This Uralla marks the retirement of Billy from agility- his cataracts have left him with next to no night vision at 11 and a half years of age, so he's only entered in teams events with the lower height...
In so many ways the agility adventurers are now Missy and Jonty. Though there is a ring-in in the house. A tri-colour border collie pup named Zoom joined the Harrisonhill clan in August 2003 aged 10 weeks. She is affectionately known as the giant sheltie. By the Uralla weekend she was 16weeks and was working through Susan Garrett's puppy steps and loves the Ready 1,2,3 game, so her agility training is already well underway. So the face of the agility adventures is starting to change. But some things never change- it is the first weekend in October and we are back in Uralla for THE Grand Prix and this time we have 13 WAAG co-adventurers. WAAG is the agility club that we started on the Gold Coast and the comradre is high. But this time it looks like we are in for a rainy weekend.... narration by Billy

Friday 03/10/02: I thought Mum and Dad packed a lot for last year, but this year they're packing the trailer too. Apparently we are taking the big marquee to put out in the centre field as well as the tents. Might be a good call considering the weather. Weather was nice when we left home, but the further south we go the heavier the rain gets. Lucky we're nice and warm and dry in the back of the ute. I'm getting tired of watching the trailer behind us though! Finally we get there- and guess what the rain has stopped too. Must be a good sign! Mum and Dad whacked the tents up alongside the rest of the WAAGers in no time at all, then our crates into one side and Mum and Dad's bed into the other. I'd much prefer their bed... oh well. A quick run, dinner and bed. Mum and Dad and the other WAAGers were making a fair bit of noise though, partying on- they kept us awake with their antics. But at least the camp was reasonably dry with the tarps and tents all hooked and designed for water drainage- most importantly our tent was warm and dry!

Saturday 04/10/02: The morning dawned fine and we raced around on our morning walk catching up with old friends and taking in all the smells and sights. This is the first trip for that horror-pup Zoom so she's learning lots and meeting lots of new people and dogs- appartently three of her brothers and sisters are here too- and her Mum, so at least she'll know them and the dogs from WAAG. The morning is equipment familiarisation and course building so we all have a chance to relax around camp with the other WAAGers and enjoy a bit or sun this morning. Though those clouds are building up again.

Finally it is time to play agility! Though Mum tells me I'm only in teams this year- what's with that?! Well, our team won the teams last year, but this year I'm with the Wee Waagers team. At least it is my favourite event we're still in- but I've got to wait all arvo and watch Jonty and Missy having fun with Mum without me. The individual challenge is the initial event with the open agility leg. Jonty is first to go. He does quite well with just a weaver fault and a couple of time faults spent correcting it. Missy then goes in for what turns out to be an E. Mum's been working hard on the Susan Garrett techniques and in her haste turns too early in two of her crosses causing Missy to pull off the jumps and then she missed her weave entry. But while it sounds awful Mum is extremely happy- Missy ran with lots of D-Desire, and was quick in her turns and was listening to Mum's body language. Mum just needs to fine tune their timing and learn Missy's commitment point better. Uralla might have crept up to quick for them this year with all the retraining they are working on, but at least it will give them an idea of how they are going. Next was Dad's turn to run Jonty in the Intermediate Agility. They get a couple of faults and were a bit steady through the weaves- pretty good though. Next up was the Gamblers leg of the Individual Challenge. Mum ran Missy first and her timing was perfect, just coming down the dogwalk as the whistle blew, but in Mum's haste to send Missy into the gamble, she pushes her past the first hurdle for a refusal and no gamble- she calls her back though and she goes on to do the gamble beautifully. Mum's kicking herself! Next in with Jonty- he's done no distance education yet- but he still sends out nicely over the first two hurdles and up the see-saw but then returns to Mum before the table- she's esctatic about his run. Then the rain starts to tumble and his run with Dad in Intermediate Jumpers showed his dislike of getting wet!

Then finally it's my turn - yay- teams! I'll show 'em, some good years left in this body yet! I run clean and quite fast for an ol' fella, just a couple of time faults. The rest of the team, Jonty with Dad, Jamie with Gayle and Lacey with Jen do the same, all clear but all with time as the rain keeps tumbling. Then Missy's team go... oh dear, Missy is the only one not eliminated- actually she ran extremely well and earned a clear round- so Mum is very very happy with both Missy and I! That is us for the night. Just the Dog of the Year to watch. The weather is pretty miserable now though so Mum tucks us all into our beds, after a good towling down- I love getting towelled dry! She then returns to the big marquee to watch some of our friends fight it out for the much sought after "Dog of the Year" title.

Sunday 05/10/02: Oh yuck- raining again- well at least its nice and cool and fresh feeling. Mum goes first in Open Jumping with Missy. A nice quick run but a run past at the tyre for five faults. Jonty runs well except for popping the 10th weave pole also five faults. Then it was teams again- they were running in reverse team order so Mum and Missy's team run first. They were down a dog so had to take an E before they even started but Missy ran the first and last legs with style and with speed so Mum was incredibly pleased especially since the weaves they've been working hard on were fast and accurate.

My turn, My turn, My turn! Teams Relay and I'm running the first leg and do it with style if I say so myself. Nice accurate weaves with my two legged bounce action and then a tail wagging run round the rest! Our team was clear and under time- just! We are firmly in third with two teams to run, we watch with bated breath, but they were both clear and under time too, so third we stay!

The finals of the weave pole challenge had our friend Breeze win the mini height. Missy and he are running together in pairs tonight. And I'm running with Jonty apparently. Mum and Dad head off for dinner then we come out again for the game and the pairs event. The game is called "Gone in 60 seconds" There are three obstacles in the centre which are cars that the dog and handler teams can steel once they've completed a short course. Each are worth different values. The game was created by Marion Allen and gets lots of laughs. Then the pairs event which was snakes and ladders. Very interesting. The pair roll a dice- if the dice has an even number then the team member who rolled it has to run course 2 and the other team member runs course 1. Course 1 is a jumping course with lots of serpentines and tunnels- fairly tricky. Course 2 is an S-shape course with all the contacts and weaves. What fun! Missy and Breeze go first and Breeze gets course 1 (they'd hoped Missy would get that as Breeze is the master weaver!) but he runs super quick and accurately putting the pressure on Missy to get her contacts and nail those weaves- she does both and they are clear and under time. Jonty and I go next- once again the dice doesn't fall quite the way we wanted with Jonty in the slower S-Shaped part of the course where I'd be much more reliable. Well I ran well- we won't talk about Jonty's run- needless to say I gave him an earful later letting him know that was my last run for the weekend and he'd just bummed it out for me. Missy and Breeze ended up winning that event. Mum also ran a friend's dog, Buckley, in the Maxi class and her pair were also clear and under time which gave her Pair their teams title. They were also the only maxi pair to run clear.