Sweet Success! or Dog People are the Best!

Success is more sweet when you have to really work for it! There were several success stories this weekend and pictures too!

Echo and I began on Friday but it wasn't until Sunday when I was right on and so was she. We earned a second leg in Excellent A Standard! It has been a long time coming and it was never Echo's fault. Lax or lazy criteria on contacts, not working "difficult" weave entries along with my not always consistent handling has kept us out of the ribbons. Agility is not as easy as we all thought when we first got into this game. BUT I've always had a lot of fun training and trialing my dogs. Visiting with friends ringside is an added perk and County Wide's trial seems to lend itself to that.

Christy, Charlie and Jennifer were great at helping out ringside. You really do get to watch all sorts of dogs when you pole or chute set. Today Jennifer and Christy had to run their dogs in the afternoon heat. Open Jumpers and Novice Standard had less than 5 minutes between runs! Both did nice jobs.

Jennifer and Kerry almost made Standard but for an A-frame contact. Jennifer went home, tested Kerry on stairs and realized she had not been clear on her criteria. I promised myself I will only treat average or better and only treat a behavior I want... I am so glad I was there for your & Echo's standard run! I was as happy as if it was me getting a Q!!

Chirsty and Zorro earned their Novice Standard title on Sunday.

I can't thank you enough for the

WONDERFUL hint to keep Zorro from sailing off the table.

It worked, and we got a perfect score.

Another dog was faster though so we took 2nd place.

Attached is the photographic proof. Zorro was very hot. Just think, no more HOT novice standard classes at the end of a long day.
I enjoyed hanging out with you and Jennifer this weekend. Dog people are the BEST.

Helen Marie was off doing bird stuff and Magnum earned his Junior Hunter title!

Yesterday was so awesome! After all our work the past few weeks with the whistle and instant response...

On Saturday he responded each time to the

whistle turning and changing direction when I called. He worked well going to the bird field, got there WAY ahead of me and held a point till I stumbled across the rugged ground to flush the bird for him. I swear it was 10 minutes but since we only have 15 in the field the whole time, I guess that couldn't be. This was the only bird he found Saturday but handled it well enough to pass.

Today in the same field he did his impression of Frank Sinatra "I did it MY WAY" Magnum's nose knows where the birds are and they don't have to be planted by humans in the bird field. The three he found were no where that humans had an idea...Magnum hunted on his own finding and pointing and holding till I got there. His "trainability" was sort of lacking as he wanted to hunt

where he wanted to hunt and fortunately he was productive.

Well he did - and I do feel that we got a sort of gift from the judges but I appreciate it. He got a 5 for Trainability which is as low as you can get to pass, BUT he had a 9 for Pointing and Bird Finding and a 10 (which is as high as you can get) for Hunting. He needed an average of those scores making a 7 and he ended up with an average of 8.25 today.

Dog people realy are the best!