Jazz's Obedience Weekend

Jazz got two legs towards her Companion Dog title in AKC Obedience this past weekend at the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club trial!! On Saturday, we qualified with third place, although Jazz could have gotten second place if her handler didn't make a 3-point error. Oops! You know what they say...there are no bad dogs, only bad handlers ;) You can bet that this handler won't make that same mistake again!

Our friend Susan and her Dal Ripley came out from Ohio for this trial and stayed with us Saturday evening. We had a nice dinner with a bunch of our agility friends and then brought Ripley home to play with Tess and Jazz. Although he liked playing with the girls, he was much more fascinated with our parrot.

On Sunday, we headed back to the obedience trial, where Jazz qualified with first place! While we still have a ways to go in building Jazz's confidence, I was really pleased with how well she did this weekend. She was comfortable in the trial environment and did fairly well in the ring. Her long sits and downs were solid and she's really improved her Figure 8s. I'm looking forward to continuing Jazz's obedience training and entering more trials in the spring with this awesome liver girl!!

Trick or Treat!

Our veterinarian's office had a Trick or Treat day for the pets who come to their clinic, so Tess' Elvis costume was once again dusted off and pressed into service, along with Jazz in a pretty pink poodle skirt made by my sister. They had a grand time getting treats and lots of attention from the folks at the vet's office.

The veterinary office is holding a costume contest, so we're asking all of our friends on Facebook to search for Bakerstown Animal Hospital and vote for Tess and Jazz! I'm not sure how quickly they'll get the pictures and voting onto Facebook, but we'd appreciate your support. Thank you...thank you very much!!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Bakerstown-PA/Bakerstown-Animal-Hospital/119295131419866?ref=search&sid=1045583970.3755038094..1

Autumn Splendor

Just thought I'd share a few photos of Tess and Jazz with some of the fall foliage in our yard.

Rally Pairs

We've just wrapped up a Rally and Obedience weekend at the Golden Triangle Obedience Training Club trial. This was Tess and Jazz's Rally Pairs debut, and, as promised, I'm including links to the video from their two Rally Pairs runs. Unfortunately, I couldn't get Blogger to upload this video, and when I did it through YouTube, it cut off half the video, so just follow the links below to view it on YouTube. I'm sure this is all because of my lack of video upload experience, so my apologies!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSl8P0OFsHQ

Saturday was quite the day for us. Tess finished her Rally Novice title with a third place finish and Jazz got her third RAE leg, qualifying in both Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent. The girls then competed in Rally Novice Pairs and finished in first place!! To top off the whole day, Jazz went on to finish her Beginner Novice obedience title and was once again High Scoring Dalmatian in the trial. Way to go, girls!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEp3Go9SpWs

Sunday was also a good day. Tess got her first Rally Advanced leg and Jazz got her fourth RAE leg. The girls once again competed in Rally Pairs and had a very nice run. They tied for first place, but the other team had a faster time, so we got second place. We had a great time with Rally Pairs and can't wait to try it again! We may even get brave enough to enter Rally Pairs Advanced, where Tess and Jazz would compete off leash!

Here are the girls with the spoils of their victories! We're actually missing a qualifying ribbon in the picture because the club ran out of them. I LOVE the Rally Pairs ribbons. Because it's a non-regular class, the first place ribbon was pink and the second place ribbon was brown...our favorite colors! We had a successful weekend at the trial and enjoyed spending time with friends and their dogs. I've taken the plunge and entered Jazz in Novice A Obedience in November, so we'll be training hard until then! I'd also like to get Tess into Beginner Novice Obedience, but there are only so many hours in a day...and too many of them are spent working to earn the money to pay for the entries in these trials :)

WCOTC Rally and Obedience

We had a great weekend at the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club's Rally and Obedience trial. Friday and Saturday were beautiful fall days, and although it rained on Sunday, we still enjoyed a weekend filled with good friends and their canine companions. I was ever so grateful to have many of my new instructors and classmates from WCOTC there to give me guidance and support. They're a great group of people!

Tess made her Rally debut on Friday, earning a fourth place qualifying score in Rally Novice B. Tess also qualified in Rally on Saturday. Tess was a bit confused about why Jazz got to run in two classes in Rally and a class in obedience, but she was a good sport about waiting for her turn in Rally and worked nicely for me. Good girl, Tess!

Jazz's weekend was a whirlwind of green qualifying ribbons! On Friday, Jazz got a third place qualifying score in Rally Excellent B, along with a qualifying score in Rally Advanced B, earning her first RAE leg. She also qualified on Saturday in Rally Excellent B and Rally Advanced B, getting that second RAE leg. Only eight more to go :)

On Saturday, Jazz made her Obedience debut, competing in AKC's new optional titling class of Beginner Novice. I was a bit nervous about this, as we had a potential conflict in rings for Rally and Obedience, but we finished Rally just in time to walk into the Obedience ring with only one dog ahead of us! I was very pleased with Jazz's run in Beginner Novice. She was happy and confident, and after a run-off with a very skilled Lab and her handler, Jazz was awarded first place with a score of 195.5! Jazz went on to win a stuffed toy for High Scoring Dalmatian in the trial...and then won a large trophy for High Scoring Non-Sporting Dog in the trial!! Wow, what a day!

Sunday was Obedience only at the trial, so it was just me and Jazz, back for another run in Beginner Novice. Jazz was obviously worn down from two days of Rally and Obedience, but she again had a nice performance in Beginner Novice, scoring 192.5. She received a crystal apple-shaped bowl for being High Scoring Dalmatian in the trial, and also got an address book and journal for being High Scoring Non-Sporting Dog in the trial.

I'm very encouraged by Jazz's performance in the Obedience ring. She seemed to enjoy it, and we're looking forward to competing again in two weeks and hopefully finishing up her Beginner Novice title. We'll also be working on a couple more RAE legs with Jazz and trying to finish Tess' Rally Novice title that weekend. The girls will also be competing in Rally Pairs for the first time, so I'm going to try to get a video of that for everyone's entertainment!

Easy Rider

Every Thursday evening, Jazz and Sammie go to class together. Tess usually stays home with Jim. Yesterday, Jim was in Philadelphia for work, and since I didn't want to leave Tess at home all evening after being home all day while I was at work, she went to spend the evening with her "Uncle Jim." Tess got to go walking in the park with Jim, and since we take my car to class, she got to ride in Jim's van in Rocky's special seat, wearing Rocky's seatbelt harness! I'm sure Tess just loved sitting in the passenger seat facing forward to look out the windshield. She usually rides in the back of my car with a view only of where we've been, not where we're going!

I'm not sure how Rocky's going to feel once he realizes that a silly spotted girl was riding in HIS seat and wearing HIS harness. Rocky is 14 years old, and while his trips to the park to walk may be over, he is still about the coolest dog in the world, which is why I nicknamed him John Wayne! He is wonderfully calm and confident, and both my girls are very respectful of Rocky. Thanks, buddy, for allowing Tess to ride in your seat and spend the evening with your Dad at the park. Thanks, too, to Uncle Jim for taking Tess to the park so she didn't have to spend the evening home alone!

Tess - MX! ** Jazz - NAJ!

We had a wonderful titling weekend at the Westmoreland County Obedience Training Club agility trial! On Saturday, Tess started out with a 4th place Q in FAST. Then she went on to qualify in Excellent B Standard to earn her Master Agility Excellent (MX) title!! Woo-hoo, Tess!

After working so hard to earn that MX title, Tess took a well-deserved mental vacation and didn't qualify the rest of the weekend. She needs two more legs for her MXJ title, so we're hopeful that she'll finish that before the end of the year.

Jazz had a great weekend, too. On Saturday, she qualified in Novice FAST and got a 1st place qualifying score in Novice JWW! Then on Sunday, she got a 3rd place Q in Novice FAST. Today, she got another 1st place Q in Novice JWW, earning her Novice Agility Jumpers title with three 1st place legs! Jazz also got a 1st place Q in Novice Standard today, with just one more leg to go for her NA title. Not bad for a baby dog!!

Of course, the girls had a fun time visiting with all their friends this weekend. A few of our buddies have puppies, and both Tess and Jazz enjoyed a little puppy play time, especially with Katie, our friend Linda's adorable little Cocker Spaniel pup. While we're sorry to see summer go, we had an enjoyable Labor Day weekend at the trial.