Tess (foreground) Dash (L) Ron (R)
Mas: “For those of you caught up in Babe and the puppies, allow me to introduce myself. I’m the big dog around here. Jack likes to think he’s in charge and I let him – most of the time.
This weekend, I took Jack, Ron and Dash to a NAHRA field test at Northern Piedmont HRC. Just as an example of the way I let Jack think he’s in charge, he drove. That was fine with me. I wanted to talk to the pups. This test was filled with potential for them and I wanted to give them the benefit of my experience.
Ron needed just one pass at Started and it would allow him to move up a grade. Saturday, he was on. He got his pass at Started and titled! One of my puppies had made the grade! He now has the SR title in front of his registered name. That meant that for the Sunday test, Ron was moving on up to the Hunter test. That’s a whole other level of skills. He’d have to retrieve doubles. And he’d have to follow a trail. Now, we all know that there’s little a Labrador likes better than picking up birds, but for Ron, this was going to be moving from Kindergarten to Middle School. I don’t think a papa could be any more proud of his son than I was. Ron did a great job in his first Hunter test. That’s a first pass at Hunter.
Jack seemed pretty proud, too.
Next up? Dash. Now, Dash was going to be running in Started on both days – she still needed two passes to title. Saturday, she ran beautifully. When she came back to the truck, she was pretty excited to tell me all about it. So, that was one pass. Could she do it again on Sunday? Let me tell you, she was awfully full of herself on the way home. Yes, she passed. And she got her title. Now she has the SR title in front of her AKC name too. And she went on and on and ON about how long she had to wait in the holding blind. I’m proud as can be of my girl, Dash. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that being patient in the holding blind is a battle she’ll have to fight for a long time!
I’m not done bragging yet! You see, Tess was there! I hadn’t seen Tess is a little while and I really didn’t have any time to talk to her this weekend. She was going to have to rely on what she’d already learned and trust her human, Jim. And I was going to have to depend on Jack to tell me how it went.
Well, it went GREAT! In the Saturday test, Tess got a pass. Jack says that her human was very happy about that. He also said that Tess is such a good dog that she doesn’t need to be in the crate when she sleeps in the truck.
Next, it was the Sunday test for Tess. How’d it go? Let me just say this: my puppies did me proud all weekend long. Tess went home with a second ribbon as well.
Three puppies from Three Cedars Retrievers ran. They potential was for six ribbons. And how many ribbons came home? Yep. Count ’em up! Six ribbons.
Oh! The lady? She stayed home with Babe and the puppies and those little humans that come to our house. The lady calls them her grands. I don’t know about how grand they are. I never see them with ribbons.”
