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August, one of the busiest sheepdog trialling months, already seems to be flying by. The 2009 Irish National is over and I've returned home after a tiring and busy, but very enjoyable trip to Co. Tipperary.

The Scottish National is now in full swing and next week will be the turn of the Welsh. The final National will be the English, from August 21st-23rd, being held in north Devon.

Leading the home nations was Ireland. After a four-hour ferry trip at some ungodly hour and a two-and-a-half hour car journey, we arrived a little blurry-eyed at Burncourt for the first day of competition.

The field was set in beautiful surroundings, although they were not always visible thanks to a good dose of the Irish wet stuff - rain, not Guinness unfortunately. Beyond the field spectators could admire the mountain where Brian Casey's flock had been gathered to run at the trials.

Over the three days the standard of running was high and was reflected in

the marks. The cut-off point for the team was 188 points and Simon Mosse, of Co. Kilkenny, won on 204 points. It looks as if Ireland is determined to retain the team shield they won last year.

The plan had been to update the k9tales site as the trial progressed ­ but internet access was a bit patchy and the updates were more intermittent than I would have liked.

So, possibly in a moment of madness, I decided this week to buy a shiny new iPhone which is due to be delivered at the weekend.

Apparently Britons are still happy to spend money on gadgets, despite the recession (see the BBC news story Technology, Twitter and the Downturn at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8187809.stm). Hard times are forcing us to cut back on holidays and eating out but when it comes to technology we just can't get enough.

I could argue that the iPhone will be an essential tool to keep me ahead of the field of sheepdog trials websites, but I love Apple products, and to be honest, I just really wanted one full stop.