The Surprise!

Sorry to have kept you all in suspense about my surprise but I've had such a busy weekend. I had my surprise which I'll tell you about in a minute, my doggy class, dad's girls here all weekend to play with, walkies, eating..the busy social whirl of a 9 month old ya know!

Anyhow, when I got up I saw the postman had left a brown parcel, so I naturally assumed this was for me & was my surprise. Postie is my new best friend as he always stops when he sees me out on my morning walkies to give me a biscuit. I'm a celeb in postie world cos I like the posties & don't bark or try to bite their ankles & because of all my letter & parcels!

However, despite trying to wrestle the parcel out of mum's hands so I could open it, she insisted it was for her not me & that it was too fragile to be near my gnashers! She had entered a competition & won! She won this book about a lady & her 3 Airedales. Mum has read to chapter 3 so far & says it's very good. It's a true story about how the lady got divorced & lost everything except her doggies, and how her 3 lovely Airedales saw her through all the bleak times & made life great again. Sounds like an Airedale to me!


Anyhow, once mum had inspected the book (yawn), I could finally go outside for my morning ablutions. And guess what? The fence was folded down so I could go on the grass! Yes, after months of being denied access I was finally able to feel the wet lawn underfoot, sniff the plant & do a bit of dog-diggedy in the flowerbeds (well, what's left of them after the ravages of puppy Oscar in the autumn & the nasty winter weather!)

But that wasn't the best thing, oh no! Look what was outside! My own mini agility course!! Now I'm sure you've heard me harking on before about how much I want to do agility & now that I am nearly old enough (you have to be 12 months old to start training with an agility club in the UK) mum & dad decided to get me a few bits so I could start to learn the ropes. Didn't see any ropes though, hmm...

How fantastic is that?! Dad made me the practice weave poles. I can use these a little now, but really need to wait a couple more months until my bones are stronger so I don't damage them. I did try it out with dad but I was pretty slow. I've seen the agility dogs on TV fly through these so I know I have a way to go! He still needs to paint them alternate bright colours so they are easier for me to see & use.

Dad also made me this adjustable jump, clever dad! The top section can be clipped on or off. It's very lightweight so that if I knock it, it will fall & I won't get hurt. Excuse the state of messy garden. As I said, we moved here in autumn & mum & dad decided just to fence of the garden & decide what to do with it in the spring. I hear next weekend is a big gardening weekend. I've already volunteered to do the digging. What a helpful boy I am!

Mum gave me some instructions about jumping the fence. As you can see, I was listening intently (mum: or avidly watching the piece of goat's cheese in my hand more like!)

I gave it a whirl & whee! It was quite easy actually! Action man Oscar! Again, I can't do too much jumping until I'm 12 months +, but I can have little practices for now, and the grass is nice & soft to land on. Dad has always had Border Collies before & as you know, they tend to be fabby at agility, but I think he was quite impressed at how quickly I picked it up & how confident I was. Never under-estimate an Airedale dad, tsk!

Dad is also going to make me a long jump & a mini see-saw type thing. Cool! He's a regular Handyman my dad. I think we might have to take the equipment to the field next door when we want to practice as the garden isn't big enough for all this!

Here are some of the videos mum took of me:

At first I was more interested in sniffing over the garden seeing as I hadn't been on it for months (well apart from a couple of times when I broke through the fence, hehehe!)

I was a bit puzzled by all this new stuff in the garden. Mum & dad thought I might be apprehensive or even bark, but I was a good, good boy.

I tried out my tunnel pretty quickly. Sorry it's sideways, mum sometimes forgets you can't hold the camera that way when filming, durr!

The tunnel is so much fun! I can go through pretty fast now. I have also stored 2 of my balls & my chewy bone in there nice & safe!

And last but not least my jump! As you see, the first jump was a bit sloppy, the next 2 not bad, then my puppy legs got a bit tired. Still not bad for a first attempt though, don't you think?

So, good surprise I think! I'll have to tell you about the rest of the exciting weekend next post.

Licks

Oscar x