Congratulations Lara and Wendy.
All that work has finally paid off.
Lets hope that you don't have to wait for the heavens to open again
for Lara to do the right thing.

All our love from the Happylea Gang.
---- Original Message ----
From: syrinxkennels@...
To: Weimaraner_Longhaired@...
Subject: [Weimaraner_Longhaired] Lara and Obedience (warning - very
long)
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2007 02:29:41 -0000

>Hi everyone,
>Last night, Lara and I had our fourth obedience trial. Now, although
>it is November, which should not be cold in Australia, and we are in
>a massive drought where we live, we had a freezing night with
>driving rain! You can never tell in Canberra. Here it can be 'Four
>seasons in one morning', rather that day. I would like to say this
>is a level under CD, almost all the same stuff, but the heeling is
>on lead, as is the stand for exam. But we need to start at the
>bottom, as I have never done this before. It is called Community
>Companion Dog - the title is CCD. It is a good thing, as it seems to
>be getting people into trailing that would not be confident to go
>right to off lead work.
>
>The night had not really started off too well, I had to wait for Kim
>to get home with the car, then I couldn't find my chair, got stuck
>in heavy Friday night traffic and was thinking very bad thoughts
>about the drivers of ALL of the cars in front of me. I got there,
>pretty much just in time to be vetted, picked up my number to find -
>I was number ONE!!!! I still need to watch what someone else does to
>calm myself and work it out, so was thrilled to find out that a
>friend of mine was going to steward in another ring, and so, needed
>to go in front of me.
>
>I hugged him. ;-))))
>
>As we were almost finished our heeling and individual exercises, the
>rain started. By the time we were walking back to our stuff, the
>heavens had opened. Dogs were refusing to drop, or even sit, and
>people were failing by the drove. Even experienced handlers were
>walking around muttering 'This is ridiculous!'. Water was pooling in
>the rings, footpaths were flooded.
>
>Now Lara has a few 'quirks'. She just loves to roll in grass, mainly
>because we don't really have any at this point. So we have to get to
>training or trailing early so she can roll in it enough to get it
>out of her system. But there is one thing she loves more than grass -
> and that's wet grass. She also was 'born tired' as my father would
>say, and will very often go down in the sit/stay.
>
>We walked into the ring for the stays, only 5 of us had gotten this
>far, and all purebred dogs, which is rare these days in Canberra.
>There was Faxon the Afghan, then Lara, a Foxhound, GSD and a mini
>Schnauzer, who unfortunately had just had a very short hair cut. The
>first thing she did was have a big roll. Three times. We got into
>position, and I left her with all this wet grass, and I tried to
>pretend, but did not leave her very hopefully. She sat there,
>looking at me, the Foxhound got up almost immediatley, but Lara
>stayed rock steady. It seems she likes damp grass, but this was too
>wet even for her. It was raining so hard, I could see she had her
>eyes half closed to keep the rain out. We walked back, my heart
>leaping, as that was the one we usually trip up on.
>
>But then, as we got ready for the down/stay, I realised that we had
>not done this in this kind of weather. I did not know if she would
>even go down in this amount of water. But down she went, and I
>walked away, again trying to be confident. Again, the Foxhound got
>up, Lara didn't move. Then the judge, wearing a long, swishy coat,
>walked a bit too close to the dogs. The Afghan took offence, and got
>up, and that pass would have been his title. So the dogs either side
>of her had stood, she still stayed. That left the three German
>breeds. Then, as we neared to end of the time, the little Schnauzer
>could take no more, and sat up. Lara had been looking at me with a
>expression that very clearly said, 'Mum, you CAN't mean this, can
>you?? Is this RIGHT??' But she stayed there, regardless. I was so
>proud of her.
>
>They could not write on the score board, as it washed right off, so
>I had no idea how the scores had gone, I really only cared that we
>had qualified. When all the rings had finished, the few drowned rats
>that were left, and unbelievably soggy judges and stewards finally
>gathered in the heated, dry club house and presentations began, I
>was amazed to find that we had not only been one of the only two to
>get through, WE WON!!! And 92 points out of the 100 on offer. She
>lost all in the heeling (she lags) and every other exercise was full
>points. The judge said some wonderful things about better work than
>she has seen from dogs in perfect weather, and we got a big cheer as
>several of our instructors (past & present) were there. The one we
>have now is actually looking at getting a LH!!!!! Lara works at
>Novice level in her class, as it is combined CCD and Novice. So we
>do the off lead stuff and the retreiving - Lara's favourite! People
>have actually asked me how I got her to retreive, but try stopping
>her! Her kids and grandkids are natural born retreivers, too. At
>about 4 weeks they start carrying their toys around. As soon as they
>can lift them off the floor, or drag them along.
>
>When we first started training there, we got a LOT of negative
>comments about training a Wei. There is a special award in Canberra,
>a medal for a dog that has a show Ch, and then gets CD, CDX or UD.
>Bronze, silver and gold. I said that I wanted to get one, in fact I
>don't think any Wei of any coat has had one, certainly no LHs.
>People actually laughed when I said that I was after one. So few
>people train them here, it is so sad. A few pets come through, but
>every one I have seen at our club has been misbehaving as they have
>needed a firmer hand than the owners were giving. They soon give up.
>
>But maybe after last night's performance, the trainers and members
>of the club may start to reconsider the Weis.
>
>Go the soggy LH!!
>
>Wendy
>

Deborah Neumann
Happylea Kennel
Home of Weimaraner's both long and short haired,
Australian Kelpies, Jack Russells and Tibetan Spaniel.