Category Archives: Spirit

September 13, 2018 · 18:35

Cowichan Valley K9 Noseworks Trial

BrodieExcCWK9-2

On the weekend we participated in the Cowichan Valley K9 Noseworks scent trial on Vancouver Island. Brodie had a great day on Saturday, He qualified in both Excellent Amateur Interiors (2nd place) and Containers. With those 2 qualifiers he earned his Excellent title.

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Spirit struggled a bit but she qualified in Advanced Working containers with a 2nd place. We were really thrilled to learn that we were chosen as the Judge’s favourite team.

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Sunday was complete opposite of Saturday. Spirit qualified in all 3 components and earned another Advanced Working Title. She also got a first place in containers and once again we were chosen as the Judge’s favourite team (different Judge).

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Brodie didn’t qualify in any of his runs. Our exterior search was particularly interesting. He was so focused on whatever scents were in the environment that he completely ignored me for the entire 5 minutes before we timed out and were disqualified. The Judge and her assistants were in tears from laughing so hard watching me trying to get Brodie to engage with me. I had a good giggle when I was given my score sheets and saw the Judge’s comments……

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Thank you to CWV9 for hosting a wonderful. A big thank you to Judges Jane Book and Kathy Hansen and all the wonderful volunteers.

Another Scent Title for Spirit

This morning I was awake at 4am to get ready to drive to Red Deer to compete at the Little Nose That Knows/Canine Coaching SDDA trial. The trial was held at the Sunnybrook Farm Museum. We are so lucky that businesses like Sunnybrook support SDDA and allow us to hold trials there. Both Brodie and Spirit competed today. Running two dogs at the same trial can be a little hectic but I was very lucky because their searches didn’t overlap today. This was Spirit’s first trial in almost a year. We had to cancel several trials earlier this year because she was having trouble with her eyes. I was a little nervous since we had been away from the sport for so long but she was a wonderful. She qualified in all 3 components and got her advanced working stream title. She came in first in interiors with a perfect score of 80/80, second in containers with a 57/60 and got a 50/60 for her exterior search . The icing on the cake was finishing first place overall in the advanced working stream. So proud of my girl. With an overall score of 187/200 she earned a Silver title.

Not wanting to be outdone by his big sister, Brodie had a smokin’ day at the trial too. He Q’d in both excellent containers and exteriors. He would have got his title with SP designation but his Mom got too excited and called the alert too quickly on the last interior room search. If I had waited 2 seconds longer I would have been able to tell the judge exactly where the hide was instead of being off by a few inches. For only 18 months old he just rocked it. It was a tough trial and no one earned their excellent title. We were thrilled to find out that we placed 2nd in containers and first in exteriors and we were the only team that qualified in exteriors.

Thank you to all the amazing volunteers, Judges Paul Dyer and Ryan-Ann King Smith and to Little Nose that Knows and Canine Coaching for hosting another great trial.

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Filed under Brodie, Nosework, SDDA, Spirit, Sporting Detection, Sporting Detection Dog Association

Tagged as Bernese Mountain Dog, Golden Retriever, Nosework, Scent Detection, SDDA, Sport Detection Dog Association

August 12, 2018 · 07:18

Rally disappointment but good lesson learned

Not a good day for us in the Rally ring. Although we have practiced, we have never trialed in an outdoor ring before. Both dogs were completely distracted. All they wanted to do was sniff and explore. A very embarrassing and humbling experience. Between the morning and afternoon trial I spent some time walking each of them around and letting them sniff everything and meet people. They were a little more focused in the afternoon but still quite distracted. Spirit managed to squeak by with a 72 (a very generous judge) and get her first Q in advanced rally. I know that I have a lot of work to do so that both dogs find being with me more rewarding than all the distractions in a trial environment. I learned a big and very valuable lesson.

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Filed under Brodie, Rally Obedience, Rally-O, Spirit

July 21, 2018 · 20:41

Another sniffing Saturday

We made another trip to Red Deer today to compete in a scent trial hosted by the Little Nose That Knows. Brodie had a great day in his advanced trial coming in 2nd in interiors and vehicles and finished first overall. He got lots of ribbons and swag. Thank you to Judges Ryan-Ann King-Smith and MaryAnn Warren and to Kristina Sveinson and Samantha Freschette for all their hard work organizing the trial.

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Puppy enrichment day

Spirit and Brodie had a nice off leash run and swim today. Unfortunately that also meant they both had to have a bath because they were filthy and smelled like “swamp thing”.

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Filed under Brodie, Spirit

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Golden Retriever

June 3, 2018 · 17:43

NACA 2018

This weekend both Brodie and Spirit competed in Rally Obedience at the Northern Alberta Canine Association (NACA) trial. I’m so proud of both of them. On Friday Brodie got his third qualification for Rally Intermediate and earned his title. He is now known as Copppermoon Lighning Bug CGN, RI, SD-S (SP). We moved up to the Advanced level for Saturday and Sunday. That means he now competes off-leash and there are toys and food used as distractions on the course. Both kryptonite for my boy. The second day he spotted the food bowl and squeaky toy while we were still sitting and waiting to start our run. I knew I was in for trouble. A few seconds into our run he took off and ran and got the squeaky toy. Very proud of myself. I called him back to me and asked him to give me the toy and thank goodness he did. The audience was in stitches. I think I earned brownie points when I put him in a down stay and walked across the course to put the toy back where it belonged. He held the stay and then we resumed the course as if nothing had happened. Little brat! He completed both runs successfully and earned 2 qualifications towards his advanced title. Sunday was also the Golden Retriever Specialty. I was so surprised when the ring steward gave us an an extra ribbon (green) and a beautiful leather leash from the Golden Retriever Club of Alberta for high score in a rally trial. Here’s my handsome boy with all of his swag and a closeup of his new leash.

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Not to be outdone by her younger brother, Spirit also had a great weekend. On Friday she got a perfect score of 100 for a high in trial in her first ever Intermediate run. On Saturday she was working towards another perfect score but was spooked when a dog in the adjacent ring doing obedience, ran towards us. We lost 2 points because she got scared and ran to the end of the leash. I was so thrilled with her. She has a history of being reactive and very uncomfortable around other dogs but she didn’t bark and she recovered so quickly and finished the course in style. So proud of how she handled herself. In her final run on Sunday she got a 97 and a 4th in trial. That means she earned her Intermediate title and is now known as Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit RI SD-A.

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A very big thank you to Judges Gail Carroll and Shawn Kelly.

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Filed under Brodie, CKC Title, Rally Obedience, Spirit

Tagged as CKC Rally Obedience, Coppermoon Golden Retrievers, NACA, Rally-O, Tailspin Bernese

March 25, 2018 · 11:15

First CKC Title for Spirit

SpiritCamroseRN

I signed Spirit up for 3 days of rally novice just to give her some experience in the trial environment. She can get anxious and reactive around other dogs so I wanted her first trial to be somewhere relatively close to home giving us the opportunity to just take her home if she was overwhelmed. She amazed me. There were only minor signs of stress and I was able to quickly focus and redirect her. Not only did she successfully complete her trial each day with a qualifying score, she earned her Novice title with scores of 92, 96 and 95. On Friday she also got a ribbon for Second in Class. She is now officially known as Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit RN . Not bad considering we just finished our introductory rally course a couple of weeks ago. Yahoooooooooo Thank you to Judges Karen Brearley, Margaret Chandler, Marie-Johanne Cloutier.

2 Comments

Filed under CKC Title, Rally Obedience, Spirit

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, CKC Rally Obedience, Tailspin Bernese