I’ve been remiss in updating the website and blog! I think a full website update is coming up soon, so be watching for that.

In the last couple months:

• Sport completed her Rally Novice (RN) title. That was both her and my first venture into anything remotely resembling obedience competition, so kind of exciting.
• Jackson (Sport x Travis son) completed his Junior Dog (JD) dock diving title in Splash Dogs (5 legs jumping between 10′-15′).
• Danica (Sport x Travis daughter) qualified in all 3 Novice Preferred Agility events at the GRCA National – her first trial!

I can’t believe the holidays are upon us already. Happy Holidays, everyone!

It has been a busy couple of weeks off at the shows on the weekends, and we have accomplishments in 3 venues!

At the Grass Valley shows last weekend, Sport won Reserve Winners Bitch in conformation, with moi handling as usual. The judge was Ms. Honey Glendinning.

We also ventured into the Obedience ring for the first time (Rally Obedience), and came away with 2 Rally Novice legs, with scores of 97 and 98, and 1st and 2nd placements! The judges were Lissa Wall and Bea Moore. What fun! Thanks to Corina Marx for this Rally picture.

This weekend was USDAA Agility, where Sport earned a leg in Advanced Snooker, and earned her 3rd consecutive leg in Advanced Jumpers for her title. That means next time we get to run in Masters Jumpers. Looking forward to it!

What fun last weekend was! Sport’s son Rockie earned his first title, SRD (Senior Dock Dog). He had to earn 5 legs in competition jumping between 15-20 feet. As of last week, Rockie’s top jump of 19.04 feet puts him at #7 for Golden Retrievers in Splash Dogs (2009), and #13 for Goldens (since 2005). The picture below is Rockie placing 7th in the Pro Finals at Monterey County Fair, and Sport placing 7th in the Open Finals.

Not to be outdone, Jackson made it into a local newspaper, as he and Rockie also competed a few days prior, with Jackson getting his personal best competition jump at 14 feet! Click on Jackson’s picture to read the article on-line.

Don’t ask what Sporty jumps. She just has fun!

“Sport” earned her first two AKC-championship points by going WB, BOW, and BOS at the San Mateo Kennel Club on Sun, Dec 30th, owner-handled! We are especially proud to have them awarded by Golden Breeder-Judge Jeffrey Pepper. Many thanks to him for recognizing our very special girl.

Speaking of Jeff Pepper, check out the article he wrote for the AKC Gazette, which was published in the Nov-Dec 2007 GRNews ‘Field issue’. It is entitled ‘Who Needs the Breed Standard?’ and is about the importance of maintaining breed type no matter what venues one chooses to pursue with their Golden Retriever, or risk losing the very essence of the breed.

Sporty completed her Novice Agility Standard and Jumpers titles out of Novice B, all with 1st and 2nd placements. Her NAJ was completed at the Fremont DTC trial in early November, and the NA at the Sacramento DTC trial in December. Sport is very dynamic in the ring– both responsive and fast. She has started to bark for her turn while waiting by the ring, though… I need to teach her to ‘whisper’!

Lola earned her AX title in fine style this weekend at the Del Valle agility trial. This was a longer journey than expected as Lola had been slowing down and having trouble finishing the courses under time. She was “retired” from agility classes a few months ago, but I decided to bring her out to the trial to see how she would do. Yesterday she not only got the leg, but was 1st place in a large Excellent A class with only 2 qualifiers, and 14 seconds under time!! Good girl, Lola!

At the last minute before the National entries closed, I decided to try qualifying Sporty for the Triathlon. This meant at the National she had to qualify in a field event, performance event, and earn a placement in conformation. We had it easy in a way, since we were Novice everything– WC for the field, Novice B Agility, and since we haven’t done any Breed showing we were eligible for the Novice class in conformation.

Sporty passed her WC with flying colors although I dare say she thought hard about keeping her live flyer pheasant. Also, I almost blew it because there were several minutes while we were in line for the water series where I got more and more nervous to the point that Sport didn’t want anything to do with me! She thought I was a complete alien. Thanks to Terry Southard for helping to calm me down so that Sport could be happy again.

The next day was agility, where she qualified in Novice B JWW class with a 2nd place. I really wanted 1st place, but a few dogs before us I saw a red blur speed through the course and I knew our chances for 1st were history. Kudos to the ‘red blur’ Golden, who is aptly named ‘Rainier Ramroc Wild Spirit’. It was his first trial, too.

I almost chickened out of showing Sport in the breed ring, but was helped along by a few encouraging people, including a very nice woman who also happened to be showing in Novice Bitch, too. I think she had gotten the Triathlon award a few years back. Early on Thursday morning I bathed an indignant Sporty in freezing cold water, then Cindy Krajanowski blew her dry and did a fantastic job! Thank you Cindy!! We literally had 45 minutes to get her bathed and dried, then ran into the ring where she won 1st place in her class. It was a very happy moment. The next day we showed in the Winners Bitch class where we didn’t go any further, but what a thrill to be able to show in that class at the National.

All of that meant Sporty qualified for the GRCA Triathlon Award at the 2007 GRCA National. Thanks to dear friend Suzanne Bria for being our moral support and cheering section through the whole thing! This was a challenge as her boy Finnegan was Sporty-crazed-obsessed and we were having to stay away from each other much of the time!

Huge thanks to Wendy Lepper, Sporty’s breeder, especially!!

Sport qualified both days for her 3rd and 4th JH legs, and is now “sporting” a JH title (in 3 weekends of tests)! It’s her first title, and the very first field title I’ve ever put on a Golden, which means a great deal to me.

She earned her JH title at the Umpqua Valley Retriever Club test held on June 16 & 17 at French Creek Ranch in Glide, Oregon. The grounds were gorgeous and the club did a fantastic job. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Our Junior judges on Saturday were Chuck and Sharon Hilton, and on Sunday were Mary Beth Lamb and Chris Dotson. It was a matter of personal pride to pass under the Hiltons because our very first test was under them and we were not called back that time even though Sporty brought back both her land birds (but not before taking her own grand tour of the grounds I must admit!). Both sets of judges were terrific.

For photos of the Junior test and the grounds, check out Don’s pictures at Topflight Photography.

“Sport” now has two legs toward her Junior Hunter title. She earned her first Junior Hunter leg her first weekend out (April 8th) under judges Jim Morris and Mary Beth Lamb at the Rogue River Retriever Club Hunt Test in White City, Oregon. She did a beautiful job and we had a great time. It was her first orange ribbon and Christine’s very first hunt test band. Special thanks to our trainer Cheryl Baca for showing us the way! We are very excited. Cheryl’s website is http://cherylsdogtraining.wordpress.com for those that are interested in training with her.Sport’s second JH leg was earned in Fallon, Nevada at the Sierra Nevada Retriever Club hunt test a few weeks later under judges Mary Jo Marttila and Glen Marttila.
These two sets of judges were wonderful and very encouraging to novice field handlers like myself. Even the teams that didn’t pass had nice words from the judges and I think that helps so much to get new people to continue participating in the sport. I couldn’t recommend them more highly.

Next– LOLA! She completed her USDAA Advanced Agility Dog (AAD) title at the SMART Agility trial in Prunedale under judge Pat Corl. She handled very well for me and I was very proud of her.