Robbie earns his second title in a month!
Today we attended the back to back Obedience and Rally Trials held by The Brookhaven KC held at the Doggie “U” K-9 Academy in Bay Shore, NY. Robbie qualified in both Rally Trials earning both his 2nd and 3rd Rally Novice legs, this finished his first Rally title! He is now officially Wyndrigde Mondavi RN MX MXJ NF!
Coat of a different color……
To this point Robbie has only ever trialed in agility. Though he has had some obedience training; he is by no means ready to show yet, not even in Novice Obedience. Well, this weekend, I was going to an Obedience and Rally Trial with a friend from my training class. I knew that I would be there for the day anyway, so I decided to enter Robbie in Rally Novice. This way, I would have something to do, and he could get a chance in the ring too! Robbie held his own scoring a 98 out of 100, and earned his first leg in Rally Novice! He really did a good job for the training that he has had so far! So, my agility boy is now on the way to his first obedience (sort of) title.
Britt finishes her first performance title!
A rare treat on a show day, we actually got to sleep in today. Well not really, I was awake at 5am, thankfully, we didn’t need to leave home until 10am! Britt was entered in Rally Novice today, hoping to get the third leg and finish her title. The rest of the day’s plan was to set up crates etc. for the agility trial tomorrow. The doors opened for agility set up at 3:30pm and by 4:30pm there was not a crating spot left! PHEW am I ever glad we were there at 3:30! Our Rally class was just wrapping up then, the class had an entry of 28, there were only 3 or 4 that did not show. It was a big class, that seemed to go on forever! When all was said and done, Britt had a very nice class, our score was 99 (1 point deduction was no doubt a handler error) , she qualified, finished her RN title and earned 2nd place too!
click link below to watch the class:
The Biggest Show on Dirt!
The Thanksgiving Cluster starts this week; these shows run over the course of 5 days and are held at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, MA. This Cluster is one of the biggest shows in our part of the country, hosting 4 days of Agility competition, and 5 days of competition in Conformation, Obedience, and Rally-O. There are many canine health screenings available, and the BEST doggie shopping you could ask for in one place! I am really looking forward to these shows; we will be attending all 5 days, Thursday through Monday. Britt is entered in Rally-O on Thursday, and Robbie is entered in agility Friday through Monday 
This is a picture of the logo that was on the T-shirts given to the Agility exhibitors last year, celebrating the 10th Anniversary of Agility being offered at this cluster of shows- the agility trials known as “The Biggest Show on Dirt!”
A trip to New Hampshire and Britt’s first time in the Rally Obedience Ring…..
Linda and Star on the porch at AK9-C
This weekend my friend Linda and I made a trip to Amherst, New Hampshire for an obedience trial held at one of my favorite training facilities, American K9 Country. Linda had entered her beautiful Border Collie Star in this trial. They have done so much together; Star has her conformation Championship, herding, rally and obedience titles! Linda and Star were making their debut in the Open A obedience ring, and I decided to enter Britt in Rally – Obedience. As well as this being Star’s debut in Open, it would be Britt’s debut too…..her first time ever in a competition performance ring!
As usual AK9-C was decorated to the nines, and provided some really cute photo ops for the dogs. Here are a couple of the photos we took.
Star, Stormy and Britt (on the bench) at AK9-C
Britt and Stormy
Linda and Star had really nice classes both days, unfortunately, there was a a single glitch each day that kept them from qualifying. As for Britt, I was very pleased with both of her Rally classes. On Saturday, she did a really nice job earning her first Rally Novice leg, our final score was 97 (out of 100) the 3 points that we lost were due to a handler error on my part! Then on Sunday, her score was a 99 earning First Place and her 2nd leg toward her “RN”! The club had a show photographer, so we had pictures done to commemorate the occasion. See below:
Britt's first Rally Novice Leg, Judge James Ashton
The way the judging schedule was set up, Linda and I were in the ring at the same time, so I was lucky to at least get this very short video clip from Britt’s Rally class on Sunday:
Britt 10/18/09 Rally Novice B- 2nd leg
Our trek home was made during the second snow fall in a week, it’s very strange to see snow falling when most of the trees are still sporting green leaves!
Our second snow fall this week!