I had a brain storm just before Christmas.  Why don't we do something really outrageous and get Otis his ET title.  I mean how hard can it be????  He would be 7 years old (that should be some sort of record) he's fitter than any of our dogs and if anyone could pass it would be Otis!!!!  I sent off for the rules and then asked Santa (my husband) for a pushbike for Christmas.  ET here we come.

The hardest part was teaching the dogs to run beside the bike as anyone who knows Otis knows that his brain is not his forte.  This proved a bit harder than first thought but a few days out the front of the house and we thought we had it mastered (so we thought).  Okay the dogs can run beside the bike, Santa came through, its nice weather (summer) lets go!!!!   We set off for a lovely ride to see how fit the dogs were.  3km at an average speed of 6km per hour and the dogs could not go any further.  This is not looking as easy as we first thought.  Actually it's looking more like a nightmare ahead.  I suppose it did not help that on our second run (about the same distance and speed) we were charged by a rather large German Shepherd.  I was starting to wonder what we had gotten our selves in for .  Luckily for us we have a really good friend called Lyn Brooks who had done the ET and was our driving force with training.  She suggested that we meet with her once a week at a place called Berry Showground at night and we can ride around with the lights used by the footballers.  The main bonus for me was that she had never come across another dog there and she goes there all the time.  Okay, so we will be able to train safely and we had someone who had done the test and knew what we needed to do.  Now it's sounding a little easier.  So it became a ritual that every Tuesday night we would meet up  (Lyn, Natalie, Geoff and another friend call Jane who was also going to do the ET) and training began.  Over time the dogs increased their speed and distance till it was nothing to them to do 14km in one night.  Geoff and I also did another 2 trainings during the week and soon the ET test had become our life.  It was not unusual to see Geoff, Natalie & Ros (Ros assisted with many a training session as it was decided that in the event of  problem that she would become back up cyclist) leave the house with bikes on the back and a car full of dogs.  Every spare minute of any day/night was spent loading up the bikes and the dogs and riding away.  We managed to find another deserted road that was safe and that became our second training ground.  One problem I had not foreseen was that the test was actually held in winter, therefore we had to train in winter.  Many a night was spend in near freezing conditions, in the pouring rain, riding around a show ground at night getting more than a few strange looks from footballers  who were huddled out of the rain.  We did ask our selves on more than one occasion if we were mad but once I make a commitment we continue to the end so we soldiered on.

We had more than our fair share of disasters with the nasty bike  monster biting Rinky and Otis on more than once occasion but they recovered okay.  I guess the main disasters happened three weeks before the trial was on the 18th July 1999.  I had taken to getting up at 6.30 and going for a lovely 6km run.  One particular morning I was running both Rinky and Otis together with Josh the Border Collie running free and for some reason Otis had spotted a bird on the other side of the bike.  This day was very wet and the road was black dirt and gravel.  It  all happened so fast.  One minute we were riding along, next minute I had run over Otis' head, across his wind pipe and he was trapped between the two bike tires screaming his head off.  My immediate thought was "oh my god, I have killed him".  I should point out here that we were going at a speed of 17 km per hour.   I jumped off the bike and picked up a very wet, muddy screaming dogs trying to calm him and see the damage and within a minute he got on his feet, shook his head and started to run again.  As I said earlier Otis is not known for his brains.  3 days later we were running in the same place when I noticed that Otis was on 3 legs.  A quick inspection showed a rather nasty lump on the back of his pad, so it was off to the vets.  The verdict.......it appeared to be either an ulcer or tumour, which would need to be removed once the ET was over.  The vet said that it was not painful and would be like having a matchstick in your shoe.  Geoff and I had decided that if it did not heal we would pull him out and that would be the end of it.  A few days rest and some treatment and the paw was back to normal and the lump had disappeared.  We were back in.

I failed to mention before that I had a secret weapon when it came to training.  I still to this day do not know how I did this but somehow I managed to get Otis to walk on my electric treadmill.  He would run out to the garage, sit on the machine and wait for me to turn it on.  I in turn would sit on a cushion with my coffee and a Good-O and hold it in front of him and he would run and run to get the Good-O.  He would do 3.5km on the days he didn't go out for a bike ride.  This arrangement worked out well for cold wet days when we couldn't be bothered or were just to tired and it could be done late at night so it was great.  Rinky on the other hand hated the walking machine and could only manage 500 metres at a speed of 2.5km per hour as she knew that there were other ways to get Good-O's than run on a dumb machine (unlike Otis , Rinky is known for her brain).

Okay, so we have run over the dogs on more than one occasion, we had almost had to have a toe removed, I had a permanent cold for months, we had almost had to withdraw on more than one occasion, I had not had a life for months( we were still training and trialing in agility and breed showing).  Surely things were going to go smooth in the last week???  No such luck.!!!!!!!!  I had to go to Sydney over night for a meeting on the Thursday night before the trial and Geoff had to go to Adelaide for the week.  I could not afford for the dogs to go a kennel (in case the caught something or cut their paw)  so they had to go back to mums for the night.  That was not the main disaster.  My cold had turned into the flu, and we had really heavy rain all week so the track was going to be a nightmare.  Just what we needed, a cold wet bike ride!!!!!  When I came home from my meeting I was feeling rather sick, I just wanted to pick up the dogs and go home to sleep.  I walked in the door and mum gave me a hug and said she has some rather bad news for me.  I asked her "did Otis hurt himself?"  and she said no.......they had cancelled the ET.  I should point out here that they only run it once a year and the age cut off is 8 years.  Otis had one chance only to do this and they had just "cancelled "it with no view to reschedule.  Don't you just love the NSWCC?  40 people were just left in the lurch after putting a lot of work and going to great expense to get to this trial.  Needless to say there were a few tears.  Luckily for me I was told about the ACT trial, which was to be the week after NSW, and I had taken the initiative to enter Otis in both in the event that something happened at the NSW one.  So on this side it was okay.  The unfortunate thing was that I did not enter Rinky, as I had no concerns what so ever that she would not pass the NSW one.  Dam dam dam.  The main reason for my concern was that to be honest I did not want to do this again next year or for a very very long time.  So here we were, one dog in, one dog out and facing the daunting task of having to do it all over again!!!!  Mum got on the phone and a with few phone calls to the ACT people they were able to add her to the reserve list in the event of a no show.  Rinky was approved to run the night before the trial.  By now I was at the stage that I no longer cared what happened and to be truthful just wanted the whole thing over and done with.  But end result (so far), both dogs were fit with no injuries and both dogs were running the ET the next day.

THE TRIAL

Off we set to Canberra with all the dogs in tow.  The support team (Ros & Robyn) was to meet us there.  We checked in and then off for our vet checks.  So far, so good.  Next the obedience test.  Okay we are going great guns!!!!  They count down to start time and off we go.  Immediately we had a problem.  We had been training in excess of the 10km per hour so that on the day it would be a lot less strain on the dogs.  Rinky decided that the pace was far to slow and pulled on her collar for the first 4 km.  This was creating a problem as she was panting heavily and was starting to look very stressed.  We got to the vet checkpoint and her temperature was 39.9.  On the border of being vetted out.  They told us to wet her down with wet cold towels then have a second temp check before they would let her continue.  The problem was that we only had 3 minute to get her cool, get her checked again and get back on the bikes.  The one dog we had no doubts about was about to be vetted out at station one.  The support team swung into action with  wet towels and when she was checked again her temperature still remained at 39.9.  The vet allowed her to continue as it was not exactly 40.  Thank God!!!!  Back on our bikes for the second 6 km.  Otis was going strong and Rinky had settled down so the next 6km passed problem free.  We got to the break and decided to put cold towels on both of them to cool them down.  By the time of the vet check Rinky's temp had dropped to 39.8 so things were looking good.  Otis was getting a bit tired but was quiet happy to soldier on.

We set off on the final 6 km with Rinky going from strength to strength and Otis starting to tire.  The 6km circuits were 2 laps of 3Km so we passed the support team and mum came running down to me yelling that he was tiring and to start to motivate him.  Then the worst thing that could happen did.  He needed to go to the toilet.  The rules state that a dog is allowed to relieve himself but had to regain his place in the line before the completion of the test.  So there we were.  2 1/2 km to go and Otis stops.  We were passed by 15 dogs (mostly Huskies) and we had to go double speed to get back in line which was just what we wanted to avoid especially now.  Otis gave me everything he had to get to the finish line and would slip back every now and then.   We had Geoff (who was directly in front of us) calling him up trying to get him motivated and with a team effort (including some birds) we were able to finish the race. All was not over yet as they had to them pass the final vet check then complete another obedience test to see if the dog was still eager to work.  The vet check went well , with Rinky's temp dropping again and Otis passing the vet check with flying colours.  Now, the final obstacle.  The obedience test.  Poor Otis had given me everything he had to get to the line and now I had to ask him to heel, sit, stand do recalls etc.  To get his spirits up I did the only thing I could.  I gave him a Good-O and they both passed with flying colours!!!!!!  Once it was all over the tears came flowing for all of us as we had been through hell and back to get this far and now it was all over.  Otis and Rinky had given us their all and had achieved a title that I would call one of the hardest to gain with this breed of dog.  We had been through bad times, injury, exhaustion, a cancelled trial and over 300 km of training since March to get there but let me just say on a final note it was well and truly worth it.  A big thanks to Ros For her help and support on the day and in the lead up to the trial as we would not have gotten through everything without her.

These two little wonders had shown us the true spirit of being a cavalier and it will be a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life.  Thankyou little ones for being so brave and strong
 

Natalie Winter

27th July 1999