So Spirit did a thing today. I’m so incredibly proud of her for passing her CKC Urban Tracking Dog test (UTD) today at almost 7 years old. It wasn’t pretty and she struggled for a very long time at her second corner but ultimately we made it to the magical leather glove at the end. Thank you to our amazing Judge Donna Brinkworth, our track layer and friend extraordinaire Susan Dueck, my training partner Leslie and our coach/trainer Mary Ann. And of course thank you Coreen and Steve of Tailspin Bernese for sharing this big, shiny, goofy black girl with me.
We went to our first nose work trial since March. It was a C-WAGS trial hosted by See Spot Run Doggy Daycare. It was so nice to be around our “dog people” again. It was a small trial and everyone was very careful to practice social distancing. The host had everything setup so that you didn’t have to touch any surface or door and you could get in, search and leave the building without coming into close contact with anyone. Really well organized. We haven’t done any CWAGS practices and only one SDDA in two months so I was very surprised to see how well they just jumped back into the Sport. The dogs qualified in 6 out of 6 searches. Spirit did a Level 1 Ranger, two Level 2 and one Level 3 search. Brodie did a Level 1 Ranger and a Level 3 search. Big thanks to our Judges, volunteers and fellow search teams for a great day.
Last summer we learned that Spirit’s Mom Sophie had been diagnosed with Histiocytic Sarcoma, a very aggressive and incurable form of cancer. She put up a brave fight against this horrible disease until she crossed over the rainbow bridge on October 16th just days short of her 8th birthday. Her family posted this picture of her on Facebook and shared with everyone how much a part of their lives Sophie was with her loving personality. She was also the foundation bitch of their kennel. It just touched my heart. When we got home from our vacation at the end of October, I immediately started working on a wall hanging to reproduce this picture. I recently gave this fabric mosaic to Coreen and Steve of Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs to honour their beautiful girl Sophie.
GCH Werlwind’s Playing With Fire
We spent today at See Spot Run participating in our last C-WAGS trial for 2019. Brodie earned two Level 2 Q’s. Spirit whipped his butt by not only earning two Level 2’s but also her first Level 4 Q. Thanks to Judges Deb, Christina and Robbi.
