Spring has sprung and Tully's period of rest from back aches and pains is over. He's not the dog he was last fall, but he's happy and content and still wants to play and have fun. We have returned to herding lessons and he is having a blast. He thinks he would like to be a farm dog who can roll in mud, wade in cattle troughs, but then sleep on the bed at night. He does not understand that he has to have a bath between the mud rolling/trough wading and sleeping on the bed. He feels it is unjust. He's having a great time and unless another injury or illness comes up,we hope to try for an HT or PT this fall. We will either compete at the ACDCA nationals or at a trial in Kentucky that is hosted by ACD people.
In the meantime, we are going to try our hand at CPE agility next weekend. He's entered in Level 1 and at the lowly jump height of 12 inches. It will be interesting to see how he does. The trial is only 30 minutes away on the north side of Indy, so if it doesn't work out, we have not wasted too much time and money. CPE is a little different than AKC in that they have a lot more types of games/courses and different rules. It looks like there are less penalties, he can jump at a lower height,and he will have more time - all nice things for an aging rock star. On the other hand, I have to hurry up and read the rules and figure out how to run their courses!
Although this blog was primarily aimed at Tully's adventures in competition, I would be remiss if I didn't mention why we have not posted in almost two months. My dear, sweet dog Terra passed away on April 25th at the age of 14 years after a long, hard fight against pituitary macroadenoma and renal failure. She was my first cattle dog and the reason that I love the breed. She is the one that started it all. Without her, there never would have been a Tully and I wouldn't have met half the people I know today! There will always be a cattle dog in my house as long as I am able, however I don't know if I'll ever have the heart to have another plain faced red girl.
Sorry, that was me, Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteI ran Annie in her first-ever Preferred class and realized as we approached the table that she'd never seen one set at 4". I have a great photo of her saying "You tried to fool me, but I knew what to do with this obstacle!"
The rules say for 12 inches and below the table will be at 4 or 8 inches, so I'm not sure! If it's 4, he will definately will be confused! I hadn't thought of that. In AKC he ran preferred and ran 16 (20 would have been his regular height). In CPE he can run 20, 16, or 12 for different titling. I was going to run him at 16 but he seemed sore last weekend, so changed him to 12. He should be able to step over it, lol! CPE has become more popular here with a lot of trials within less than 30 minutes of home for us, so I'm going to just let him play around if he feels up to it. AKC is over.
ReplyDelete