Great Joint Terrier show

For weeks now, Kay has been stripping and plucking BOTH of us for the Airedale Speciality Show. I've had a tonne of fluffy hair pulled out so that I will look all sleek and showy. Here we are getting ready for the final assault on legs, face and tummy.

Gracie had to put up with even more than me, cause she is such a fluffy puppy. We were both quite over it by the day the show arrived.

But it was all worth it, because we looked very smart and respectable. It was my first show and Gracie's second and we did very well. Here's me trotting around to win Best Australian Bred Bitch - okay, I was the only one in the class! But still, I'm looking pretty good.

Here's Gracie easily winning her best Puppy in Show class... yep, the only one in her class too!

Gracie did go on to win Best Bitch in the Parade - she actually beat a couple of older champion girls to win that - so we were all impressed. I got runner-up to Gracie - I even beat two others. Amazing!

Gracie went on to win Best Gaited and together we won best Parent and Progeny.


People raved about Gracie and what a lovely puppy she was and how well she moved and how well trained and calm she was. She just took everything in her stride.

Kay was very happy with our results and how well we both behaved. Neil secretly wished he was home playing with his motorcycles... fair enough, I would have rather been having a good run in the park.

He had to take me into the ring when both of us had to go in - it was his first time too. We did good for a couple of newbies who would rather be elsewhere!

All in all, it was a great day and lots of fun to catch up with all our Airedale pals.

fun at the beach

We have a beach house at Arakoon - a little place just near South West Rocks (north of Port Maquarie and south of Coffs). It's got a big backyard and is only about five minutes walk to Trial Bay beach.

On the way, there is a steep sand dune to climb up and gallop down. Here we are, hurdling down the hill as fast as we can go. You can't really tell it's a hill, but it is.

Later, we were up on the headland, when Neil said "Where's Kay?" We were off like a shot to find her...and we did. I guess we were a far way away from the camera, because we look like two little specks... but at least you can get the idea of how clever we are.

at the beach

We've just come back from two weeks holiday at the beach!

We had a great time - long walks on the beach at least once a day - rain or shine.

We had a few gorgeous days like this one - and quite a few cool, rainy ones too.

Now that summer is over, the tourists have gone home and left the beach to us. Pretty good!

Here's Gracie with Neil, relaxing in the dunes.

She loves the beach as much as me, I think. Although she isn't much of a swimmer yet - she's slowly finding her way with the waves.



There are massive rocks on the headlands, we scrambled all up and over them - I felt just like Rin Tin Tin.







The mid-north coast is just sooo beautiful - and lots of fun for dogs.

fun in the park

Here's some photos and video of Gracie and me playing around at our favourite park.

It runs along the Cooks River and is very green and lush. Kay says that it almost looks European... no idea what she is talking about.

But there are lots of great smells and plenty of room to run. Gracie has even more fun than me - stealing my ball, tripping me up and chasing all the little dogs she meets.

We do this most days.

the art of motorcycle maintenance

We've been helping Neil work on his old motorbikes - he has so many now (five!) that he can't fix them all on his own. We spend hours in the garage, helping him work out what needs to be done next.

Gracie is showing a keen interest in how things work...

Hold on guys, I'll get the gasket cement...

Here's the screwdriver you're looking for, Neil ...

Gracie delivering the spare gear thingie you asked for...

What would he do without us?

walk in the park

We finally had a bit of cool weather this morning, still very humid, but much cooler. We went for a walk along the Cooks River. I finally got Kay to take a few pictures of ME for a change.

Here we are, ready to go. You can see that Neil was pretty keen to go too.

We found a kid's playground and had a bit of fun.

Jumping over stuff...

Getting in stuff... I did get in this, but I was out so fast, Kay didn't get the picture - it was too slippery inside.

Sitting on stuff. Gracie wasn't too sure when Neil started rocking back and forth,but she stayed on, with some encouragement.

I had to stay on leash the whole time because this little guy was following us. He was very interested in me and Kay did not think that Foxy x Airedale puppies were a good idea.

I suppose not. You're out of luck this time, Mr Foxy.

Gracie's debut

We went to Gracie's first show this evening. It was raining a fair bit and we all got pretty wet - lucky we Airedales don't mind that kind of thing.

Kay has been stripping Gracie everyday for weeks - finally she was ready... enough. This is how she looked just before going into the ring.

There were only two Airedales, Gracie and an already champion 3 year old girl. She won. But Gracie did really well for a first time, so we were all happy for her.

It was all over in no time and then we got to eat junk food from the food van. Here we are staring at the chips that Neil is eating. I'm pleased to report that one or two of them did come our way. So good.