The Spaniel Annals

Most folks in the dog show/performance world amass boxes full of ribbons won over the years, and we all love to brag about our titles won and placements awarded.  But in the end, it’s really not about those titles and ribbons.  Behind those colorful strips of nylon are the stories: of dreams achieved and dreams revised; months and years of training; tears of frustration, despair and joy; and above all, the relationship with the dog that is profoundly deepened by all these adventures together. 

Once such adventure occurred with me and Rozzie in the agility arena recently.  Ever since I started training her for agility, I dreamed of running her at the Seattle Kennel Club agility trial held every February.  As you can see from the picture below, the crowds are thick and sit in bleachers right outside the ring.  Loudspeakers narrate the agility runs and the enormous hall echoes with the barks and buzz of Seattle’s largest dog show:

Here’s another photo at ring level, just to give you more of an idea of how close the crowds are:

Why did I dream of running Rozzie here?   Just call me a glamour queen at heart, I suppose.  Very few springers are running in agility right now, and I wanted people to enjoy watching her as much as I enjoyed running her.  But I knew the noise level would be quite challenging for Rozzie, as she’s somewhat sound sensitive, and the crowds could frighten her.  So we showed up Saturday morning with me prepared to help her through any scary spots.  Our first run was scary: right as she put her forefoot on the dog walk, a loudspeaker blared. She hopped off and I could not get her back on the obstacle.  The judge whistled us off the course, but fortunately allowed us to run a few jumps on the way out so we could finish positively.

From there, I was fully prepared for a tough weekend where Rozzie would simply work on her sound sensitivity.  But she stunned me with her ability to recover: her Saturday afternoon run was a “jumpers class” comprised of only jumps, weaves and tunnels, and she ran it “clean” (no mistakes) for 1st place!   The next morning we again faced the dreaded dogwalk, and I had no sweeter sight all weekend than her confident mounting of the obstacle.  She had one split second of hesitation halfway up, and I got out a “good girl!”  From then on, Rozzie was brilliant, qualifying in all of her runs and winning 1st place in her class each time, which meant we moved up into the Open class on Sunday, the second level in agility. 

So we got it all at the Seattle Kennel Club: ribbons and titles.  But the memory of that weekend is all about Rozzie overcoming her fears far more rapidly than I could have hoped for.  She gave me my dream of running an adorable and very biddable springer spaniel in front of the crowds, and she gained a huge boost in confidence and focus in a challenging venue.  Way to go, my Rozzie girl!

 Ahem.  Now I must confess, there are times when it is all about the ribbons.  Or at least they take on greater significance than usual.  The very next weekend, my gordon setter puppy ran in her very first field trial, a puppy stake with 10 entries.  This is good enough for 2 points towards a field championship.  However, with this being Gael’s very first trial, my only goal was to keep her running forward and not getting scared by the judges on horseback. But lo and behold, Gael ran beautifully and won the stake!  Believe me, getting that ribbon was a wonderful moment:

Gael is looking a bit put out here as I’m requiring her to sit when she’d much rather be playing with the english setter on stakeout directly to her left.  She just doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about.  But the ribbon hangs proudly on my refrigerator, and will be there for some time.:-)