It was a hard 5 weeks, y'all! OKC to Dallas to San Antonio to Houston to Longview in July! In the end, we skipped weeks 3 (San Antonio) & 5 (Longview) because of heat, health, expense, and lack of class points... and we were planning an awesome vacation (more on that next time. With temperatures soaring over 100° (and up to 111°) we thought better of our health and Suzie's, so we took a "live to fight another day" attitude. As soon as the thermometer hit 100°, our northern-bred girl blew her coat in a big way.
In the Breed ring, we had a set back the first day of the first show, and spent the rest of the weekend (and month) recovering. In the end, Suzie brought home 5/11 1st places in Open Bitch, 1 WB (1 point), 4 RWB (2 on 4 & 5 point wins that went to a lovely 6 month puppy imported from Scotland by a friend and 1 to a bitch that we beat one day and the next she went on to earn a 4 pt major by going OS over us and 3 specials). That's the details. The upshot is ...still no majors for us. Feeling like the perpetual Maid-of-Honor.
Here is some of our ribbon take from Houston:
Rally went better, though we had to drop some because of show ring logistics. Final counts were:
Titles: RAE4 Placements: 6
Triple Qs: +5 Master Pts: +41
Happy Team...100%
Along the way we also picked up an easy AKC Farm Dog Certification thanks to our time on my mom's farm -- animals, tools, barn doors, hay bales, and Suzie's chill attitude to everything but "squeaky wheels."
Suzie and Mark tried out disc with UpDog and decided to keep practicing at the lake, so we're alternating with lake bumper retrieves ...when we can get there before 90°.
All the travel (and a resurgence of Covid-19 in a facility) made it harder to work in Therapy Dog visits, but we got in 10 in this summer and have a great schedule going into Fall. Suzie 💛💛💛 working with people so much, especially the mental health and the OT/PT rehab. Being my Service Dog is growing her nose and eye skills even more as we discover how many talents she has, if we can just learn to understand her communications.
We're taking a break from tracking because of the heat. By the time I lay a track, it's already too hot to track it! So we're working on scent tracking Mark in stores, and (upcoming) on vacation...
Comments