Agility with Shimmer

SHIMMER LOVES AGILITY

Last weekend Shimmer and I decided to get back into agility training! We spent the afternoon practising Jumps, running through the tunnel amd walk over the plank. The A frame would be Shimmers favorite obsticle, she gets very excited when she approaches it.

When I first joined my agility club I was told I had a lot of hard work ahead of me; as the instructors had never seen a Samoyed compete and they are such a hard dog to train. I personally don't attend obedience classes, so this did scare me a little, as they are off lead and sit stay in training is required. I quickly lost motivation to go, only attending a few class and was always very nervous Shimmer would run off and play with the other dogs. Shimmer didn't see the point in running through the tunnel when I was on the outside. But membership time ticked around this year and after watch a couple of Samoyed agility video's on Facebook I decided to re-join.....
First training back last week and I had a new dog, Shimmer did everything I asked of her, we worked as a team and had loads of fun. She raced through the tunnel, walked the plank and the last activity was sit stay and when I called she had to jump over the jumps and the reward was one of her toys and loads of praise from me. I think it came down to confidence. This time I had faith that Shimmeroo would do what I asked! Over the year there have been times Shimmer has been off lead and her recall has been wonderful, we have built up a fabulous relationship, so I wasn't concerned about her running off and just focused on what we needed to do.
We had so much fun we spent the next afternoon at an agility park...
People have a perception of what Samoyed's can and can't achieve, but at the end of the day they are extremely start dogs, they do get bored with repetition but making it fun and exciting and having confidence in them you can achieve many things.

Spoilt Much?

Mr Sonnet, enjoys many evening watching TV on the couch, last night was no different

Airebis Win the National

The Samoyed National is the most prestigious event of the Australian Samoyed calender and is only held once every three years. The judge is selected three years prior, and must be a specialist in the breed outside Australia. This year it was held in Queensland, and the Judge was from the famous Scotland Zamoyski kennel, Mrs Carole Hamilton. The National was to be held over two days, 26th and 27th June were 179 Samoyeds were entered.

The opening cemeromy had the Judge, her stewards and show manager match around the ring with bag pipers playing, followed by the Australia anthem and walsing matilda. A top dancing dog performed and made the crowd laugh with their antics. The show began....

Our first dog in was Mr Cuddles aka "Sonnet", he struted his stuff in the Minor puppy dog class and caught the judges eye early. All smiles Sonnet and I won the gold medal and took top place on the podium.

Binka Binks aka "Inka" was next up, and he was awarded third in a large class. My final dog for the day was Mr Boof, fondly known as "Indi". He is a lot of hard work to show as he lives with a couple in Sydney and he is spoilt rotten, but I love the challenge. We walked in and Indi was on his game, doing everything I asked so after Mrs Hamilton judged all the dogs in his class Indi was sent to the top of the podium and awarded a gold medal.

All the winners of each class then compete again each other for top dog and reserve top dog. I had a decision to make as both Indi and My Sonnet had won their classes. I decided to show Indi giving Sonnet to Mum. As the older dogs always have a better chance. We all single filed in the class was ran seperately and the judge had made her decision....

Best dog was........ "Indi" Aust Ch Airebis Moonlite Rendezvous

then time for Reserve, the judged looked up and down the line. I was standing in excitement that Indi won, but looked across in shock, the judge was stairing at our little man Sonnet. I started getting nervous thinking I must be seeing things, overseas judges rarely look down the line, he is the youngest. Mrs Hamiliton takes one more look up the line and her decision is made

Reserve best dog is awarded to..... "Sonnet" Airebis Moonlite Diamond Night (AI) at the tender age of 8 months. What a little star.

The next day was the girls turn... Mum showed Monet taking 2nd in Minor Bitch class, I was next up with Roo aka Shimmer, the competition was extremely tough a class of 17 and so many lovely examples of the breed. Mrs Hamiliton took the most time went this class running us and looking at the beauties, but then her decision was made and Shimmer was sent to the top of the podium being awarded our 3rd gold medal. Last but not least for team Airebis was the mother of our show kids coco, she too looked lovely and was awarded a brozen medal.

BEST IN SHOW
We were told the judge only had girls at home so there was a very slim chance she would award a Dog for best in show. I didn't care I was very happy of our success so far. Indi caught a smell of a girl and I had to work twice as hard. My friend gave me chicken which seemed to distract him. We were sent around a massive ring twice, I was almost out of breath be the time we came to a stop, my back was hurting but I didn't care I had to remain focused....

The Judge grabbed the Best in Show rosette and announced

Indi was her Best in Show winner

  
Sonnet came back in for runner up best in show and I held my breath, the little man didn't put a foot wrong, and he showed his little heart out for mum I was so proud. The judge took a moment to decided....

Sonnet was awarded Runner Up Best in Show

What a weekend... no other Samoyed kennel has been awarded both top honours. We have also been awarded Runner best in Show twice, again no other kennel has achieved this. In 2001 our special girl Tamiera took Runner Up Best in Show at the Melbourne Samoyed National and nine years later our new generation have stollen the show taking Best in Show and Runner Up. Coco the mother was awarded most successful Dam.

We are a very small kennel but have proven it is not about the quantity but the quality.

Our dogs are our babies and we love them dearly, here are some photo's on the National:

Shimmer "Aust Ch Airebis Kissed By Moonlite HIC"

Inka "Aust Ch Airebis Chase the Moonlite HIC"

Monet "Airebis Reflection of a Diamond (AI)"

And there mum Aust Ch Snerzok Coco Azzure"

The National Adventure

What a story...
Team Airebis started our journey for the 8th Samoyed National Show in Queensland, along the way we encountered many challenges.... we settled in Holbrook for the first night to find the temperature was two degrees and the cabins had no heating - the dog trailer was looking good as the Sammy's would keep me warm. We decided to drive the coast instead of inland, stopping every couple of hours to stretch legs, water, wee and give Mum her coffee fix we were making good time. Port Macquarie was our resting place for night two, however sleep was not something we were given a lot of, fellow exhibitors dogs barked for most of the night! Grrr but at least night three would be spent in a warm bed at our friend’s house, or would it....
We were driving along the dual lane freeway discussing the excitement of the National, singing to music and munching on snack, in the right lane driving around a bend had just entered a bridge, then BANG! We looked back to see the trailer had dropped. Slowly moving to the emergency lane we see a tyre rolling along in front of us. Sure enough it belongs to us. Bindi and I chased it down and brought it back to the car, semi trailers were flying past and the wind felt like we could be blown over the side. A check on the dogs through the windows put our minds are ease, they were happy and nobody was hurt. Getting them out wasn't an option as it was extremely dangerous. The excitement of the National quickly turned to worry, especially after four hours of waiting on the side of the road with no glimmer of hope that anyone was able to help. Night fell and almost 5 hours later a tow truck arrived, it was confirmed our arrival into Brisbane would be delayed. With only one day between us and the most prestigious Australian Samoyed show we were cutting it fine.
Brunswick heads is where we ended up for the night. If we haven't had a bad day already, I was out walking the dogs and fell down a slight embankment hurting my back. I was looking forward to a new day!
Friday - 24 hours before.. the trailer was towed to Tweed heads, it took the guys most of the day to fix it, in the meantime we went shopping had a massage and came back every couple of hours to care for the dogs. Finally arriving at our friend’s house just in time for dinner :-) the next few hours were spent grooming the boys for preparation for the start of the National. We made it to bed at 2am the morning of the National.
...... What a trip