Solo's big day

Melanie L Chang wrote:

> Solo finished his NADAC Novice Tunnelers title today at the NEMBOC
> trial in New Jersey with two qualifying runs and two fourth places. It
> was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for an agility trial. The trial
> site couldn't have been better and the hosts of the trial went out of
> their way to make sure everyone had a good time. The hospitality of the
> trial hosts and fantastic attitudes of the competitors more than made up
> for the less than pleasant experiences Solo and I had at the last couple
> of trials we went to (long story short, I was thinking of giving up on
> agility trials altogether). The ribbons are gravy.
>
> This little title may not seem like much, but you know, for Solo it's a
> pretty big deal. He did good today and just blended in with all the
> zillions of other Border Collies at the trial, and I'm very proud of him.

Congratulations! I can bet I know why you can find trials
annoying--people not paying adequate attention to their dogs, yes? We
had several of those, as usual, last weekend. Fortunately there was
enough room that I was able to keep Cala out of trouble.

Best wishes for future NADAC adventures!
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

mlchang RemoveThis @mail1.sas.upenn.edu (Melanie L Chang) wrote in news:cm3tms$3tqm$1
@netnews.upenn.edu:

> This little title may not seem like much, but you know, for Solo it's a
> pretty big deal. He did good today and just blended in with all the
> zillions of other Border Collies at the trial, and I'm very proud of him.

Yayyyy Solo!!!!

--
Marcel and Moogli
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

Melanie L Chang wrote:
> This little title may not seem like much, but you know, for Solo it's a
> pretty big deal. He did good today and just blended in with all the
> zillions of other Border Collies at the trial, and I'm very proud of him.
>

It certainly is a big deal. Congrats!

Mary
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

"Robin Nuttall" <robinjn RemoveThis @mchsi.com> wrote in message
news:3LDhd.343953$MQ5.130625@attbi_s52...
We have a Springer who lived in a crate
> his first 18 months. He's mentally stunted, easily stressed, and when
> he's loses it does this weird Stevie Wonder impression with his head.
>
Wow. We had a rescue Sheltie with pretty much the same exact history and the
same strange head wagging issue when stressed. I've never heard of another
dog doing that before. There must be some relation to the life in a crate
and viewing the world going by from a static position.

Christy
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

Christy wrote:
> "Robin Nuttall" <robinjn.TakeThisOut@mchsi.com> wrote in message
> news:3LDhd.343953$MQ5.130625@attbi_s52...
> We have a Springer who lived in a crate
>
>>his first 18 months. He's mentally stunted, easily stressed, and when
>>he's loses it does this weird Stevie Wonder impression with his head.
>>
>
> Wow. We had a rescue Sheltie with pretty much the same exact history and the
> same strange head wagging issue when stressed. I've never heard of another
> dog doing that before. There must be some relation to the life in a crate
> and viewing the world going by from a static position.
>

Baker is incredibly sweet and he's not really dumb, he just has some
minor but permanent issues. He's easily overwhelmed by new things. He
will be okay, then suddenly will wig out over something (and I do mean
wig out--hysterical screaming barks). The head wagging is sometimes when
he's a bit overexcited, sometimes when he's stressed. It's very odd.
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

Melanie L Chang wrote:

> Robin Nuttall (robinjn@mchsi.com) wrote:

>
> The only muttering comments I've ever heard that I thought were fair were
> about dogs that were way too overweight to be safely doing agility.

Oh my muttering about that gets pretty darn loud. I can't stand it.
Stacy Peardot-Goudy calls agility the Iron Man competition for dogs.
It's incredibly physically demanding. Asking that dog to heave even an
extra pound over those jumps is just stupid, because it will shorten his
career. At most trials, we don't see many fat dogs beyond Novice. But in
Des Moines a few weeks ago there were a whole load of them--I've never
seen so many fat dogs at a trial!
>
> : We have our fair share of dogs with issues in the club--I'm sure every
> : training facility does.
>
> A lot of them are becoming less welcoming, for liability reasons and
> because of general paranoia/indignation on the part of owners of "normal"
> dogs who don't want their dogs exposed to those other types of dogs.
> Luckily, the club I train at isn't like that.

Our policy is that dogs with aggression problems, canine or human, must
be addressed. If the human is really on top of things, understands the
issues, and actively works to address them--they're welcome. If the
owner is in denial or doesn't want to or have the skills to address the
issue, choosing to not address it, they're not welcome. We banned a SCWT
from our classes for awhile for dog aggression. His owner, a soft-spoken
mild-mannered woman, decided she better deal with her dog. She did, he's
back, and is now quite capable of running off lead in a class with other
dogs standing around.

So uncontrolled aggression of any sort isn't welcome. Controlled dogs are.
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day 

mlchang.TakeThisOut@mail1.sas.upenn.edu (Melanie L Chang) wrote in news:cm3tms$3tqm$1
@netnews.upenn.edu:

> and I'm very proud of him

Good for you, Melanie!

Good for you, Solo!

--
Kate
and Storm the FCR
 >> Stay informed about: Solo's big day