The Spaniel Annals

Sometimes it’s important to acknowledge and celebrate the results of all the training my dogs and I do together, and so often it comes in clusters after a long period of hard work. It’s work that I love to do! But it can still have challenges, frustrations and setbacks. Brian has had a wonderful few months where so many of his activities have come together.

First, he finally finished his AKC Open obedience title! This has been a long road to build up his confidence in the ring, in a class that, with the addition of the Command Discrimination exercise, requires more duration of focus and commitment. Brian spent several months as a “1-blooper” dog until he started putting things together with a passing leg at the end of January. His last leg came in June:

Secondly, Brian has completed some element titles in Scentwork, which is a new sport we’ve taken up and he loves. He finished his Novice exterior and Novice containers titles in early July, and passed the Buried element for the first time:

Finally, he entered the Intermediate level of Musical Freestyle, and earned his first leg with one of his highest scores ever:

What a good boy he’s been! This fall we’ll try another scentwork trial, while he works on his Utility exercises. He’s also entered in a few video competitions this summer to wrap up his Intermediate Freestyle title, and I already have the two videos ready to submit. While I do my best to focus on attainment (how we grow through our training) rather than accomplishment (the results), celebrating those results is still necessary and uplifting. Great job Brian!