Happy 4th of July🎉A frolicking good time was had🎉
💙💚💛
SuzieQ🌼 & GlorieB💠
Glorie Days... Argon's Life's Too Short for Commas
Day 1 of water training. Strengthening those little muscles to do all the fittings without over heating. We went from dangerous lake water levels to 98° temps so fast, but the water was perfect at 8:30AM in a local SniffSpot.
Tracking class was fun today🥰 Suzie loved crossing the little rivers, but wanted to swim in the little lakes on her track. I had over an inch of water in my boots, but no complaints at a nice 57°. Couldn't get a picture with all the rain on the camera😆
Happy Dog, Happy Life🥰
We don't often get a chance for pictures together -the three of us. For he FCAT title it's been the three of us the whole journey - 2 years (41 runs) in the books. Thanks, Triniti, for the great pictures to capture the moment.
After an hour in the sun,, with her coat soaking up the heat, she wasn't at her best, but SuzieQ did what she needed to do to complete the title.
And she earn a 3rd place in Rally Masters with a nice run.
Then we checked out UpDog Challenge and headed to Waffle Champion for our Breakfast of Champions. Now for a nap💤💤💤
We're taking a a month off from being judged to do some things Suzie loves most... (And watch her relatives at Westminster this week)
For this year we're opting out of both FCRSA and Rally National Championships due to time & expense in order to focus on getting her Rally (done!) and Conformation (🤞🍀) championships.
To get our happy. athletic girl ready to show, we're about...lake water retrieves, agility training, getting chiro work, learning frisbee, hiking, family time, tracking, handling classes, and lots of therapy dog visits to mental health, college finals, cancer and rehab hospitals.
Suzie's loving May...before the heat gets too intense.
Back into the ring and on the field for Memorial Day weekend to Aug 1 with Fast CAT, Rally, Conformation, Agility and checking out Dock and Disc.
Then she's headed to Alaska with us for a week💛🍀
SuzieQ finished her 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Coursing Ability Test Qs (CABT) and earned a new title (pending approval), adding CA.
SuzieQ has learned to pace herself a little and ran 6 football fields X4 and actually caught the "bunnies" during two runs. One of those times she said, "job done!" And came back to me without following the other two bunnies the last 100 yards but, "Hey, job done! Let's celebrate!"
Remember: any dog with sight prey drive can do this. (Bonus: you don't have to run with them🥳) Short-leggers only do a 300 yd test. Brachs and double-coats run earlier in cooler temps. Check the rules on AKC for CABT.
Next week is Rally 2X2 in Houston and hanging with my Bubba. Closing in on Suzie's RACH 🏅
In two weeks we Fast CAT (100 yd timed) 🐇🐇🐇 in Vinita, OK, go hiking, check in on some friends who moved nearby ... and spend an afternoon at Agility Nationals in Tulsa. 🍀🍀🍀Hoping the luck of the Irish brings us our FAST title🍀🍀🍀
So excited!!!
To be fair, it's not all win weekends. We're working through a bad experience a couple of months ago on this particular dog walk, so sometimes it goes like this... Watch her look for the quickest way out of the ring when she turns the corner and sees the dog walk. We did have a somewhat better run on Sunday, but... work to do.
What it takes to make Suzie HAPPY:
Mark, 50-60° temps, a lake with birds, a stick, &
5+ acres of running room
3 sec video clip... that's taken 5 days to post.
Reviewing and reviewing the video from last Sunday in Hot Springs and what the judges said about Suzie. Saturday the judge said she was "the most fit FCR in the ring." And, taking some things they learned Sat, the Mark & Suzie Team 'knocked it out!" on Sunday.
With no points on the line and going in with 4 Specials, the judge said that, if the rules allowed her to do it, she would place her second!!!
It was a beautiful line up, so that meant the world to us at a time when we are chasing the major wins with not enough class entries to get there.
Three more practice weekends until a shot at the major wins in December.
Tracking Day 34: a little trail run, a little tracking (2 tracks totalling 225', 3 legs, aged 35-45 min), and a little lake retrieving. 2PM and 49° w/4mph wind. Lovely day and lovely practice for SuzieQ.
