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!!

Ain't this little monkey the cutest? Even macho me can't help but go "Awwwwwwww" whenever he grins at me.

Anyway folks, this is Baby Bailey (whom i went to Sentosa with last weekend) and i uhm...love him like a son (it's true!) even though his father is SuperBill, whom i don't see eye to eye with. The enmity and feud possibly stems from the fact that we're both prety talented and like all talented dogs (and MEN), we both like to be the only one that impresses the bitches (or chicks, or both!).

Baby Bailey has been a very good pup so far and i've tried to be a good "Uncle Chester" to him too. Well, except for once when he tried to steal food from the human's mat at Sentosa! When it happened, all the humans starting barking and growling and naturally, i too, stood up tall and growled at Baby Bailey. For ONCE in my entire existence, the humans actually praised me for disciplining the pup - i still can't believe i got praised for ticking a puppy off! I usually get yanked off from "the scene" so it's great that someone else gets yanked off! Baby Bailey deserved it for being naughty! Tee hee hee!!

Baby Bailey is also a good boy because he is true to his name. I wonder which cuckoo tried offering him a cheap can of Heineken. But of course, the pup didn't even give a hoot about the beer. Why do you think his name is BAILEY?!

Check out how hard Bailey was staring at me when i caught the frisbee! He's watching and learning, that pup. Thought i'd give him a few tips on mastering the art of Frisbee since he looked so keen to learn but that boy ended up sleeping!!! KIDS NOWADAYS!!!! GRRRRR.

Talk is cheap so i showed him the moves. THIS, my padawan is how you do it in style, BORDER COLLIE style!

I've got more photos from my Sentosa trip. Photos of my supermodel girlfriend, Kerry will be up soon so watch this space!

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!

If you have been following my blog faithfully, you'll know that i am a frisbee maniac and there are a few frisbee dogstars out there that i really admire and look up to. One of them is Skye who hails all the way from Georgia in the USA. Apparently, Preston (Skye's amazing owner) saw my vids too and left some reaaaallly nice and encouraging comments for me.

This is what he said:

"Wow Chester is looking awesome!!!! If not this year next year he should (be) so ready for his freestyle debut! Good job and congratz!!"

"Wow isn't he looking good he sure is 100% Border Collie! I can't believe how fast he is coming along. Keep posting those vids!!"

I think Preston is just too kind!!! Too bad frisbee isn't as big here in Singapore compared to USA so i doubt i'll ever get a chance to do freestyle frisbee here! *major SIGH*

Anyway, here's a vid of Skye's little sister, Sienna (she's a red and white like moi and so very cute!!! *grins*) and i think she's gonna grow up to be a big frisbee dogstar like Skye. I've been eavesdropping and know that  D and S have plans to get me a sibling sometime in the near future. Honestly, I hope they get a stupid puppy that has no inclination towards the frisbee at all so i don't need to share my toys with her. HMPH.

Enjoy - here's soaring Sienna!

When the guru first tried to teach me to flip, i looked somewhat like a lizard that has been swept off the ceiling - uber awkward with limbs flailing all over the place. Suffered a few falls due to bad landing (no serious injuries, thank DOG!) but i was told that if i practiced hard enough, i'd have better celebration calibration and would know how to position my body, catch the frisbee and land properly.

The humans were equally as hardworking as me and they practiced throwing frisbee as much as i practiced catching 'em! S and I worked on my flips quite abit and i must say that i think i'm finally nailing those moves, slowly but surely!! Now, when will D perfect his air-bounce?!? *rolls eyeballs*

After last weekend's session, D compiled the videos he took and made them into an awesome em-tee-vee!!! Not to be sadist or what, look out for the parts where i stumble and fall. Like Fort Minor aptly puts it, "it's 5% pleasure, 50% pain"! No pain, no gain!

Check this out!! Hope you enjoy watching it as much as i enjoyed playing frisbee!!

Any dog can play frisbee so come join me! I promise it'll be fun!!!

This is my  very first edited video complete with one of my favourite songs! Uhm...i initially wanted to use Madonna's "Vogue" (*whaddya lookin' at?*) in this video but after much contemplation, i decided it didn't match my big bad boy image at all, so there!

Anyway, do check it out and tell me if you enjoyed it!

Come on, blast your speakers, let's rock and roll!

You know what gives me a mad rush?

No i don't do alcohol and neither am i a junkie!

There's nothing more potent than having my other favourite person (that's D in the picture looking suitably serious) playing frisbee with me!!!!

I overheard him asking S last night to check out my perfectly arched back and rippling muscles in the picture, and how i looked so ready to just go go go get the frisbee! He also said something about me looking like a turbo-charged Subaroo - not entirely sure what animal that is, but i'm guessing it might be in the same family as a kangaroo!!!!

What about you? What gives you a mad rush? Tell me!

p.s. I think S needs to get a better camera with a faster shutter speed. This camera is obviously NOT Border-Collie friendly! To think that the salesperson who sold her the camera told her that unless she needs to take pictures for a cheetah or Subaroo in full speed, this camera is perfect otherwise!!! BOOOOOO!

Some recent videos of me playing frisbee! I'm learning, slowly but surely! There's still alot of room for improvement but we'll get there soon! I'm just loving every minute of this and the humans can attest to the fact that my heart is always willing to chase another 100 throws (though sometimes, fatigue gets the better of me, especially after one of those super intense sessions)!

This is us 2 weekend ago when S first started to teach me to do the "crossover". I didn't know what she wanted and that wuss was afraid i'd land on her and break her ribs there and then! As you can see, it wasn't a very successful attempt - this is an example of the "anti-demos" i was talking about in my previous post! But hey, we all start somewhere, don't we?!

This is us last weekend practicing the crossover again. This time, i knew what was expected of me and S was definitely more confident compared to the last time round because she knew i (read: Border Collie aka smartest dog breed in the world, thank you very much!) wouldn't be so stupid as to land on her!!! I think we're really starting to gel as a team and i hope that someday, we'll be able to come up with our own frisbee sequence too!!!

Oh man, i love this girl!!! Look at how beautiful and graceful she is when she does her catches and vaults. Purrrrrrfect excecution. I'm definitely smitten.

And that's not all, this girl's a celebrity and has an attitude to boot too....check out her appearance on the Letterman Show!

Oh Venus, oh Venus, oh Venus!!!!! *long deeeep sigh*

I have been practising my moves too but it's only been 5 months since i exorcised the frisbee demon and hence i'm still very much an amateur! In fact, the humans and I just visited West Coast Dog Run a couple of days for a frisbee session. D took some videos of me but he calls them "anti-demos" because S and I were doing everything wrong and we probably looked more like circus clowns. Still, i might post the videos up once i lay my grubby paws on 'em just for you to have a good laugh!

I overheard the humans talking about getting me more new frisbees because the old ones are worn out and beaten up (some of them have chips and rough edges that hurt my mouth sometimes!). I swear i'll practice reaallllly hard and if i ever get a chance to meet Venus, i just might be able to convince her i'm THE DOG for her! Hee hee!!

Here's a video of another dog, Skye doing his frisbee sequence. As you can see, i'm not all droolly, panty and excited over him because he's not really a hot bitch, so to speak. But Skye is still one of my frisbee idols and i hope in days to come, i'll be able to master some of those moves and be as good as him!

Enjoy!

Remember my frisbee story?

I can't imagine myself ever being sooooo frightened of something sooooo amazing and wonderful!!! Now, i'm absolutely crazy about the frisbee and i wish S and D will brush up on their throwing skills soon. It really sucks to have bad team mates and having to catch lousy throws!!!!!

Anyways, we had some serious frisbee fun over the weekend! I must say i'm getting quite good at this although i wish i can say the same about my humans. All those miscommunication and bad throws are driving me nuts!!! Thank God i'm a Border Collie.

Here's me catching a seriously LOUSY throw (ignore the human in the video please *sniggers like scooby-doo*) but oh well, it certainly made me look good!

Oh, i forgot to give credits to the videographer and video-editor. If you wanna know, it's my daddy. BUT i'm the star so you can ignore what i just said too! *sniggers again*

We're (or should i say, the humans are) in the midst of teaching me the left and right turns as well as the "through" command (which is basically scampering in between their wide open legs).

You know how i was talking about challenging my limits this year in my last post? This weekend, the humans presented me with a new challenge and i'm proud to say i've taken it up fearlessly and very enthusiastically - Lucas (aka Mr. Smartdoggy) taught me how to vault off his leg to catch a disc and it was great fun!!!! Soon, i'll learn how to vault off a human's back too! 

The weight loss certainly made a difference (Nova's mummy and Prince's mummy said i look SMALLER yesterday!! Yess!) and you know what? I think it also helped that S got fitter recently. Between me and her, we lost a total of 10 kg, can you believe that?! Slowly and surely, i'm becoming a more confident dog and i know for sure that 2007 will be a great year for me! I can't wait to perfect those moves so i can impress some girls!

S will be heading to the States at the end of this month (i think she'll be heading towards Buster's home!!) and so i won't be making my debut (or rather, making a fool of myself!!!) at the next SKC trial - which is good in a way because it means the pressure is off and i can just enjoy all my training sessions with the other newbies!

Ahhhhhh. It's rest day today and so i'll probably just chill out at home and read this. Gonna go to the groomer's this week to get my spa treatment so i'll be dashing and charming for the photoshoot at the end of the week!!! :)

Laters 'gator!!

Remember i was talking about demons and briefly mentioned how we exorcised the FD (aka Freeze-Bee Demon) recently? Here's the story.

When i young, SOMEONE (we all know who) wanted to teach me how to play freeze-bee but she herself being a clueless cuckoo, threw the freeze-bee AT me (yes, right at me) and i was hit right smack in the face. Ever since then, i have been plagued by the FD and i have absolutely no interest in getting near a freeze-bee just in case i'm struck (no puns intended) by a mishap again.

Recently, S brought me to join Mr. SmartDoggy's sports club and decided that i should get re-acquainted with the freeze-bee again. The humans tried showing me how fun it is but i wasn't gonna be conned into it. Do they think i'm stupid or what? The freeze-bee is pure evil!

Later, i overhead the humans discussing about exorcising the FD and during the following week, strange things started happening. I think these were part of the ritual leading to the final exorcism.

First, i was fed my favourite cat food on the freeze-bee......
Then my blue donut toy was plastered onto the freeze-bee......
Then i was told to touch the freeze-bee with my nose and was subsequently given a treat if i did that....
Then the freeze-bee was held higher and higher such that when i was told to touch it with my nose, i had to jump up and grab it with all my might! For the effort, i was given a yummier treat and would get to play tug-of-war with S!

After awhile, i kinda realised the FD was gradually becoming useless and was powerless over me. So one fine day, i mustered up every ounce of my Border Collie strength and performed the final exorcism!

I bit the FD from its front!
 


Then bit it from its back!



I'll nail you at the side one last time!
Begone, you foul freeze-bee demon!!!!



Exorcism completed. 
I'm a happy dog with no fear of the Freeze-Bee Demon!


Btw, S just told me freeze-bee is supposed to be spelt as "frisbee". Instead of correcting my spelling mistakes, i think she should be learning how to throw a frisbee properly.

Whatever man. Pffffft.