Eventful Obedience Trial

This morning we left the house early to attend the annual AKC Obedience Trial sponsored by our dog training club. This year I was a spectator as Noah and Norma Jean aren't ready for competition yet. I plan to continue working with them at home thru the winter, then enter them in classes in the spring so they can learn to concentrate with strange people and dogs around.

The events hadn't started when I got there, so I had a chance to wander around and meet people.
First stop the ribbon table. Look at all these beauties that will be getting hung on walls by the end of the weekend.

Next stop was the basket raffle. There were some especially nice baskets this year and I took chances on three of them.

 Various events were starting so I watched some of the advanced obedience classes. Those dogs are so impressive. There's a lot of waiting around at dog shows and these competitors were being very well behaved as people and other dogs walked past.

I like this dogs leg warmers.

This is Brooke. Today she won her first leg and she and her Mom were pretty happy. Brooke is a rescue and that makes the win even more special.

This is Jazzi. She suffers from noise phobias and in the past has been fearful of any distractions. Today she had an almost perfect run in Rally Excellent.

Today was a big day for us. Splash was going for the final (tenth) leg of his Rally Advanced Excellent title.

Here Splash waits with Rob while J gets registered.

 Getting ready to enter the ring.

 The Excellent course met his approval and he finished in second place.

 Next was the advanced course and this time he finished first.

The judge handed J the ribbons.

And Splash was handed his second toy of the day.

Thia is a pretty nice way to end a career.

 For an owner handler this is what it's all about.

For the dog, this is what it's all about.

Well done Splash and J. We're so glad we could share this important win with you.