Time for Good News and Fun!

My favorite photo of Justice from Louisville.  She was so very happy!!
Photo by Libbye Miller

In my hiatus from the blog, some good things have happened...

In 2017, Aslan finished three Obedience titles, CD, PCD, and BN (in that order), and his Rally Advanced Excellent title.  In 2018, he finished both of his Novice Agility titles.

Aslan qualified to compete in the 2018 AKC Rally National Championship!  My goal was to qualify in all four courses and not finish last -- though, of course, I hoped we could do better than that :-)  A lot of nervousness on my part and a lack of focus on his part combined for a good number of lost points, but we ended up with 373 out of a possible 400 points, putting us in 56th* place out of 132 qualifiers.

My friend Sherry with her dog Dakota (Aslan's son) were only three points behind and ended up in 61st* place.  Spending the day with them was a wonderful memory. ♡

A couple years ago, I posted about "signs" that Aslan and I were not meant to show in Conformation at that point.  I figured that we would try it again sometime later.  However, last fall, Aslan had an ear hematoma, and his ear is damaged as a result, and thus I believed his chances to show in Conformation were over.  When I mentioned that concern on Facebook, I was encouraged to give it a try anyway.  A damaged ear, unless hanging as on a hound, is not a disqualification.  Several folks shared stories and photos of their damaged-ear dogs earning their Championships.

Spurred on by their motivation, I decided to enter Aslan in the Louisville Regional Specialty.  Though I was disappointed by how poorly we both showed and discouraged that we received no placement, I have not yet given up.

I also entered Justice in Veterans Sweepstakes there as well.  The only dog in the 12 years & over class, she was the oldest dog entered in Vet Sweeps. Even though she didn’t place, I thought she showed beautifully. Most important, she had an absolutely grand time! I was bursting with love & pride, and on our last go-round, I had to fight back the tears. If she's able, we'll do it again next year.

Aslan has been shown three times since then and has picked up Reserve Winners Dog twice (once to a 3-point major), but no points of his own yet.  Trying again in June... fingers crossed!

I have recently begun training Aslan for Open Obedience and Rally Master, and I hope to be able to get some agility training in at the dog club to practice for Open Agility as well.  

Not only is Aslan multi-tasking in various venues, but I am also multi-tasking, as I am training (and/or soon planning to train) multiple dogs in multiple venues: Rally, Obedience, Agility, and Tracking.  I plan to post details of their journeys in upcoming blogs.

Because of the events that happened in April (see my previous post), I was too emotional to take my week-long vacation scheduled for that month.  Now, I have decided to use that to my advantage.  I will be taking small blocks of time off, two to three hours at a time, to train my dogs.  It is such a joy to work with these wonderful canine companions, and we are going to have a blast!

Annnnd, our office is closed for a week in June, which means more free time for training!  Did I mention that we are going to have a blast? 🙋

I'd love to read your comments about what you enjoy doing with your dogs.  Please share!

Cherish your dogs,
MDW

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* Screenshots of the final results on the day of the RNC showed Aslan in 55th and Dakota in 60th; a later download of results from the AKC website listed 56th and 60th places, respectively.  (I did not go back through the list to see if I could determine why the results had changed.)

Aslan, July 2018