The Spaniel Annals

Our English Springer Spaniel National was held in Albany, Oregon this year in October.  We’ve been training this past year to get the younger springers ready for this event, as the National rotates around the country and so is not always nearby for us to attend.  I was thrilled with the performances of both Rozzie and Reardon, who competed in multiple events at the novice and pre-novice level in obedience and Rozzie in agility.  They amassed a wonderful record of qualifying 9 out of 10 events, and placing 1st or 2nd in all of those qualifying events.  Most importantly, they enjoyed these first attempts in the competition ring, and maintained a great attitude all week. 

Here’s Rozzie in her second rally round.  There are a few bloopers in attention; she was fading a bit at this point in the afternoon, after already competing in the morning.  Fortunately rally allows the handler to give extra help.  It was still a very solid performance for this novice girl:

Next is Reardon competing in another class called Beginner Novice, a new pre-novice class introduced by the AKC recently.  It eliminates the off-lead heeling and the group sit and down stays, with some other novice exercises simplified.  I think this is an excellent addition to the titling classes, and a great way to get a very green dog in the ring.

This next year Rozzie and Reardon will move on to the regular novice classes in obedience.  This was a great first experience for them.