Last year, i had a great time at the National Dog Walk 2007 where i did my first ever frisbee demo (can you believe S was actually pregnant with Baby T when we were doing all those back vaults?!). This year, there were fun activities and agility trials held during the NDW but i wasn't involved because the event spans the entire day from 9am-5pm (the agility trials were from 1pm onwards) and Baby T was due to be baptised in the late afternoon on that same day! Bummer, bummer, BUMMER!

As far as i'm concerned, Bailey (Super Bailey, in fact) was the star of this year's NDW! I've seen him complete the superweaver at the speed of lightning (60 weave poles, OMDOG!) and he's getting better and better with those frisbee tricks!!!! Once i lay my paws on those videos, i'll post them up here!

I'd like to claim some credit for his vast improvement though....

Can you see how intense and focussed Bailey was back then when he was still a puppy?! And now this youngster flies higher than me!!! Way to go, Super Bailey!!

Okkkkaaaaayyy....i admit i didn't do much for Bailey to become Super Bailey. It's all thanks to Mr. Smartdoggy who spent so much time training him! The humans always mockingly scold Mr. Smartdoggy for being a showoff with Bailey but i guess if they had a dog like him, they'd be showoffs themselves too!!

Although i didn't get to go to the NDW 2008, the humans brought my lil' brother to check out the action (BOO!). I was a tad jealous because i didn't want Baby T mixing around with strange dogs! He reeked of weird and smelly dogs when he came home and i wasn't too pleased until the humans showed me this:

Looks like Baby T only shares a connection with me..tee hee hee!! Even though he's getting rather chubby, i shall strive to constantly remind myself: He ain't heavy, he's my brother!! :)

Overdue videos of my last 2 frisbee demos! The first one was taken last week at SMU's World Animal Day and it's my very first time performing with D! Although S still practices her frisbee chops with me and can still manage most of our usual sequence (albeit at a MUCH SLOWER pace now), she can no longer do vaulting with me and that's supposedly the most impressive part of all! So yeah, she has been out of action for awhile and i'm glad i can finally have some good ol' male bonding time with D!

The second vid was from way back last year at the National Dog Walk. Realised i haven't shared the video with you guys so here's it anyway!

Hope y'all enjoyed the videos!

p.s. My home's bustling at the moment because i was told my human l'il bro is due to arrive anytime this week. I love human puppies because they have as much energy as i do and seem to be able to play fetch with me eternally!!! BUT i was told i'd have to wait for my l'il bro to grow up first before that can happen.....WHAT A BUMMER!

"A characteristic of the border collie is the herding eye. It's been said that when working, this breed will usually be seen in the crouched position, with their alert eyes fixed on the job in hand. The 'hypnotic' eye characteristic is probably more defined in the Border Collie than any other breed and it is this quality which makes them so superb in herding sheep, using their eyes to guide a herd without the need to nip or bark."

Even though there is no stock for me to herd here in sunny Singapore, S makes sure i still exercise some of my Border Collie traits by giving me "work" to do. If you've seen me playing frisbee with the humans, you'll be able to witness how i try to round them up by circling them endlessly like how a true working Border Collie would round up stock.

"The Border Collie is an agile dog, able to suddenly change speed and direction without loss of balance and grace. When intent upon an object of interest (a toy, a treat, or stock) there is often a crouch or stalk position with a steady gaze (the Border Collie "eye") and a lowered head. The movement is free, smooth and tireless, with a minimum lift of the feet and an overall balanced appearance."

And of course, the object of my utmost interest is the frisbee!!! Check out how ready i am, assuming my stalk position with my super intense Border Collie "eye", dying to take off as soon as the frisbee leaves S's hand! (Even my usual floppy ears are up, so it goes to show how serious i am about my "job!"!!)

 

Crouching and exercising the power of my Border Collie "eye"!

Doing a mid-air spin!

Got it! 




Back vaulting! 

Great, great pictures by Mee Yin (whom i haven't met in real life but hope to do so soon so i can personally give her a paws-up to show my appreciation) - thanks so so so much letting me have these pictures so i can share them with other doggies and humans! Hope you guys enjoyed them as much as i did!

I have so so so so much to say and so so so so many pictures to post but so so so so little time! Drats! I wonder where all my time has gone to, considering the fact that i get it so much better than real working Border Collies who have sheep to herd all day long!

S still hasn't uploaded the pictures from my barkday and i know i still owe many people the recipe for "Chester's Chicken Gobblers"! Soon, folks! VERY SOON, i promise!!

For now, let me share some great shots from the National Dog Walk which happened last Sunday. I did my frisbee demo and as usual, i had a helluva time!! S's grouse was that the wind was too strong that day and hence it screwed up many of her throws. As a result, i was unable to put up an ace show, so she said. BUT HELL, we had loads of fun and i really hope the crowd liked my performance!!

Saw BearBear finally and man, he's getting big! I don't think i'll be dumb enough to pick a fight with him even though i know he's really a big, gentle giant!! Bear Papa took a great shot of me too and you can see it here! Thanks for the excellent capture, Bear Papa!

Here are some pictures from John, one of my favourite human friends who is also my neighbour. John's only 14 years old but he loves photography and i believe someday he's gonna be right up there, doing exclusive photoshoots for Tiger Woods and his Border Collie, Taz. To be honest, i've no doggy idea who Tiger Woods is but since he's got a Border Collie, i reckon he should be a pretty cool guy!

Enjoy the pics, y'all!

I hope BearBear can join me for some serious frisbee fun sometime soon, even though Bear Papa cringes at the idea of having BearBear vault off his back or flying around in the air, all 34kg of him. Mind you, S has played frisbee with a rottie before so it goes to show that different breeds can participate in this sport as well!!

Anyway, i chanced upon other pictures of me in some local forums (if you see more, please tell me so i can lay my grubby paws on those precious pictures!) and i'm gonna ask the photographers for their permission first before i post them on my blog! More pictures soon so watch this space!

Here's me and the guru doing our thaaang!

After weeks of gruelling training, i've finally learnt how to do a back vault! Still unable to execute a good landing at times but i know i'm getting there!! My humans are so proud of me that they keep gushing and telling me how smart i am after every frisbee training session! I guess when you do something with a passion, you definitely do it well!  I wuff my frisbee....no bones about it! Heh!

I'll be doing my second ever public frisbee performance (the first one was at the SKC dog show in April, remember?) at the National Dog Walk this Sunday and from what i gathered, i'll be rewarded with 2 giant bags of kibbles for my effort! Between S and I, we all know who the klutz is (NOT me of course) but i still hope we'll put up a good show on that day and get more humans and doggies interested in becoming a high-flying disc dog like me! 

As long as you can chase a ball, any dog can play frisbee....trust me!

No prize for guessing who's sponsoring the kibbles! Reckon i'll make a good model for Oven-Baked dog food?! I think i look mighty cool with my new bandana!!

Ok, backtracking a l'il here.

I've finally lived up to my name - Chester the Jester, because i now perform TRICKS in front of an audience. At the SKC Dog Show last week, the humans signed me up for the "Best Trick In The House" event and i even managed to clinch 3rd prize! I thought playing frisbee was considered a TALENT more than a TRICK, but i guess i was all wrong! *burst bubble*....

Anyway, it was only an okay performance because the floor was slippery and S was afraid i'd slip and end up breaking a leg or something. In the end, she only managed half-hearted throws but I, on the other hand, still gave my 200%!!

For the 200% i put in, this is what i got:

Here's me looking mighty pleased with my loot!

And finally, my *erhem* award-winning performance caught on video. Someone stop me from being so shamelessss.......hee hee hee!

You can call me Chester the Jester now! Wooooof!

I went for my first SKC Jumpers Trials, which was held at the Singapore Expo yesterday! We trained hard for the past few months and even had last minute tuition sessions last week. The weather wasn't forgiving at all so i was basically in and out of the mud during our training sessions. I'm not complaining though because i love mud spas but the humans weren't very impressed with me dirtying the car and the house - had to be scrubbed a coupla times before i was my handsome self again (before that, i looked like Oscar from Sesame Street and resembled someone who had lived in a trash can all his life).

Here's evidence of me hard at work:

Auntie S says i look very dashing in the pictures and my humans can't agree more!! All thanks to Uncle CK who took these pictures - i think he's the bestest dog photographer in the world, so if any of you doggies out there want your glamour shots to be taken, contact him!

Okay, so back to the trials proper.

I think i suffered some stage fright when i was in the ring and screwed up from the very beginning! Even when we were standing by waiting for my turn, my spirit was up and down. According to S, one moment i had that gleam in my eyes, and the next moment, i looked spaced out and frightened (and even had my tail tightly tucked between my legs...how embarrassing!!!).

At the starting line, i was nervous and just wanted to go to where S was walking to. I conveniently skipped the first jump and ran straight to her the moment she gave me the "over" command. However, after some coaxing from S, we continued with the circuit even though we missed jumps and were already out of the game. I think it was only during the last leg of the circuit that i sorta realised what was expected of me and both S and I wasted no time and sprinted all the way to the last jump!

Even though we screwed up, the humans and Mr. Smartdoggy said it was a good attempt for a first-timer - we tried our best and had a great time and that's the most important part! Lotssssa room for improvement but we'll definitely work on it! I must say that we did witness some amazing performances from some of our fellow triallers. Kaiser (and K) and Prince (and Jazz) were deserving winners of the Maxi Jumpers and Mini Jumpers respectively. We saw speed, agility and great human-dog coordination.....*wee-weet*....BIG BIG congratulations to them!

Anyways, i met sooooo many nice humans and doggies at the show too. Compared to the last SKC show i went in October where i was super stressed out, i was much more polite and waggy-tailed yesterday. Hung out with Kerry my favourite bitch who was doing her usual super-modelling, said a big hello to Shiro my new best friend and Ryu her brother whom i was cordial to, bumped into Coral and Bless whom i was just as happy to see and finally got to meet up with Cody and his brother Chester too! Little Chester the Corgi and big Chester the Border Collie (c'est moi!)....maybe we might even get to compete in the same ring in future!

Oh, and i got to meet Auntie J (Luna and Suria's mummy) who came up to me and gave me a nice pat-pat. Got introduced to Auntie M who was showing her very handsome Rough Collie and she started fawning all over me! Auntie E (Cody's mummy) bought me some beef jerky as promised and i gobbled up a few as soon as i laid my grubby paws on them! Sweeeeeet.

Besides the trials proper, S also entered me for the fun events too. I got first placing for "Best of Breed" segment of the companion dog show part and it was only because there were just TWO Border Collies competing......muahahahaha! However, i didn't stand a chance at all when the Pastoral Group was being judged because Shiro, the very pretty Samoyed stole all the limelight. Shiro bagged both the "Champion For A Day" and "Best Kept Dog" award and i'm awfully happy for her! My best friend Kingsley won the "Speediest 4-legs" award and it's a second time win for him too! Way to go, buddies! 

I didn't leave empty-handed either and  won 3rd place for the "Best Trick In The House" award and no prize for guessing what trick we did! Frisbee is fun fun fun fun FUN! We won a plaque, Carrefour shopping vouchers and some dog food - will post the video and pictures soon!

Ended the fun day with more frisbee at Siglap park - i just never seem to get enough, do i?! Hung out with Kerry after that and then ended the night with a scrumptious, yummilicious dinner. For the hardwork i put in, Mr. Smartdoggy also gave me new tug toys to play with! Okay actually, i'm supposed to use those to practice dropping on command because i'm still atrocious at it....hahaha!

Alritey, i'm off to have a break before i resume training again. Sentosa - the sea, the sand and the babes, HERE I COME! Wheeeeee!

Who wants to grab a tin and do this with me and S? Oh, Kingsley and his S are gonna join us too! Dog and human friends who have time to spare on 22nd November (it's on a Wednesday), please tell me soon so i can inform the nice folks at SPCA!

It'll be fun i promise!!!!!

p.s. If you can't join us, I'll tell you where I'll be stationed that day so you can pop by and drop some cash into my tin. 2 dollars for a pat on my furry brown head and 5 dollars for a game of frisbee with me!

(Picture taken by CK, many thanks to Kingsley and his mummy!)

That's me, strutting my stuff at the SKC dog show. Prior to this, i picked up some cat-walk tips from my feline siblings and it's obvious i've got the moves!! Yeah yeah, i know my hair cut is disastrous and totally un-Border Collie, but it was a pretty lady who did it so i have no complains at all! I just hope my fur grows and my coat starts fluffing out soon enough!

I love doing the fun events but someday, i also hope to be good enough to participate in the trials proper! 

The nice folks at Dogmark.net liked my blog and decided to feature my dogblog today as the "Cool Dog Site of the Day"! Thank you Mr. Takashi Ito! I heard that my site will also be running for "Best Dog Site of the Month", so do check out Dogmark.net and vote for me if you want!

Anyway, this is all really thrilling and i haven't been able to curb my excitement ever since last weekend! You see, last Sunday, S brought me to the SKC (Singapore Kennel Club) dog show and i even got to participate in the fun events! S signed me up for the "Champion of the Day" event which is basically like a standard dog show where doggies pose and do cat-walks dog-walks. 

I had to stand for inspection, get my teeth checked and was caressed and fondled everywhere! The lady judge even inspected my ding-dongs - thank God i had a Brazilian wax the day before! Then i had to strut around with S, which i thought was reaaally undignified for a boy dog like me!!! Anyway, it was all worth putting up with because in the end, i was lucky enough and won the "Best of Breed" segment!!

I went on to compete in the "Champion of the Day" event which featured all the other "Best of Breed" doggies. A very handsome Golden Retriever won the title and i was more than happy to be awarded 2nd placing! S was so proud of me because this was the first time i've entered and won a competition!!! We received a DVD player and doggy-hell lot of ProPlan dog food! I hope she lets me watch "Lassie" on the new DVD player this weekend or something. Or maybe i'll even get to watch "The Exorcist" with my scaredy-cat siblings!!!

p.s. Lazy human still hasn't downloaded the photos from the camera yet. Anyway, almost all the photos turned out blurry because D wasn't used to the camera. I'll post the better ones up as soon as i lay my grubby paws on them.

OH, and i also wanna say thanks for all the doggy (and human) concerns that poured in after my bad experience with the evil man. I'm fine and dandy now, but i doubt S is prepared to forget about this issue soon. I hope the dog-police gives the evil man a black mark at least. That'll teach him to stop bullying us doggies!!