Joan Fisher
New member
:icon_redface: Well, Tiika and I went to the Wine Circuit Shows27-20 Sept. Tiika was entered in Open Obedience for 4 days. I figured she'd get her last 2 legs for CDX the 1st 2 days and we might even try bumping up to Utility for the last 2 days. Think again! The 1st day Tiika lagged and looked around so much she NQ'ed in her heeling, even though she did everything else. It helped that all the other dogs were terrible too - no qualifiers. The 2nd day Tiika stopped and stood on her "drop on recall" so NQ'd again. One GSD qualified. The 3rd day Tiika was the only qualifier out of 12 dogs going into the long sits and downs. I thought we were good! 2 1/2 minutes in, according to the judge, she lay down. :banghead: That day the Genessee Nfld Club was sponsoring the Specialty, and had offered a beautiful pottery bowl and a NCA medallion to the highest scoring Newf. After the trial Shannon, who won the prize in Novice with her Newf, came and gave me the bowl, saying she thought Tiika deserved it! How nice is that! Newf people are so wonderful! Shannon wouldn't accept my no! She tried to give me the medallion, too, but her friends talked her into listening to me over that! Well, on Sunday, Tiika finally did it. For the whole ring that morning, there were only 2 qualifiers - one Utility B and Tiika in Open A. The Sunday Specialty was being sponsored by Northland Nfld Club but they weren't offering any prizes for obedience, just conformation. So I didn't feel so guilty about accepting Shannon's bowl! I've never seen such terrible obedience performances from so many dogs. There were dogs that peed in the ring, pooped in the ring, kept their noses to the ground like bloodhounds, and left the ring and these were Open and Utility dogs, not Novices! I guess it was all the smells, noise, rain, and activity distractions but it was really a new experience for me. I'm used to the Newfs being the worst, not the best, such as it was! Despite all the humiliation, Tiika and I met some wonderful Newf people and had a great time! Ahh well, now we just have to go to more shows and meet even more Newf people to get our AKC CDX!!