The Dog's Out of the Bag! (The journey begins)

Spirit (photo taken Mar. 25, 2017)

Well, the cat -- or in this case, the dog -- is out of the bag.  Spirit is going to try to earn an AKC Obedience Title.  

This effort was going to be a surprise for Spirit's breeder, to be sprung at the breed's National Specialty at the end of April.  Normally this would not be a big deal, and certainly not a surprise-worthy event.  But Spirit is 12 years old.

Circumstances came together to ascertain that there would be no surprise, and that turned out to be a good thing.  This post could also be titled, "Sometimes, Things Happen for a Reason," "Timing Is Everything," "I Wish I Could Turn Back Time," or "Slight Change of Plans" -- that last one should be the title of my memoir!  :-/


_____


About 15 years ago, I met with a breeder named Sherri regarding possibly becoming the new owner of her retired show dog.  At that meeting, I fell head-over-heels in love with his half-sister, Bacardi. (Dickens did come to live with me, and I loved him with all my heart and soul, and nearly seven years after his passing, I still miss him terribly and sometimes still cry over him even after all that time.)  As a result of that meeting, Sherri and I became good friends.

When Bacardi had her first litter, I became the lucky owner of one of those pups!  I had big plans for my puppy, who I named Spirit (yes, the same Spirit from last week's blog post).  Unfortunately, life is what happens while you're making other plans, and I never accomplished any of the dreams I had for Spirit.

For many years, I have felt horrible that I never did any of the things I had wanted to do with this wonderful dog.  A few years ago, Sherri asked me if I would put either a novice obedience title (CD) or a novice-level tracking title (TD) on Spirit, which would give Bacardi points toward her Registry of Merit (ROM) award from the national breed club.  I said that I would, but again, I failed.  I have felt ashamed that I let down Spirit's breeder, who allowed this special dog to come live with me.  Spirit is a senior now, and I wish I could go back in time for a "re-do."

Lately, though, 12-year-old Spirit has been feeling extremely spry, and I began to wonder if it was possible to earn those points for Bacardi's ROM.  Then, right about that same time, I learned that the breed's National Specialty was going to be held less than an hour's drive away.  And, the day of the Obedience Trial happens to be Sherri's birthday.  Surely this must be meant to be!

I resolved to keep our efforts a secret from Sherri.  First, I did not want her to be disappointed if I didn't succeed.  Second, if Spirit and I did manage to pull this off, I wanted to surprise her with the title, at the Specialty, on her birthday.

Spirit (photo taken Mar. 25, 2017)

I started training Spirit for the first time in several (five? seven?? more???) years.  We have precious little time to meet the goal because the Specialty is at the end of April.  I figured out which shows we could enter so that she could hopefully finish her title at the National.  I even arranged to take off one or two afternoons per week from work so that we could get in some private training time at the dog club.

During those training sessions, though, I realized that this might be an exercise in futility.  Spirit is willing... but she IS a senior dog who hasn't been actively training for a long time.

I had hoped that we could earn points with a Preferred Novice (PCD) title, or even better, a Beginner Novice (BN) title, which should be somewhat easier for an older dog.  After verifying with the ROM committee that the other titles do not count, we continued to practice the CD exercises, which are on-lead heeling & figure-eight, stand for exam, off-leash heeling, recall, a one-minute group sit-stay, and a three-minute group down-stay.  

Off-lead heeling has been a challenge as Spirit's attention wanders some.  Sit-stays have been a challenge because she sometimes forgets the "stay" part and comes to me.  However, despite her canine senior moments, the fact that my 12-year-old dog is healthy and sound enough to even attempt this goal is fabulous!  If she did not enjoy the effort, we would cease immediately, but she is having a delightful time, and that, I feel, is most important.  

After one of our training sessions, we were getting ready to leave as another club-member friend arrived.  I asked her if she would help us practice the stand for exam.  In this exercise, the dog is placed in a stand-stay, the owner walks six feet away, and then the judge comes up and touches the dog on the head, back, and rear, before instructing the handler to return to heel position.  Spirit had never before met Darlene, but I don't think I have yet mentioned that Spirit loves people...  I placed her in the stand-stay, walked away, and Spirit's body language said, "Darleeeeeene!  My new best friend!!" as she trotted to greet her.  Sigh.

Interestingly, last week the following showed up in my Facebook memories from seven years ago:  

Love my funny Spirit. Working on recalls at obedience class tonight, she decided she wanted to stay with the instructor and try to schmooze pets :-0 I can just see it now...she's gonna be one of those dogs that does a perfect recall front--right to the judge! <sigh, but laughing>

Yep, Spirit loves people.  I decided then that it would be a good idea to enroll Spirit in a class to help her learn to work around distractions.  I chose a class based on the exercises practiced and the instructor.  This class happens to be on the same night as the class Sherri teaches, but I still thought we could pull off the surprise because our class was in a different part of the building.  I would have to be careful and sneaky when arriving and leaving, but it could be done . . . and then the Director of Training announced that a third class in that time slot had received an abundance of registrations, and they had decided to split the class . . . and, you guessed it, our class was moved into the ring right next to Sherri's class.

By last Tuesday night, I was prepared for the cat (dog) to be out of the bag.  Sherri briefly saw me standing with Spirit before our classes started, but we had no chance to chat then.  At the end of our class, Spirit was a little tired, but she perked right up when Sherri greeted her!  Sherri asked if we were going for her CD, and I said that we were going to try.  She suggested that we go for our BN instead, and I replied, "but there are no ROM points for a BN," and that was when I learned that Bacardi has already earned enough points and will be receiving her ROM at the Specialty this year.

While I am positively thrilled that Bacardi is going to receive her much-deserved award, and I am relieved that my failure to date did not impede her accomplishment, to be honest, I am also selfishly disappointed that we were unable to contribute to it.  

But the good news for me is that the pressure is off :-)  With Sherri's encouragement, we are instead going to try for the BN.   Maybe, if Spirit is still willing, we'll try for a CD later.

But, sometimes things happen for a reason.  As we talked, Sherri told me that they had had to help Bacardi over the Rainbow Bridge three days earlier.  We shared many tears and a hug before we went our separate ways, and I believe that Sherri was meant to see Bacardi's daughter that evening.


_____

Spirit (photo taken Mar. 25, 2017)

Wish us luck as we continue to train for these upcoming obedience trials.  In future posts, I will provide updates with Spirit's progress.  

Spirit says that she is having a blast! :-)


As always,
Hug Your Dogs!

Sincerely,
MDW