Monday, August 14, 2006

Dogathon 2006

13 August 2006

This is Pacco's 1st trip to UPM's Dogathon. I have waited so anxiously for the event to come and I've been practising hard on running for approximately 2 1/2 week. So if I head home without getting a placing for the race, my family will give me a great laugh.


Russell and Jojo posing infront of the DIY Pirate Ships. So who's the captain and who's the crew?



1st came the Dogathon race, the race started off with too many participants and when the whistle was blew, I hardly could find a space for Pacco to run through. So to avoid being step by others, I back off and wait until the crowd had dismissed. The organizer had set up 5 obstacle, but I felt that only the tyres seems like an obstacle. When I saw the finishing line, the journey seems to never end. Finally, I got 4th place in the small breed catergory. The race only take me approximately 15 minutes to complete, however, I felt extreme tired and fatigue. I could hardly stand after the race and eventually collapsed on the ground while giving imformation for one of the student. This is probably becoz I had wasted too much of my energy on pulling Pacco, instead of concentrating in the run.


As I had suggested to Pey Shy that we would have a picnic together, both of us were too busy joining games and wandering all around the booth and doesn't had any mood to eat actually.


The next game was the Fastest Eating. I hardly have enough time to breath yet and now I've to eat the big chunks of M&M chocalates. So I really give up on competing and just let Pacco enjoy the Cesar. ~Yummy~. While, for the Musical Chair, this time is kinda easy actually. The dog just have to sit next to the owner. However, only manage to become one of the finalist and got eliminated during the final round. The master hunt is quite interesting, but Pacco seems to be rather aggressive towards the volunteer who is responsible to hold and released her at the starting point. She start to bark and attempt to snap them, I bet. Anyway, Pacco manage to find the way out easily.


So its time for a group picture.


The last game was the Dog Idol. I'm rather stunned, when the volunteer told me that no custome will be provided. So just forget about it then. As usual Groovy and Russell showed off their impressive tricks confidently. As this is the 1st time Pacco is taking part in tricks showing, I'm rather nervous. I happened to find a box of Cesar inside the Goodie Bag, so I used it as a lure, just hope that Pacco will be interested to it. While Pacco's name was announced, I walk into the ring and open the box of Cesar. 1st I command her to 'bark' to test her attention. After she manage to bark, I'm confident that she's focusing. She did her weaving smoothly and then some of her jumping skills. I'm not sure whether she really did focus on my command or she's just merely concentrating on the Cesar that I'm holding. After I have my seat back under the tree with Pey Shy, I then realized that I had missed out Pacco's bow and crawling. Must have be too nervous and forgotten the routine.

Groovy performing the new stunt, 'Hop Onto Feet'.





The prize giving ceremony had finally arrived. Groovy was crowned the '1st Malaysian Dog Idol and the 'Most Talented Dog', the custome that was presented to him really looks cool.


Apart from that Groovy also got placing in MasterHunt and Runner-Up for Small Breed Category of the Dogathon Race. While Russell got the title of 'The Most Original Dog' by showing some of his smooth tricks performance. Eventhough Pacco only manage to grab one price, I'm so satisfied that I did not go home empty handed and during every outing, Pacco showed me her improvement.

~ Pacco : Hey lady, can u plz get ur hands off me? ~
Hurray! Finally this time Pacco got a chance to join in the photo taking session that showcast the prize we receive for the day. Hope that next time, she can make a greater contribution to this.


After Groovy, Russell and Jojo headed home, Pacco and Yen Yen continue to enjoy a run around the beautiful park. After they finally got exhausted, we decided to pack out belonging to set off. As I have quite a number of luggage to carry, I just let Pacco to walk offleash by herself. She did a great offleash heeling (not standard ofcoz) right next to me. When I stopped to have a chat, she'll lay down by my side. We continue to walk back to the carpark which is quite far away and Pacco seems extreme obedience by following behind me. She looks like a completely different dog compare to the time when she initially arrived. Tired Pacco is an obedient Pacco:)

Here I would like to express gratitude to Audrey for giving me a lift back to PJ, Gabrielle for helping me to snap picture and Mun Yee for offering me a pack of Boh Tea.

So this is the picture that show the contents of the box of prize that Pacco received. I really did think that I had a great potential in parading products. It make others feel that Pacco's seems like a big winner. Hahaha....

10 comments:

e said...

Way to Go Pacco. How and when did you start training Pacco to do all these cool stuff, Amanda? I want to train Fei to do it too.

e said...

Can we link Pacco to Fei's blog?

Urban Smoothie Read said...

sure.... juz gv me fei's blog URL...

i started training when she's 1 1/2 months old. n now she's edi 1 1/2 yrs old. so u can tell what a terrible trainer i am.

e said...

Wow, 1 1/2 months?! I wished we could do all the agility stuff you do with Pacco but we live in a flat and don't have the space to train her. AND Fei is a very skittish dog. It will prob take time for her to be okay.
I showed Caz (my partner) the video of Pacco weaving through your legs and he thought we should try it too. Any tips you could share with us?

Fei is at http://thisiseve.net/feiblog/
Great to have a doggy friend from Malaysia!

Urban Smoothie Read said...

u can try doing it @ d public park... or u can set up a weave pole in d flat...it won't need lotsa space 4 tat...as for jump, is better 2 do it on grass...

for d weaving. i started out by using food luring. i step my right leg infront n use my hand to lure her to cross under my right leg. initially i only practise one right cross for d entire week. after she get use to tat, eliminate d luring n juz focus on command.
then later u can proceed to 2 crosses. command her 2 do d right cross as usual n then lure her to do a left cross under ur left leg.
juz remember to gv d command, so tat she'll remember when d luring is eliminated.

e said...

Amanda
How do you make a weave pole? I have never seen a weave pole except in pictures and on tv. Is it kinda flexible? What kind of materials are best ? I saw that you had made one from scratch.
I am excited. Will practice this leg weaving. BTW, it's your copyright, right? I have never seen that before.

Urban Smoothie Read said...

nope. d weaving around d legs, i saw it on tv b4 n some other western webpage..
initially i tot is so impossible tat my dog will manage to do it..
then later, groovy d jrt did it perfectly well, he manage to d a backwards weaving too....
so only then i practise hard for it..

Urban Smoothie Read said...

for d weave pole, is best to make use of PVC pipe...n those T-junction socket...

if u take a look @ my post of 'newly modified weave pole', u can hv a better pic of it..

d initially one is rather out of standard. d poles r too high..

e said...

amanda
what command do you give for leg weaving?

Urban Smoothie Read said...

i said 'weave'...