More Letters After My Name

I do like to go to Rally Trials. This evening we went to one at the Durham Kennel Club which is only 45 minutes from my house. Barbara thought that we should try to get the third leg of our Rally Novice title so we entered. I can lie down calmly in my crate and watch all the other dogs.

Usually there are not many setters at Rally events but I met this very handsome Irish Setter. He finished his Rally Advanced Excellent title (RAE)tonight.

I was very excited to meet this young Gordon Setter boy, Jackson. Quite lively in the ring but he got distracted with good smells in the ring (don't we all) so did not qualify tonight. He is only 1 1/2 years old so I was quite impressed. I can tell you that Barbara would not have had the nerve to take me in the ring when I was that age.

There were many different breeds of dogs at the trial. This Wire Fox Terrier was in his crate next to me. I was his first event and he did very well. There were some Airedales too but Barbara did not get any photos of them.

Behind us was an Old English Sheepdog who kept poking his head out of his crate to see what was going on. I am sure it is hard for him to see with all that hair

When my turn came to go in the ring, I was pretty excited. I tried to concentrate on what Barbara wanted me to do but a few times I sniffed and pulled so we lost points for that and a crooked sit. Not our best score but certainly enough to qualify and get my third leg. The green ribbon is for the qualifying and the blue rosette is for my new title!

I can now put RN after my name. It stands for Rally Novice (not registered nurse but I am sure I could do that). Barbara was very happy with me and gave me a huge chunk of mozzarella cheese as a reward. I deserved it.

Now onto the Advanced classes!