Silver!

yesterday was a no bike no gym day as I was doing other things...

last night was assessment night at the Belconnen Dog Club...Hodge and I were having a go at passing SILVER after attaining BRONZE in December...

it was a long night for the dogs and the assessors...various stations are set up around the paddocks to cover all the different skills

• - group sit/stay and down/stay each for a minute (only had to pass one but we passed both);
• - lease lead walking around a course and interesting obstacles;
• - tricks (had to do two from different body positions);
• - body positions (hold a sit, down, stand for each of 10secs on the handler's left side)
• - static turns (90/180/270/360 degree turns where the dog turns with you and sit at the end of each turn)
• - on your mat (and hold for a minute)
• - sit for pats (difficult for Hodge as he loves to be patted!)
• - meal time manners (must sit and leave dog bowl with food until released after 20secs)
• - off lead recall (place dog in sit and "wait", take off lead, walk away ~10m until the assessor asks you to turn, call dog when assessor asks, dog must come straight to the handler and sit in front)

amazingly, we managed to pass everything even though he struggled with the stand body position (something to work on)

next step is GOLD where everything is done off lead...I'm not sure if we'll have a go at that...!

this morning I skipped walking Hodge and rode to work...it was very windy and quite cool...

the stats:
start temp/humidity: 9.6/63% (apparent temp 8.7)
start time: 8:01am
total distance: 16.62
total time: 44:10 (including 0:57 stopped time)
avg speed: 22.6kph
total calories: 600
avg HR: 132

FkF was also windy but not as cool...my handicap had been moved out to 11:30 after starting off 9:45 last week...

the stats:
start temp/humidity: 18.2/55% (apparent temp 31.0)
start time: 12:27pm
total distance: 5.02
total time: 25:31
avg pace: 5:05
total calories: 296
avg HR: 150

splits: 4:51, 5:14, 5:12, 5:07, 5:05, 0:03

this one ranks at #274 out of 308...