What an absolutely AWESOME day! Today was the double-double National Rally – O and Regional Rally – O trials. This evening was also the 2nd Annual Futurity/Maturity event, so we had a dog entered in everything again today! Indy was entered in Obedience, Karma was entered in Rally, and Baby Halo was in Futurity.
The National Obedience and Rally trials were first. Indy did an awesome job and qualified for his 2nd CD leg! Yay! We received a huge blue rosette, Purina cooler, and custom Vizsla coaster along with his green qualifying rosette. This was pretty awesome — Jenny had told our trainer Sarah Stremming last August (when we started obedience training) that our goal was to compete at the National trial. We are thrilled that we were not only able to compete, but get a qualify! It made our day 🙂
Karma was next in Rally Excellent. At one point in the course, Karma refused a jump, which was beyond weird. Rally jumps are only at 16” and Karma jumps 20” in agility. Then Karma came to a front position and Jenny noticed her left eye was blinking shut…poor thing couldn’t open it 🙁 Jenny asked to be excused and took Karma out of the ring. Luckily, our friend Neeta had some eye wash handy so we were able to flush out Karma’s eye. Whatever was bugging her must have come out because the blinking and squinting stopped within about 10 minutes. No trip to the vet necessary, we headed back for the Regional Obedience trial.
Indy was a good boy again for the Regional trial and picked up his 3rd CD leg! Yay! This gave Indy his 3rd and final leg to not only complete his Companion Dog title, but it also qualified him for his Versatility Certificate from the Vizsla Club of America! Indy qualified with his Champion title, Master Hunter title (only need 3 Senior legs), and his CD today! These two items have been on our goal list for a long time, so it feels great to get that crossed off the list!
No excuses for Karma in the afternoon trial, but boy was she naughty. I guess we are going to have to wait until Karma is retired from agility to come back for her Rally Excellent title — she thought Rally was totally boring today. By the 3rd time Jenny asked for a sit, Karma threw her a “seriously?! you want me to sit? AGAIN?! “ look. It was pretty hilarious. Then she started jumping up on Jenny — her favorite pre-agility run routine. Then she started doing a down when given the sit command, a sit for the stand command — you get the idea. One of the many things we love about Karma — her personality! Grandma Geli was famous for peeing in the obedience ring because she figured out that once you did your business they let you leave! Luckily, Karma hasn’t figured that out yet 😉
Our excitement about Indy aside, we have some other great moments today. We were able to watch Halo’s Momma Bailey compete in Obedience and Rally, our friend Carol compete in the super hard Utility class with the 2011 High in Trial winner Turk, and Heather and Gunner had a great day! Heather and Gunner earned TWO Beginner Novice Legs AND TWO Rally Advanced Excellent Legs (meaning they had to qualify in BOTH Advanced and Excellent!) They also managed to win the Combined High in Rally Advanced Excellent award at **BOTH** trials! Serious swag went back to our room!
We had a short break before Futurity, so we took advantage of the time and took the dogs to the dog park for a nice long romp. Then it was back for the Futurity/Maturity show. Boys were up first and we were so excited to cheer on Halo’s brother Dempsey who placed 3rd in his 6-9 month class! Halo made the cut in the 6-9 month female class which was pretty impressive because it was the LARGEST class. Halo and Dempsey were both shown by their breeder Kathy Rust. Jenny took lots of notes on Kathy’s great handling — hopefully we can incorporate some of her techniques at Halo’s next show!
Before we close out for tonight — we have some goals to cross off! And Indy’s win photos are below 🙂
Our updated goal list:
-Karma’s MXJ title — DONE!
-Novice Fast title on Gunner & Karma — DONE!
-Gunner’s OA title — DONE!
-Get Halo major pointed — DONE!
-Companion Dog on Indy — DONE!
-Versatility Certificate on Indy — DONE!
-Rally Novice on Halo
-Rally Excellent on Karma
-Companion Dog on Gunner
-Junior Hunter on Halo
-Senior Hunter on Gunner & Karma
-Versatile Certificate on Gunner
-Grand Championship on Indy
-Gunner’s AXJ and AX titles
-Karma’s MX title
-Get Karma qualified for AKC Agility Nationals
-Get Halo’s Second Major
*We also have a few stretch goals we are keeping to ourselves for now 🙂
