Congratulations from the USA, where it is cold and wet... and very windy right
now - gusts up to 40 miles per hour (I don't know how to translate this to KPH).

You girls Rock!

Bonnie Schultz

syrinxkennels <syrinxkennels@...> wrote:
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






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