I guess you could say it's been awhile since our last post. My how time flies. Well the rogue red dog and his family are on the move.....in a few short weeks we are packing up Bloomington and heading to Center Grove. We've been commuting to a job in that area since October and have sold our home and purchased a new one. Not only will we be closer to work, we will be closer to training facilities and also to competition venues. The dogs will have a large fenced backyard to play in and hopefully will adapt quickly to being city dogs.
I've faced reality that it's time to wind down Tully's competition career. He'll be 10 yrs old next month and at some point his cancer will return. He is mostly back to his normal self post-op, but has really had a hard time with stamina and getting back in shape. He just cannot seem to catch his breath some days. With that said, I'm torn between keeping him active, something I believe does lead him to be healthier and happier, and retiring him. At this point I'm watching him and figuring out what he can do. We've all seen those people who are running dogs who are in pain and miserable and I've swore I will not be one of those people. I'm counting on my friends to hold me to that.
Since my last post, we had our first competition post-op. We went to Queen City Dog Training Club's Rally and Obedience Trial on December 2-4. I'm proud to say Tully doubled Q'd all three days, even bringing home a second place finish in a 30 dog excellent level class. This added 3 RAE legs to bring his total up to 8. Two more to go!
Our goals for 2012 are pretty simple: 2 more RAE legs to finish the title and 1 more AJP leg to finish that title. A PT in herding would be the icing on the cake and would give Tully his Versatility Championship through the ACDCA, but I'm trying not to focus on that too much until I see what Tully can and cannot do now. I've labeled 2012 as the year of "Unfinished business and saying goodbye". We will clean up those last lingering title legs we need and say good-bye to competing. If he is still competing in the fall, the ACDCA national specialty will be his last competition.
