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Belgian Sheepdog National (long!)
We are home.
Black Belgians EVERYWHERE, all week. It was about the most fantastic "vacation" I've ever taken. All four TD dogs entered in tracking passed, two of them were friends handling their dogs under 12 mos. of age. Yay! Tuesday the herding test/trial went well. IIRC, there were 5 sets of test sheep, 1 of which were fabulous, one decent, 2 pretty tough and one set that I think only one dog passed on. Our first run was on one of the decent set, and went very nicely, smooth with no problems. It was great. We passed that leg. The second run under the other judge we had the really tough set of sheep. It was a set of 5 sheep, one little one that did not want to be in the group & kept splitting out for every dog that drew them. We worked hard, but kept losing them whenever they'd get into the draw spot for the pen, which just happened to be near the 2nd panel. We managed every part of the exercise, but couldn't get them through that last panel. sigh We kept working at it, and ran out of time. But, we headed back & penned so it at least seemed successful to Bodhi. They were tough, and we just weren't quite ready for that type of sheep yet. I loved the judges comments afterward, she & I were talking about the run and I know she could see my frustration at getting that crummy set (even though I know I tried hard to be very positive about it for Bodhi! :-)). She asked me, "I want to ask you one thing, did you learn more on the first set, or the second?" I just grinned, no need to even answer her question. She was a great judge, even though we didn't pass. There's another trial in about a month, so I need to look up entry closing so we can get back out & try for that last leg. Wednesday we had our very first obedience trial. Novice A, you know, and of course, we were the first team in the ring! grin I was so nervous I thought I'd puke, but a friend helped convince me to just get in there & have fun. The heeling needs work, but he held his long sit & down! Woohoo! We QUALIFIED!! And...we also took 1st place! (It wasn't a big class, but I don't care! laugh) The photographers got an awesome shot of Bodhi leaping up, trying to nab his blue 1st place ribbon out of my hands! laugh Unfortunately, we didn't qualify for a second leg the next day, but it was on something I *knew* we needed work on: the Front. It was pretty cute, if I don't think of it as failing. He saw his breeder sitting back off a ways outside of the ring, and instead of coming up & sitting in front of me on the Recall, he ran up to me, looked me in the eye then ran over to the ring gate, pranced around a bit for "Grammy Sandy" then came over and did a cute little Finish in heel position at my side. Again he held his sits & downs while no one else did. He's such a funny, funny dog, I can't help but just love him. The rest of the days, watching the breed rings, were fabulous. I met a lot of great people, schmoozed with a lot of wonderful dogs, stayed up too late and just had WAY too much fun. I missed my husband & of course the big red boy, Coda, but it was nice to just just hang out with dog folks and Belgians for a week. Photos forthcoming, but right now I'm just too darn tired. Bodhi is now a "two-legged" dog. One CD leg down (two more to go), and one PT (Pre-Trial herding) leg down with one to go. Yay! Whew. I'm going to bed. Shelly & The Boys http://www.geocities.com/shellybrosnan/deerranch.html |
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