Well Day 2 of the VCA’s National Specialty and Companion Events is in the bag. Today was insanely busy. Jenny had to get there early to train all our Covid Monitors. Then it was off to run Cheeky in Handler Discrimination, Exteriors, and Containers. Cheeky was rock solid and qualified in all 3 elements which means she also finished all three of those titles!!
Then we headed back to the main building to run through Obedience and Rally. Karma was up first in Novice. We were SO SO SO close. She made it all the way through to the group sits and downs. During the group sit, the dog to the right of her stood up, but Karma held through that distraction. She also completed the down stay…until Jenny returned to heel and she stood up! Lost that qualify in the last 2 seconds. Karma also had a few too many errors in Rally Excellent to qualify there, but she did pick up another Rally Advanced leg. Rally is her least favorite sport and Jenny only makes her suffer through it at Nationals for Iron Dog points.
Up next was Cheeky in Beginner Novice and she refused to sit! She clearly thinks dog show mats are only for stacking. The judge was cracking up. For the sit stay, she told Jenny just to leave her in a show stack and walk around the ring. Cheeky didn’t move a muscle! It was quite comical — guess we need to practice Obedience on dog show mats!! This didn’t leave Jenny with high hopes for Rally Novice, BUT the course actually didn’t have too many sits and Cheeky picked up a qualifying score! 1st Rally Novice Leg!
Then it was back to the hotel to change outfits for the Diamonds and Denim Welcome Party and Veteran Sweepstakes. After changing, we ran back to the barn to run Cheeky in her Interior and Buried searches. She qualified in both!! That means she finished those two titles too! All in all, Cheeky qualified in all Novice Scent Work elements in a perfect 15 for 15 attempts!! To cap that off, she went overall High in Trial Novice (and HIT Novice Vizsla!) and Overall Novice High Combined (and HC Novice Vizsla!) That gives her FIVE new titles today!! Think we found her game!!
Back to the main building for Sweepstakes and Jenny and Karma went 4th Place in an absolutely STACKED 10-12 Veteran Bitch class. Before awarding placements, Judge Laura Reeves congratulated us all on happy, healthy Veterans…and THAT is really the best reward!!! .
It was a fantastic day and we floated back to the hotel!