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What
I did on my summer vacation If
you’ve never attended the Golden Retriever National Specialty you’ve missed
out on a lot of fun. This
years Specialty in Events
were staggered making it very easy for those entered in multiple events to avoid
conflicts. We arrived
on the Thursday before the Specialty began so that we could compete in the WC
and WCX held at a beautiful site in rural After
the hunting events came the field events and since we weren’t entered we drove
a few hours north for a weekend agility trial in Although
most events were held indoors, agility was held in a courtyard nestled between
the convention center and a large convention hotel both connected by a breezeway
that overlooked the agility area. It
was tight and crating took up a lot of room so traffic around the rings was an
agility course in itself. The
weather was perfect for outdoor agility, starting off cool in the morning and
warming up later in the day. Two
rings were set and run simultaneously allowing the large agility entry to finish
before the heat of the day and allowing specialty attendees to enjoy shopping
and visiting with other Golden friends. Tuesday
agility went very well with Meg’n getting a DQ and a placement.
One of the things we like about agility at the specialty is they usually
have really cool placement awards. Tar’n
also Q’d in JWW but we had some course difficulties and weren’t able to make
a placement time. Right
after Tuesday agility we rushed the girls to the grooming area to spruce them up
for the Parade that night and CCA the next day.
After a bath we hit them with something they don’t see very often, a
brush and scissors. Frightened at
the thought of me doing this intricate job a great friend, Jennifer Grossnickle,
assisted and all went well. Even
Fl’n was impressed with the girl’s new smell after the swamp water was
washed away. Tuesday
night was the Parade of Titleholders, this event is a must do, especially if you
have an older dog as it’s a very special way to honor the achievements of our
Goldens. It was sort of a sad night
for me as I had entered Kenzi in the Parade to celebrate her MACH2 and now Kenzi
wouldn’t be with us to share the moment. The
parade coordinator was fantastic, she suggested that we accept the ribbon anyway
so Meg’n and I walked down the runway and the announcer told everyone that
Kenzi’s sister Meg’n was accepting the beautiful Titleholder ribbon in
Kenzi’s memory. It wasn’t sad at
all as we knew we were celebrating Kenzi’s life and her achievements in a
sport that she loved right up to the end. I’m
sure she was smiling down on us and was with us in spirit.
Meg’n got back in line with Norm and later made the trek down the
runway to accept her own Titleholder ribbon.
Well deserved too as she earned both MACH 3 and MACH4 since her last
Titleholder Parade. Wednesday
was another great day for agility and Meg’n earned another Q but was slowing
down a bit and didn’t place. I was
hoping she would because the placement gifts on Wednesday were really great
stoneware espresso mugs. Wednesday
after agility was CCA. We had
entered Tar’n in hopes of getting qualified and helping her on her way to a
versatility title as that’s what we had been told the CCA was for in a
performance dog. What a waste of
time and money it was. Three judges
individually review your dog and how it meets or doesn’t meet the breed
standard. Now we knew going in that
Tar’n had some weak points but then most dogs do and we had also been told by
people in the know that she was nice in lots of ways and a Golden Retriever
conformation judge told us she wouldn’t have any trouble passing CCA.
On looking back at the experience it was quite humbling and humorous.
The entire experience was filled with mostly negative comments about
Tar’n. One judge said her ears
were too long, another said they were too short and one said they were just
right. One said her coat was great,
another said it was lacking and the third said she had no coat at all.
It’s September, my dogs spend a lot of time outside in the heat doing
agility and they expected her to have coat. One judge said she moved very well
and another said she was too weak in the front to have good movement, the other
one said she had great balance from front to rear. One of the judges told us her
chest was so small that she’d never have any speed or endurance because her
lungs couldn’t expand large enough. Obviously
he hadn’t seen her run a hunt test carrying a football sized Pheasant back to
the line or watched her run agility and put up times that regularly place 1st.
For this one I actually had to laugh which brought a very unfriendly look
from the judge. There was so much
inconsistency from these 3 judges that I suspect if you put them in the same
room and asked them to jointly agree on a meal they’d end up starving to
death. My suggestion here is enter
your dog in conformation if you want to get points toward your Versatility title
because in the ring they’ll have a better chance and you won’t have to
listen to 45 minutes of how horrible your dog is.
I later talked to several CCA entrants and even those who did get some
qualifying scores agreed that it was a very negative experience.
Tar’n ended up with 2 honorable mention ribbons and one thank you for
coming. Would I do it again,
absolutely not. My dogs are
performance dogs, they love playing with me and they look great doing it. Thursday
began the Obedience competition and we were done with all our specialty events
so we packed up the motor home and started the long trip home. I was hoping to have some agility photos to post but my camera chose this trip to stop working and I didn’t get a single photo of the specialty. Overall we had a great time, it wasn’t as festive as some of the past Specialties but we still got to visit with friends we hadn’t seen since the last one and we got to meet lots of new friends who we’ll get to see again next year in Seattle. We got some tips on grooming which the dogs hope we’ll never use and we did some shopping for cool Golden things. Poor Fl’n was totally bored over the entire ordeal and probably the most excited to get back home and do all-breed agility. All in all it’s wonderful to see all that Golden fur having such a great time with their humans and well worth the time off from work to be with great Golden friends. |
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