place Q 01-Apr-11

Below is a couple of Jives runs in Excellent Jumping and Excellent Agility

Jive's a dad

2011-08-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

I am a bit behind in my blog but for those who do not know Nakita has two lovely puppies, bit of a drama as she did have to have an Emergency C Section and three of her five puppies did not make it. But we are very lucky to have two lovely pups and Nakita live and well. Choc and white is the female very much like her mum, and the choc merle is a male just like his dad.
Below is a small video of the pups today at three and half weeks old.
Pups having a great time playing

Jive gains his AD title

2011-07-30T00:21:00.000-07:00

Jive won two of the two Novice Agility events at Moorabbin on the 16th July. It was a big field for novice agility with over 30 dogs competing, in each event. Jive put in two lovely runs and won both of them with a very good time of 26 seconds.

He also had two excellent jumping runs with only one fault in each so Jive and Kris had a super day.No more trials until the 28th August so another break from agility.

We have been training on our Weave Challenge which Jive is going extremely well, I need to video some of the challenges but we are up to week 7.

Jikata's very soon

Jive will be a daddy in four days as Nakita is due on the 4th August but she might go a bit early as she so big, poor Nakita can't get comfortable.

Nakita with only 4 days to go

Week 4 of the Weave Challenge

2011-06-27T05:11:00.000-07:00

Jive at Morwell agility trial. Thanks to Robyn Evans for photo.

We have no trials for several weeks as a lot of trials have been cancelled due to wet and muddy conditions and also other things, so next trial is not untill the 16th July. We now have plenty of time to train on our weave entries and other things like running Aframes with tunnels very close to Aframes. As Jive loves his tunnels.

As Kris and Jive have only one pass to go before they are in masters jumping, we need to train on advanced skills like obstacle discriminations, seems like that is very popular with judges at the moment, tunnels and tyres next to each other, lots of discriminations also more on serps, threadles, and pushthroughs.

We are in the middle of the Weave Challenge and up to position 4 which we found pretty tough going with the send and the recall. I am doing this challenge with Jazz, Merlot and Jive so we take it in turns and they don't get so tired. With the wet weather lately my ground is very soft, so after a couple of runs on the weavers it tends to get churned up quickly so need to keep moving the weavers to other parts of the ground.
And to think we have another two months of winter. The dogs get so wet and muddy that they have to swim in the dam at least twice a day not that they care as they love their swimming. I am getting very sick of mud.

Below is a video of the send into the weavers with some forward motion, I also had a tunnel very close to weavers as Jive is a bit of a tunnel suck but he was a good boy and did not go into tunnel at all. My computer is very slow in editing so I only videoed the send. I need to get a better edit program.

The Good and the Bad

2011-06-23T06:01:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we trialled at Bulla which is near Melbourne's airport, it was a lovely winters day in Melbourne we even had a bit of sunshine we were lucky with the weather as only a light shower during the day.

Thanks to Robyn Evans for some great photos of Jive

The Good
Jive had a lovely run in Excellent Jumping and won the ring, there were over 30 dogs in excellent jumping, Kris handled Jive well and he and Jive did a good job winning the ring. Only one more pass to go in Excellent Jumping and then he will be with the big kids in Masters.

The Bad
We are not having much luck in agility though, Jive had a lovely run in Novice Agility, we have been working on his weaver entries all week and he did a lovely job getting his entry as a lot of dogs stuffed up the entry. But this was the first time in his trialling that he missed the A frame contact, just when I saying to Kathy that we have not had any problems with the running A frame. Funny my older dog Merlot also missed his A frame in the same ring using the same A frame, so not sure why, maybe it was a bit higher than usual, but really no excuse. Jive did end up winning the ring with one fault as no qualifiers in novice.
Jive certainly enjoys himself running as you can hear him talking as he races around the ring with Kris.

Jive wins Novice Agility

2011-06-15T22:26:00.000-07:00

Jive had three attempts at novice agility on the weekend and managed to win one, the other two he had a bit of trouble with the weave entries as the other two courses were very difficult with the weavers. Below Jive's winning run with Katie handling Jive.

Weave Pole Challenge

I came home from the weekend at Morwell and thought we must train some more on weaving and then when I read Kathy's blog I thought what a good idea.

Kathy and her girls at Agility Adventures are doing a weave pole challenge and I thought as Jive has been failing in his weavers in Novice Agility it would be a great idea to do the Weave Challenge with Jive's sister Cricket and others . It will be good training and lots of fun, Jive is pretty good at the weavers but lately we have been getting some really hard entries in novice and he has just not been gettting them.

We are a bit late in starting but over the last two days we have been doing some of the work in week 1 and 2 as we need to get to the hard entries as Jive is competing this weekend and it would be nice to get out of novice agility. We are supposed to have only the six poles but seeing we are competing on Saturday I am working on the 12 poles this week.
So, if you want to join the challenge or if you just want a really good description of the exercises just click here .

My videoing is not too good and I did not video all of the exercises, I should be better next week when I now know what I am doing. We are in the middle of winter in Australia so it is very wet and muddy, hence the gumboots.

Jive wins Excellent Jumping three times

2011-06-07T05:53:00.000-07:00

Jive has been very busy since I posted last as he has won three excellent jumping events over the last three weekends, also he had three matings with Nakita so hopefully we will see little Jikita's early August.

Nakita ready to play with Mr Jive

Nakita and Jive playing together

Some of Nakita's runs at the Royal Show last year

Below is a video with Jive's first two excellent jumping from Knox and Croydon. Jive has had a bit of trouble getting a qually in agility, if it is not one bar down it is a tunnel suck problem, we have got over those two problems and now we have a weave problem. Oh well back to more training.

Jive's win at Scottish Breeds

Jive's agility trials with weave problem

Jive's first run in Excellent Jumping

2011-05-17T07:43:00.000-07:00

Jive had his first run in Excellent Jumping last weekend, he did a great job but with the famous one bar down. He had three runs in excellent jumping with one bar down in two of the events, he managed to get two seconds with an NQ in each, but still couple of nice sashes and two nice prizes. Jive also had two runs in Novice Agility with one bar down and the other run he missed the last weave.

Katie has been working on Jive's start line stays and this is going really well, Kris also is getting his timing much better with his rear crosses with Jive. I am really pleased with Jive's progress with lovely running A frames and nice fast weavers. He does all the hard stuff but just keeps knocking that one bar.

Jive's Excellent Jumping run

Jive and I have been working on jump grids this week and lots of set point jumps as Jive is trialling this weekend at Knox.

I took the dogs for a run in the bush this afternoon as did not have any dogs to groom, dogs just had the best time.

Jive usually runs 10 laps everytime we get to this spot on our walk through the bush.

Dogs having a swim after their run in the bush

Dogs having a seat on our bush walk

Dogs all tired after their run and swim, getting warm beside the fire.

Jive gains his JD title

2011-05-11T05:26:00.000-07:00

We had a double trial at Easter at Altona, lovely courses and lovely weather. Kris and Jive are starting to work as a team, they had two qualifiers one in jumping which was his JD title. The other one was first place in Novice Agility. Jive and Kris also had some other fantastic runs but with just the one fault in most of their runs. Next weekend the 14th May Jive will be running in excellent jumping.

Jive's Qualifing Runs

Some of Jive's runs where he had the one fault, although they were super runs for a baby boy.

Jive has been back at my place and having fun going for runs every morning with John and the other dogs through the bush and then goes for a swim in the dam. Jive just never stops running he has such a great time.

Jive running with Kris at Geelong

2011-04-21T04:58:00.000-07:00

Kris and Jive had a great weekend trialling together at Geelong last weekend, although they did not end up with Quallies they did have some lovely runs together, just a couple of small hiccups. Jive has been staying at Katie and Kris's place these last two weeks so Kris can put some time in to train Jive and run with Jive to get their timing worked out and work as a team, as this is a must for agility.

Jives's sashes he did not qualify as one bar down in each event but still managed first place in both of the Novice Agility events.

This Easter weekend we have a double trial on Saturday and Sunday, Jive has eight events in Novice Jumping and Novice Agility, in the mean time Jive is having lots of fun with his girlfriends Nakita and Kirra.

Jive wins his first Novice Jumping trial at Hobart

2011-04-05T12:31:00.000-07:00

Getting ready to board the Spirit of Tasmania in Melbourne.

Jives first trial was in Hobart on the 19th March 2011, I ran him in Novice Jumping, it was really exciting to run him in his first trial after 10 months of training, finally the real thing. Jive was a good boy and won the ring.

He did have several runs in Novice both in agility and jumping over two weekends first weekend in Hobart second weekend in Launceston, most runs with only one fault in each, although we will need to work on his start line stay as he did manage to stand up in a couple of the runs on the first weekend. I was very happy with his running Aframe and his weavers although we might need to train on some more trickier entries especially coming from a running A frame. Katie ran him in a couple of the runs and won Novice Jumping in Launceston. So now he only needs one more qualifier to gain his title of JD. Katie and I ran him and Ace in Strategic Pairs and won the ring in Launceston. No video of Strat pairs as our videoing man was playing golf all weekend.

Below is a video of some of his runs in Hobart and Launceston

Launceston runs

This weekend we have a double trial at Geelong, Jive has 8 runs over two days, Kris, Katie's husband will now be running Jive. I have had so much fun training Jive as he just loves to learn, run and jump so he really is easy to teach. I am sure Kris will enjoy running Jive as he is so much fun.

Dogs having fun running up and down on the sanddunes on some lovely dog friendly beaches in Tassie

Sailing on the Spirit of Tasmania

2011-03-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

We are off to Tasmania this Thursday night sailing on the Spirit of Tasmania arriving on Friday morning at 7am. We have a cabin booked so should be lots of fun. Katie and I plus husbands and six dogs. We have a double trial this weekend, followed by some sightseeing of Tasmania during the week, the guys are hoping to get some golf and fishing in. Then we have another double trial the following weekend. This Saturday morning Jive has his first Novice Agility and Novice Jumping event.

We have been busy trialling the last couple of weekends with two double trials one after another in the country. Jive has had two weeks off as he tore his dew claw half off, he was scheduled for his hip score so we had his dew claw removed while he was under. He did come to Warrnambool with us and had a ball swimming in the ocean after the trials. Although he was rather bored hanging around waiting as he was 4 days short of 18 months so could not enter the trial.

Jive looking bored and saying when do I get a go at the fun stuff

Katie getting Jive used to all of the noise and commotion at ringside

We had an awesome time at Warrnambool with Katie and I winning 9 out of the 12 Masters rings. 

Some of the runs we won.

Coffee break on way home from Warrnambool, with the public holiday traffic it was a long five hours in the car.

I gave Jive his first training session tonight after having two weeks off, he really enjoyed himself.
(Not real good quality as I videoed session with iphone.)

Jive's first full practice jumping course

2011-01-30T03:30:00.000-08:00

Jive had his first full practice course yesterday in which I set the course up at home, Ron Diamond from Victoria designed the course it is an excellent jumping course, although I did add a couple of modifications. The course ran very smoothly with a lead out pivot and then some nice controled circle work, into a tunnel with a rear cross, then into another tunnel with a nice Go home.

The main reason I chose this course as I always envied handlers with their dog having a great Go at the end of a course. That is the one thing I did not teach Jazz she tends to slow down and says well are you coming. So I was determined for Jive to have a great Go. As Jive loves his tug he was pretty easy to teach the Go.

Jump'n Jive working on full height running A frame

2011-01-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

Australia Day today in Australia which means a public holiday. Katie and Kris came down and we all went to the beach. The dogs had a great time swimming and splashing around in the water.

Jive has been busy the last couple of weeks with working on his full height A frame, also we had to revisit our weavers and we worked on proofing the entries and exits. We worked on the challenges of the 2x2 DVD of Susan Garrett, lots of great exercises to go through on Susans DVD. Over the next two months we will be working on full courses in readiness for his debut of trialling.

Jive at work with me in the grooming shed
Jive comes to work with me each day as I work as a groomer from home, so everyday Jive comes up to the shed with me and puts himself on the grooming table and checks out all the customers for the day. He loves just sitting around and keeping me company. Any free time we have we go and have a training session of agility which he loves.

More Agility Training

Jive has also been working on his dogwalk, table, jumps and seesaw, there is so much to learn for a young dog, but Jive loves to learn and he loves his agility. At the end of the day he loves to climb on the chair with John or myself and have a big cuddle.

Jive on Holidays

2011-01-02T01:56:00.000-08:00

Jive did have some time off recently from his agility training, Katie and Kris took him kayaking down the river, he loved it and was a very good boy.

Jive at Katie and Kris's over christmas.

Katie and Kris then took Jive and dogs to the beach and they

all had a great swim.

Spunky Jive man.

Jive and his friends at the beach with Katie and Kris.

Jives running A Frame

2011-01-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

Jive has been busy with training his running Aframe this last month.

I decided to try and train a running A frame with Jive, as I have watched alot of dogs with running A frame contacts and they look so much smoother than the 2o2o method. Runnning Aframes seems to be better on the joints of the dogs. I would love to train a running dog walk but I just do not think I would keep up with Jive with a running dogwalk, also the dog walk is not as steep as the A Frame so there fore not so damaging too the joints.

I have videoed a couple of the segments of the running A frame, although I videoed them all today we have been training on the box and the grid for some 4 weeks now with three or four short sessions a day.

Our first segment is adding value to the box, once the dog loves going into the box, we then add the pounce out of the box. Once that is perfected we add the grid line which is the same distance that a dog would jump from the upper part of the A frame and then one pounce into the down contact, and another pounce into the colour.
Video below on some of the segments we have been working on:

Next segment is the grid line, this is the same line as the Aframe itself.

Today is the first day Jive has gone near an A frame we did back chain the A frame a couple of times, we then put it all together and have a lovely running A frame. We still have a long way to go as the A Frame is not at its full height still another 10-12 inches before it is at its full height. We also need to fade the pvc box and also we need to add add turns and rear crosses to the running of the A frame, but I am very pleased with where we are at, running contacts are a lot of work but I think they are worth it in the end.

Jives first day on full height of Dog Walk

2010-12-14T05:06:00.000-08:00

Jive did his first full height of his dog walk today, yesterday we had the dog walk on crates so he could get used to running on a low dog walk, he thought it was great fun, so today we put the dog walk to full height.

More training for Jive
We trained on putting together our weavers and dog walk, then did some jumping with a leadout pivot and a rear cross. We now need to train our A frame in which we are going to try out the running A frame so that might take some time, we also need to work more on the seesaw.

Jives first Xmas party

2010-12-06T04:08:00.000-08:00

Have been very busy lately with work as everyone wants a nice clean, clipped dog before xmas, however Jive and I get up early and do some training every morning. Jive went to his first xmas party last week and played the game of tunnellers, he thought it was so much fun, he only has ever done one tunnel before so he was a bit confused and asked lots of questions when he had nine tunnels in a row to run through, he managed to get second pretty good effort for a baby boy.

Jive working on his weaving, jumping and 2o2o for his dog walk

Jive weaves 12 poles

2010-11-02T06:15:00.000-07:00

Jive has been busy with plenty of foundation jumping, I bought the DVD One Jump, Two Jump. It is a really good DVD for young dogs. We have been working on our lead out pivots, rear crosses, front crosses, pull throughs, push throughs, post turns and serpentines. As Jive is still a young dog I only ever do 10 minutes of training a couple of times a day. We make it fun and fast so he does not have time to get bored. We have also progressed with his weavers which he can do all by himself.

Jive has been a busy boy in the last couple of weeks, he went camping for the first time. As Katie and Kris decided to enter Mt Gambier trial which is in Sth Australia and a six hour drive from home. Jive was a very good boy on the long trip and also camping in a tent. The following weekend we went camping again this time it was a four hour drive to Warrnambool, nice trial but it did not stop raining all weekend, it was a shame as we could not take the dogs to the beach as it was just too wet.

Jazz and Jive getting ready for their big trip.

Jazz and Jive had a lot of trouble jumping of the banks of the dam into the water so Kris and John built a jetty to help them jump into the dam,

Jazz and Jive diving from the new jetty, it takes a bit of persuasion but at last they now will jump into the water.

Weave Pole Lessons with Jive

2010-10-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

At last we have started serious training with our weave poles, as Jive is now nearly 13 months old.

We have worke our two poles and made them very high in value, then moved the two poles at 2pm and 8pm for nice entry work, we have now started working with four poles, and today have added a couple of jumps before the four weave poles. He did not have a problem with this at all.

We also have been working on our jump work with one jump on different angles, then two jumps. We added five jumps today and Jive had a ball. It is very easy working with a dog that just loves to learn.
We also did some work on soft tunnels and nose touches today.

Jive's First Birthday

2010-09-30T06:57:00.000-07:00

Jive had his first birthday on the 16th September 2010, Katie organised a birthday party for him and all of our dogs. He is starting to love birthday parties as he knows he will get lots of yummy cake and Jive just loves his food.

All waiting for a piece of birthday cake

Opening some of his presents, Jive does not like sharing his toys.

Jive has been busy this last month, most of the time he has spent at Katie's were she has been taking him to obedience classes on a Sunday, we figure we had better get some good control in early with Jive otherwise he could easily turn into a ferral young dog. I have also been taking him to agility foundation lessons, I did enrol him into K9 agility club which is outside under lights, but we have had the wettest winter for some years and the classes have been cancelled for the last two months.

Agility Foundation Skills

After his first birthday Jive has been at my place and working on one jump exercises, I love the Linda Mecklenburg Jumping book, I have bought a jump inside and we do one jump exercises for collection.

We have also been working on our 2x2 weavers and are up to lesson 4, he has picked this up quickly and having lots of fun. Will put on video in the next day or two.

Since we have bought him home Jive has been working on his nose touches for his contacts, play drive, start line stays. Perch work, trotting through ladders, walking backwards. He also is doing a lot of shadow work, with accelaration and decel. Front crosses on the flat and also basic exercises for the rear cross.

Jive loves his tunnels and we are getting a lot of drive sending him through tunnels from a distance, we need to teach a lot of distance as I don't think anyone will be able to keep up with him. Jive just seems to love learning and doing anything that has anything to do with jumping and running. He gets very vocal when another dog is training he needs to learn to be patient before he has his turn.

Jive chasing his girlfriend Nakita through the tunnel.

Jive watching Nakita and asking when is it my turn.

Jive at the beach and school

2010-08-17T06:06:00.000-07:00

Jive has been staying with Katie for a couple of weeks, Katie is taking him to obedience classes at Croydon, mainly for socialisation and meeting lots of new people and meeting lots of doggies and being in a different environment. In class Katie has so much time as Jive knows all of the exercises already so Katie uses that time by doing shadow handling, workng on nose touches, and other foundation exercises while she is waiting her turn.

Katie and her friend Laura took the dogs to the beach the other week, although it has been very wet and cold in Melbourne, we did manage to see the sun for a small amount of time. Jive thought it was so much fun.

Laura's dog Levi turned two the other week and Jive went to his birthday party, he loved the cake but a bit unsure of the noise when every one started singing Happy Birthday.

I have just started taking Jive to foundation agility lessons, Katie brings Jive to classes every Wednesday night, we first of all had an assessment night where the owners needed to be in control of their dogs with a basic sit, recall, no aggression to other dogs or people, dogs need to know how to play with toys, of course Jive passed this with no problems.

We have also been playing the Susan Garrett games from her e course which we find lots of fun playing.
Jive's favourite game is when Kris goes and hides in the bush and then Jive has to go and find him, he gets so excited.

Foundation agility training has started for Jive

2010-08-03T23:51:00.000-07:00

Jive has been home now for 10 days, he has settled in really well, he loves running in the bush every morning with the other dogs. I go with John and the dogs now in the morning as this is when I train Jive on his recall, not that he needed it as he already had a fantastic recall, but just to get him used to coming to me on any occassion. On these bush runs I also teach him to come and sit in a heel position or side position, we also train on our release word and our start line stay, we are also doing nose touches while out in the bush. So by having fun in the bush we also use that to train some basic foundation stuff which is needed for agility. Bush runs are also great for getting dogs fit and getting them used to jumping all sorts of branches, logs or whatever gets in their way while they are chasing each other around the bush.

We have just started putting a few of these skills together in the agility field. I have started Jive on puppy jumping grids with a send to a target and a recall over the bump jumps. I love the sending to a target as this gets the dogs to focus ahead and not worry about the handler. As you can see we have had lots of rain as it is rather muddy everywhere.

Recall over the jump bumps

Send over the jump bumps

We have also worked on the tunnel, at first it was a very rolled up tunnel without bends and now he can fly through any bended tunnel.

Jive's first agility trial in Melbourne

2010-08-03T22:57:00.000-07:00

Jive attended his first agility trial in Melbourne last Saturday, he met lots of dogs, puppies and people. He hung out with our dogs under the gazebo and was a perfect little puppy dog.

Jive meeting new friends

Jive hanging out with his new friend Kirra

Jive comes home at last

2010-07-24T01:31:00.000-07:00

It was a busy day today for Jive, Katie and Kris picked up Jive at AQIS this morning at 9.30am. Hooray at long last.

Goodbye AQIS

Jive in the car on his way to his new home

Katie and Kris went straight home to introduce Jive to Kirra and Jive's girlfriend Nakita, we were a bit worried about Nakita as she sometimes does not like certain dogs but they got on as if they knew each other all their lives. What a little hussy!!!!!!
See video below.

Then after introductions at Katie's house they drove to my place, Jive got to meet my three dogs, Merlot, Jazz and Ace. No problems at all they all got on so well, so we took them all for a run in the bush which is behind my place, they had the best time, Jive was beside himself he just ran and ran. And thanks to Brittany he has the best recall, every time he went off for a run we called his name he came bounding back, gave him a treat and then off he went again.

After their run they were all so muddy as it is winter in Australia, very wet and muddy conditions. We decided they could get clean by going for a swim in the dam, Jive decided I will get wet but not too sure on the swim, he watched as Nakita did lots of diving and swimming, he will eventually get the swimming idea maybe when we go in with him in the warmer months.

Nakita diving in the water and Jazz and Jive looking on.

Ace running with Jive

Dogs after their run

From left: Nakita, Kirra, Jive, Jazz, Merlot and Ace

After a great run and swim in dam, Katie decided Jive needed a hydro bath, so off he went for a bath and blowdry.

After that he came inside and jumped on the couch and watched some of our agility runs from last weekend. He was a very tired boy at the end of the day.

Only five days to go

2010-07-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

Jive only has another five days in prison then he will finally be free, it seems to be going on forever but finally we are down to the last week.

Katie and Kris had another visit to Jive last week, Katie started teaching Jive to shake hands, he is very quick to learn new stuff.

Katie bought Jive a new blue collar and lead, ready for his big escape this Saturday.

Bath Time for Jive

2010-07-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

I decided to give Jive a hydrobath at quarrantine on my visit to Jive yesterday, as he started to smell a bit.
Jive enjoyed his nice warm hydo bath and was a good boy especially when I put on the loud dryer he did not like the noise but put up with it. Now we have a nice sweet smelling boy.

Jive getting towel dried after his bath.

Jive enjoying his pigs ear after his bath

Case of the Missing Bed

2010-07-09T02:17:00.000-07:00

We settled Jive into his new bed in his kennel, he loved his new round bed, so we thought at least he will be nice and warm on these cold Melbourne nights. Alas the next time I visited Jive I went to check his kennel and no bed, his mattress and extra blankets were there but no round bed, I went to the office to ask them what happened to Jive's bed, did he dirty it and maybe it is getting washed. I spoke to his carer who said. Sorry, Jive decided to rip his bed to pieces. Oh, I thought maybe he was looking for his chicken frame, he probably thought I know I buried it somewhere in this bed.

The next couple of visits we worked on our round the chair for a nice GO which he is doing nicely from a distance. We also have been doing lots of shadow handling which he is doing nicely. I took a blue round disc for some perch work as Brittany the breeder said he was trained on perch work which he does rather well.

We also did lots of "Get It" throwing toys so he goes and retrieves and most of the time he will bring it back to you, and off course our recalls and lots of other stuff to fill in the hours.

Katie's last visit was funny as he had all of his toys scattered all over the exercise yard, he then proceeded to bring each toy back and lined them all up on the picnic rug, then sat down with them all.

Jive picking up all of his toys.

Jive after he picked up his toys and put them all on the rug

Kris meets Jive

2010-07-04T03:07:00.001-07:00

Kris, Katie's husband and Katie visited Jive last week, he was very excited meeting Kris and both got on extremely well.

Katie gave him a chicken frame but instead of eating it he decided to bury it under his mattress in his new bed.

Playtime - he loves his toys and playing

Katie and Jive taking a break.

Katie working on his recall and working on the around the chair we will be increasing the distance in the next couple of visits.

We bought him a bed and extra blankets to put in his kennel as it is very cold in Melbourne. Jive had a nice rest after his work out he loves his new bed.

Second visit to Jive in Quarrantine

2010-06-28T05:41:00.000-07:00

It was a cold winters day in Melbourne, but luckily the sun came out in the afternoon as I drove to Spotswood Quarrantine for the second time to visit Jive. Katie was at work so went by myself, silly me forgot my camera but did some videoing on my tripod. Jive was very glad to see me when I went to his kennel to get him. We had to work hard to keep warm so we had some fun doing a bit of shadow handling, and basic obedience, he is such a good boy. Gave him a brush and he just lay back and thoroughly enjoyed it.

I took my flask of coffee and a picnic rug so Jive and I had a bit of a picnic in the exercise yard as we had three hours to fill in.

Meeting Jive in Quarrantine 25/06/10

2010-06-25T06:56:00.000-07:00

The day finally had arrived where we met Jive, it was so great to see that little face poking out of his enclosure, he had a great big smile on his face when we came and said hello to him. What a lovely friendly boy he is, nothing seems to phase him with having that big adventure travelling halfway across the world on and off planes, in different kennels, meeting lots of strangers, he just wags his tail and trys to give you lots of kisses. He certainly loves people and just seems to love life

Visiting hours were 1pm-4pm, Katie and I arrived just after 1pm and spent nearly three hours with him. We were allowed to take him to the exercise area where we played with him and gave him lots of treats and toys, wow he certainly loves his food. Our time was up way too soon, we felt like sneaking him out of the gate and taking him home with us, but of course we did the right thing and put hime back in his kennel, and left him with a nice big juicy bone.

Jives arrives in Australia 24/06/10

2010-06-24T05:36:00.000-07:00

Good news James from the IPTLAX has emailed us and told us that Jive has arrived safely in Melbourne this morning at approx 7.45am after a 15 hour trip from Los Angeles to Melbourne Airport.

Katie rang quarrantine this afternoon the girl she spoke to said it looks as if he travelled really well they are very happy with him. They said he is now getting used to his surroundings and has eaten and gone to the toilet. The girl from quarrantine said he has a great personality and is such a happy boy.

Jive needs to be seen by a vet before we are allowed to take him out side in the off lead area for a big run and the vet will be seeing him this afternoon or tomorrow morning. Katie and I will be visiting him tomorrow Friday 25th June. We are allowed to bring him toys and bones, the girl Katie spoke to on the phone sounds really nice and generally sounded like she really likes him. She will be his carer for his entire stay.

Only one more sleep before we meet Mr Jive, and we will be taking lots of photos.

Jive arrives in Los Angeles 21/06/2010

2010-06-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

An email from James of International Pet Transportation, Inc. informing us that Jive had arrived in Los Angeles safe and well.

Hello Katie and Brittney,

We have your little Jive here safe and sound, he is doing well with us settling in to our kennel facility. He has been playing in our enclosed area enjoying his time outside his kennel.
He seemed to have had a good flight and did not mess the travel crate.
We will keep in touch tomorrow with updates on his status.

He is looking great!

Best regards,

James

International Pet Transportation, Inc.

Jive's last day at Oregon U.S

2010-06-21T22:41:00.000-07:00

Brittany and Lori drove Jive to the airport on the 21st June 2010, it was a very sad day for them as they had nine months with Jive and they both fell in love with Mr Jive man.

Jive had a photo shoot with all of his relatives on his last day in Oregon.

Left to right: Kate (great great grandma), Lash (grandma) Jen (great grandma) Rumor (mom) Singe (dad) and Risk (grandma)

Front row: Brothers Jive and Moe

Brittany also put a slide show together on Jive's first nine months living at Oregon.

This is a video of Jive's great, great grandma Kate in her hey day also Brittany's heart dog.
Kate was named Triathlete of dog sports by Animal Planet in 2004. This is a video that was done to showcase her versatility in dog sports.

A video of Jive's grandma Risk on Singe's side semi final and finals Grand Prix run at the 2007 USDAA Cynosports. See family photo above of Risk.

Jive's flight has been booked

2010-06-03T18:02:00.000-07:00

Good news Brittney has booked Jive's flight he is flying to Portland airport then to LA on 21st June 2010.His flight has also been booked from LA to Australia, Jive will be arriving in Melbourne on Thursday the 24th June. Katie and I have Friday afternoon off from work to go and visit Jive where he will need to spend 30 days in quarrantine.

Jive playing with his grandmothers pups

Jive between 5months and 8months

2010-05-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Jive at five months - Map of Australia on his coat

Jive at 5 and half months- Getting ready for his Australian trip

Jive and his brother Moe at eight months

Jive at eight months

Photos of Jive as he is growing up

2010-05-31T07:58:00.000-07:00

Rumor and her six pups born Sept 2009

Jive at one day

Jive at six weeks

Jive and litter mates seven weeks

Jive at four months

Jive at five months

Introducing Hillcrest Jump'n Jive

2010-05-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

We decided to write a blog on a working border collie named Jive that my daughter and I are importing from Oregon U.S. The blog will be mainly around the importing and then the training of Jive in agility. We decided to import a registered working border collie after spending months looking for a mate for Nakita, our lovely chocolate border collie, registered name Kayladene Born to Run . We could not find a suitable dog for her in Australia, that is when we decided to see what is available overseas.

In March 2009 after months of surfing the net and sending lots of emails to breeders I came across Hillcrest Border Collies. Brittany MacNeill the breeder said she would help us to import a dog to Australia.
Brittany gave me a couple of choices of litters that she would be breeding in the near future. We were looking at a particular line and as we sent our deposit to Brittany early we had first pick of the Singe/Rumor litter that was due in September 2009. Our preference was a blue male merle with blue eyes with a lovely temperament. We had our fingers crossed Rumor would produce a blue merle male, she did the right thing and had six pups, three blue merle males, and three females with one female blue merle. Brittany always has a theme for her pups and this litter of pups were named after American beers. Before we named him his nickname was Porter which is an American beer.

It is a very long and expensive process importing a pup from the U.S to Australia as Australia has very strict AQIS procedures, dogs need to be quarrantined for 180 days in which 150 days can be spent overseas but the last 30 days must be spent in quarrantine in Australia. Jive had a lot of visits to the vet for various tests and blood sampling.

We decided we needed help to import Jive into Australia so have asked a company that specialises the importation of dogs into Australia. Jive will be flying out to Australia at the end of June 2010.