The latest on the B-town cowdogs

Wow, so much has happened in the past few weeks.  First of all, my wonderful old gal Terra became the first cattle dog EVER to earn the THD (Therapy Dog) title from the AKC.  She is wonderful girl and I am proud that she was the first ACD to earn this achievement.  Hopefully she will lead the way for many more cattle dogs in the future.  Such a big honor for a dog with humble beginnings.  She does not have a fancy pedigree or a long name. She is simply Terra or officially Terra, THD HIC CGC.  I love this old dog.

The dogs and I headed to Urbana, Illinois last weekend for a small agility trial and to visit friends.  I had started Tully on Metacam about 10 days previous to this trip to see if any of his slowness was due to arthritis pain.  He is such a good, sweet boy and never complains, so I was really stumped at his recent slow times in trials.  We had just entered Novice FAST....a nice easy class to test him.  Saturday was a difficult course with the send bonus being the teeter and a tunnel.  To my amazement, he hit the teeter without a problem, but then went in the wrong end of the tunnel for an NQ.  I think I was still in shock that he did the teeter from a send that he didn't get the best instructions from me afterward for the tunnel!  We returned Sunday for our next try.  I plotted a direct course in and out, but it did include the weaves and teeter.  I figured it would be good practice for him and the send bonus was a jump and tunnel.  My dog was on fire.  He flew in and completed the course with 61 points in 27 seconds, including the send bonus, teeter, and weaves.  I'm still in shock.  It was good enough for 1st place and the 2nd leg towards his NFP.  Woo hoo Tully!

We have a few weeks off and then a one day trial in Indy. It will be a bigger test for him as I am going to put him back in excellent jumpers and excellent standard to see if his speed holds up. In the meantime, he has an agility demo for camp kids in a few weeks and an appearance at the county fair representing the therapy dog program this week.  No rest for the Tullster!