On June 20, 2009, Nina earned her first CPE agility titles, and earned legs for two more titles, with four qualifying scores in four classes at All Dawgs Academy in North Tonawanda, NY! She finished her CPE Standard Level 1 Regular title (CL1-R) with another clean run, and her Handler Games Level 1 Regular title (CL1-H).
…favourite dog blog! She has some very thoughtful posts about hip dysplasia, responsible breeding, health testing, and a completely awesome series on the notorious “Pedigree Dogs Exposed” show. She does have some dog training/behaviour ideas I pretty radically disagree with, but nobody’s perfect!
On May 16, 2009, at only her second agility trial weekend (TDAA this time, at Canine Sports Complex), Nina earned her first agility title with a score of 288 points in Dare to Double (the highest score in the game), and qualifying scores in two other games (Full House and Gamblers), for her Teacup Games 1 title!
Wow…I need to update this thing more often. A lot has happened since that last post, my life isn’t really like “my dad died, hey, let’s go to an agility trial!”, I’m not THAT ADD…LET’S RIDE BIKES!!
Anyway, Nina and I went to our first agility trial today, and Nina earned her first CPE agility title legs with a CLEAN RUN in Standard Level 1 (in a time of 29.05 seconds , allowed course time was 64), and a qualifying run in Full House Level 1 at All Dawgs Academy in North Tonawanda, NY! (more…)
On February 20, 21, 22 and 23, 2009, at the Ontario Breeders Association shows in Markham, Ontario, Nina won Best of Breed all four days to finish her Canadian Championship title under judges Darle Heck, Linda Kraft, Michel Bouchard and Fred Heal. Picture to follow. Go Nina!
Last weekend, at the Swedish Vallhund Club of America’s supported entry in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Nina won her first AKC championship points, taking Winners Bitch on the Friday and Sunday, and Best of Winners on the Saturday, for one point each day. Not bad, considering she had a really upset tummy on the Saturday and didn’t show very well! She was back to her usual happy self on the Sunday. Needless to say, I was thrilled.
Nina - Best of Winners. November 22, 2008
On Saturday, May 24 at the Ottawa Kennel Club show in Richmond, ON, Nina won Best of Breed (over a professionally-handled adult female, no less) and then went on to take group 4th in a group of 12 breeds. She earned 3 more championship points AND her first TOP DOG points (37). Thank you to judge John Rowton (who said Nina was “gorgeous”, even when she gave him a lovely sit at the end of our down and back…hey, we’re both learning!). I am so proud of my little girl, she showed wonderfully even though she’s out of coat and going through a gangly (for a short-legged dog) adolescent phase, AND has a newbie handler. Yeah Nina! On to Aurora next weekend!
She’d had enough by the time we got around to pictures, so this is far from the best picture ever taken of either of us (it was WINDY), but so what? And Nina is currently the number 2 Swedish Vallhund in Canada (*cough*cough*out of two) according to Best Dog In Canada:
On Thursday I got a phone call from Animal Planet, asking if they could use a picture of one of my Vallhunds for a viewer poll on their website during the Eukanuba National Championship. So I said “sure, pick whichever one you like” (what, was I gonna say no?), and here’s Rakki at bottom right (relaxing on the deck at the cottage, looking stoned). His non-Amanda-website Intarweb debut lasted for as long as the herding group was on (Ingrid Low’s lovely CH Aros Brave Brewster won breed):
Close up (yes, I voted for him!):
So what did people learn from this picture of Rakki, representing his ancient, rare and noble breed to American viewers? Dude…wait…what? Vallhunds reprazent!
