The Real Time Canine II

After spending 2 years writing the Real Time Canine, the adventure continues with The Real Time Canine II. Read along as I look for just the right puppy to continue the experience. After false starts with Tim and Jed, I am currently training young Tam, and Spot, which are both off to a strong start. Please visit the RTC II to read about training sessions as they occur.

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Spoils

A Star is Born
Jennifer and Ron Ewers put on a great sheepdog trial. Every year over New Year's weekend, they produce Snowbirds on the Border Sheepdog trial at their ranchette in Campo, California. Snowbirds has always been a good trial for me, and I've been fortunate to find success there on more than one occasion. I'm pleased to say that it happened again this year with my nursery dog, Star.

He was better than I anticipated. A lot better actually. Running of both nursery classes clashed with my work schedule, so I threw him in the open and hoped for the best. A nursery dog can qualify for the USBCHA National Nursery Finals with a top 20% placing in the open class. With over 60 dogs running both days, I  had to be in the top 13, and figured it was worth a shot. He exceeded that mark considerably, finished in 3rd place both days, and qualified for not only the nursery class at the 2011 National Finals, but likely collected enough points for the open finals as well.  Whew...what a weekend!

But here's what I wanted to tell you; Jennifer is very clever with her prizes. Instead of ribbons, she awards key chains and zipper pulls, in addition to generous prize money, and I just love them. Last year Star won one day of the nursery, and received this kewl key chain.


I put my RV trailer keys on it, and I just think it's so clever. Don't misunderstand me, I appreciate every single ribbon I have ever won, but I'll have this thing forever. The key chains come from Anita Fox at Stockdog Gems and are made specially for Jennifer's trial.

This year Star won a zipper pull for each of his placings in the open, and here is one of them.


Irrisistable aren't they? I was talking with friends, Dan Keeton and Charlie Torre when Jennifer walked up and presented my zipper pull. I told the guys how excited I was to win another one, and Charlie commented that I spend thousands of miles, dollars, and hours to train and compete with my dogs, and it's a zipper pull that blows my skirt up. Yeah, sure, he just wishes he had one dangling from the zipper of that black leather jacket he wears. Well forget it Charlie. This one's mine. I'm adding it to my collection and hoping to accumulate enough to adorn my collection of Carharts!

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations such great runs with a nursery dog. I read your posts and my friend Janet remarks to them. I love hearing about her dogs run and now I have your Star to watch for too. I think the prizes are great, something useful and a nice reminder of your wins and time well spent.

    ReplyDelete