Wilson's Winnings on Wordless Wednesday

Jimmy is usually the recipient of my performance praises. He is a high drive boy who loves to work. But before I even had Jimmy, there was Wilson doing his best! He may not have had Jimmy's love of agility, but he loved to please and earned plenty of ribbons himself......

On the left, Agility. Top right three, Herding, and lower right, Rally.

Jimmy's thinking "Just wait til she does MY post like this!!!"

The Weekend Report: Dream Until Your Dream Comes True!

Yesterday, Wilson and I went to a Rally Obedience trial to try finishing his Rally Advanced title. It was indoors on soccer turf so I was hopeful Wilson would react as if it was his training facility. The judge set a very easy course for us. It was kind of crowded at the start because the ring had a ceiling support pole in the way. I am not sure why the stations were placed so close to that pole as there was room to shift it further away, maybe it was to up the challenge. Just like Agility, in Rally you get a map of the stations as well as a walk-thru before hand. This gives you time to practice some of your moves if need be. I reviewed some of the things with Wilson I thought might help. He seemed nicely focused and calm. When our turn came, he was anything but! LOL! We go in the ring and he instantly starts mouthing off! Woof, woof, woof! He didn't do that on the other two tries, but then those were outdoors with heat and smells. I think he was a bit indignant that 1) the treats had dried up, so why work for free? and 2) It sort of looked like an agility ring so why were we not running?
He didn't heel very close to me and he pretty much sassed me the whole way through, but we did manage to complete each station successfully (sort of) enough that we qualified! Now I know Wilson can do these Rally moves with nice sharp precision. In practice he does a very pretty job of it. While part of me would have liked him to put in that type of performance, the other side of me knows his silly antics will be so much more memorable. Cardigans are known for their sense of humor and clownish attitude. Wilson held up that reputation! Now, I will say, the judge was a very generous person. She overlooked lots of mistakes made by the other competitors, and she let Wilson's less than stellar performance go through. Unlike agility, where ribbons after your runs are self-service, in Rally, all the qualifiers go back in the ring to receive their ribbons. As the judge handed me my ribbon, she smiled and said "You know why you lost points!" (Barking in the ring is very much frowned on in Obedience even when it is just Rally!)

So there we had it! Wilson had earned his 3rd and final leg to get his Rally Advanced title. But the true motivation behind getting this title was that it gave Wilson the one more point he needed to earn his Versatility Certificate from the Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America. The club awards this honor to Cardigans who have titled  in three venues, be it the breed ring, agility, obedience, herding, etc. They need to get more points in one of the venues to indicate advanced training, and then at least beginner points in two others.  Jimmy earned his certificate three years ago when he completed a Rally Novice title. Because his agility skills got him titled at a higher level, his points tallied up sooner. When Wilson got his Rally Novice title at the same time, it unfortunately left him just one point shy. I had been procrastinating getting Wilson that last point, but I knew I would be very disappointed in myself if I let anymore time go by. Wilson would age out of doing Rally if I waited too long and his hearing went. So once AKC officially acknowledges this new title, Wilson will get his Versatility Certificate from the national club. Yay, Wilson!

The Loot!

Click to enlarge...For the full effect!

Look at all the goodies! And this isn't even everything! The Rally folks were super-generous with the prizes they gave out. The little training bag with the red handle (upper left)  is one of two I got. They also gave me the two throwing toys, 4 leashes, another of those big green toys like those in the blue bag, and for Wilson's 1st place, that huge red dragon toy. It is so cute (with 16 squeakies inside!) I am not going to let the boys ruin it, at least not for a while! The blue duffle and the two green stuffed toys are from the agility folks. The bag has a really cute logo of a Cardi jumping through a tire. And in the lower right corner, the two frames are my prizes from the photo contest. All in all, quite the haul, wouldn't you say?!

And of course, despite all of these lovely prizes, I had to do a bit of retail therapy to soothe my agility disappointment (of course, had I done well in agility, I still would have bought it as a reward!)....The woman who does the amazing silver Cardigan jewelry (Barbara Braumuller Gurwell of Brigwyn Jewelry) was there and I couldn't pass up this adorable little pendant.....

She really captured the Cardi "frog" or "flying squirrel" pose, don't you think?

I also went a bit nutty buying things at the Performance dinner silent auction (I blame it on way a bit too much wine!), but didn't take any pictures of my over-indulgence....

I plan on giving away the training bag (it could double as a garden bag, too) and one of the leashes so stay tuned.......

The CWCCA National Specialty

I am back from Ohio, caught up around the house, and ready to report on my experiences at the 2012 Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America's National Specialty. This will probably be a long (and maybe boring) post so I'll give you an overview first. The boys and I had a lot of success.....just not in agility. Out of the 5 runs I signed up for, I qualified in the one that mattered least to me, Time To Beat (T2B). Thank goodness I took everyone's encouragement and signed up for Rally! Both boys qualified, both days! And finally, two of the photographs I entered made the cut and earned placements. I won a third place in the Action category and a second place in the General category! Woohoo!

Now for all the details....If you skip this, just be sure to read the last line of the post......

Luckily for me, Rally Novice A was set up as the first class of the day, beginning at 9 am. Agility wasn't set to go until 10:30 so no conflicts! That was a load off my mind. The course held none of the moves I was worried about, and things went well. I had a hard time getting Jimmy's nose up off the carpet so I lost a bunch of points on a tight leash and I messed up the spiral around the cones and needed a do-over. But, even so, I qualified in the 80's somewhere. Wilson did a better job (as I expected, he's very pleased to be working again!), but still somewhere in the 80's. Our end result was Wilson took 2nd place and Jimmy took 4th. Yea! I must confess here that there were only 4 dogs in Rally Novice A, and we all qualified! On Tuesday, again there were none of the moves that worried me (meaning ones where Jimmy starts to protest loudly). Wilson was really up for it, his heeling was great, and we cruised through. Jimmy still preferred to sniff the carpet, but we did just fine. The judge on Tuesday was much more generous and everyone had scores in the 90's. Wilson took first place with a 98! Jimmy came away with a 3rd. Needless to say I am so glad I signed up for Rally! I have even signed up for another rally trial in May, so I can hopefully get each boy their 3rd legs/titles.

Now for the report on agility.....Sigh.....such bitter disappointment.....
First, let me mention the weather.....a HUGE cold front had come roaring through...It was cloudy, unseasonably cold even for northern Ohio on Lake Erie, and freaking WINDY. We had steady 20 to 30 mile per hour winds both days, with gusts going even higher. The jumps had to be staked down and still blew over.  Same for the Chute....Even the Teeter was flopping around! It truly was miserable and exhausting being outside in those conditions. It was hard to get my usual trial routine going......Since other folks had plenty of success, my failures can't be blamed entirely on the weather, but it sure didn't help! Monday, in Standard, Jimmy did his usual Table BS  and after dancing around it a few times, I grabbed him and carried him off the field. The walk of shame for both of us. In Jumpers, it was a bit of a tricky course, and Jimmy got a refusal when he lost momentum going toward one of the jumps. The judge was a strict guy, and was giving no breaks. Tuesday, in Standard, it was dogwalk to the table, and Jimmy blew his contact on the dogwalk....so of course he did the table for me!  I praised and praised him while he stayed for the count...and as we moved on to the next jump, the double, he took a bar. But who cares, as we were already NQ'ed.... I was glad about the table, and took that as our victory for the run. In the JWW run, Jimmy was an innocent victim. I got lost, something I haven't done in a very long time, and went off-course. I wanted to cry. Literally. So our only redeeming run was the Time to Beat run....There is only one placement ribbon given in this game, to the fastest dog. We were not that team. But Jimmy did give me a speedy run and we earned another 8 points toward our title requirements and leg #4 out of 15 legs we need. So, we did get one nice green qualifying agility ribbon.

And back to happier news....here are my two pictures that made it to the winner's wall....

Second Place General.....

And Third Place Action........

I still have a lot more I want to talk about, but I'll save it for another post or two......and just to keep you coming back....There will be GIVE AWAYS coming up, so stay tuned!