I didn't realize it had been so long since I posted a blog update! My, my we've been busy. We jumped into agility training with 2 feet and 4 paws! Dudley is doing great. His instructor sometimes says that he's "already read the agility book". I think he's been watching Taffy so long that he already has the concept and really wants to participate so he just dives right in! We did have a bit of a setback last week though. He was trying out the big teeter for the first time. We put chairs under each end so it wouldn't tip very far. We placed him at one end and walked with him down to the other end. He loved it. We turned him around and before we knew it he took off running! Oh no!!! As soon as the teeter tipped, he got scared, jumped off and stubbed a toe. He wouldn't put any weight on that foot at all for a while. But I quickly determined he hadn't broken anything, it was just a stubbed toe. I finally got his mind off it and got him to walk it off but then he was afraid of every piece of equipment in the room! We worked with him for an hour to re-learn that nothing was going to eat him. All the equipment innocent, no corgi eaters in the room. And all this the night before we were leaving for Nationals!!! Drama, drama, drama! :D

So, getting to Nationals...I'd been working really really hard with Dudley because I signed him up for a bunch of stuff he really wasn't ready for. But he's the kind of dog who needs to have an experience a couple of times before he can wrap his head around it, you know? He's been to a couple of agility fun runs and was just out of control. But the next day at the trial he'd be pretty calm. So my thinking was that I'd sign him up for events at Nationals just for the experience. I probably shouldn't do that because when you're not ready you're wasting the judges time. But I thought it would be good for him to wait his turn, be around all those other dogs, etc. As the Rally and Agility competitions got closer it became more and more difficult for me to not worry about how bad we would look. I didn't want to look like I'd never trained my dog and I knew full well it could be just like that. Even though I know it can happen to anybody no matter how well trained their dogs are, that didn't help. I didn't want to have the dog they continued to talk about years from now you know? But that's what I was afraid was going to happen. But I finally came to peace with that and off we went. We packed up the mini van early Friday morning and hit to road to Kentucky.

We got to Elizabethtown Friday night and boy was it cold! And Saturday morning it was FREEZING!!! Luckily I had watched the weather report before I packed and took many, many layers of clothing. I had on my silk long underwear, wooly socks, a couple of shirts, a fleece jacket and a windbreaker and I was still cold! The wind was simply bitter. But I was determined that I was going to watch as much as my frozen toes would let me. I needed to learn! And learn I did. The people around me were very helpful to me. They answered my questions, explained to me what was going on, what the different levels meant, how they differed and what it meant to the dogs and handlers. I learned a lot (even though I couldn't totally take it all in). What didn't make sense to me then, I hope I'll understand later after I've had more lessons. Ever the optimist, I hope I'll get it eventually. The only thing that would have made herding a better experience was if the weather had been nicer. It was cold and windy on Saturday. On Sunday it was cold, windy and raining. Cold and wet is SUCH a winning combination, NOT! But the food was great, the silent auction was fun (even though I didn't win anything darn it!) and the people were very helpful and welcoming. I was a great experience despite the weather.

At the end of all the tests and trials, they conducted a herding instinct test on about 20 dogs. What fun that was! It was a mixed bag. Some had it, some didn't. It looked like most 'had it' though. It was so much fun. Dudley passed. I'm not sure what everything on his evaluation sheet means though. I'm going to take it to our instructor and ask her to explain it to me. Dudley's only comment was "too short"! He didn't think he got to play with the sheep long enough. :D

We left the herding in Elizabethtown Sunday afternoon and made our way to Ft. Mitchell. We checked in to the Drawbridge Inn where all the action was to take place. It was late and we were very tired so we just unloaded the car and all of us fell into bed. The alarm went off at 6 am so we'd have enough time in the morning to get ready, have some breakfast and get to Rally by the 8 am start. So I go into the bathroom and try to turn on the shower. Notice I say "try". The threads were stripped on the handle so you couldn't turn the water on. Oh great, no shower! I have to get dressed, go to the lobby and get a different room. We gather up our stuff and the dogs and shift to another room. But since we'd gotten up early, we managed to do that, take our showers and get to Rally by around 8:10 or so. Not too late. We were in Novice so it's not like I had to be there at 8 on the dot (thank goodness or I'd have freaked--I don't handle mishaps in my schedule well). I got checked in, got my armband and tried to remember what all the Rally signs meant! I grabbed a course map and looked at it and it didn't look too terribly complex (thank you judge!) so I thought we'd be able to do it. Plus I was getting a lot of hints and tips from the other competitors while we were practicing outside the ring and during the walk through. I hadn't taken any formal Rally classes so I didn't realize that some of the stations you did in front of the sign, some to the side of the sign, etc. Oh well, too late for me to re-read the rules now! We did our walk through and then waited for our turn. I thought it was going to be a real challenge once we went into the ring and Dudley wouldn't even sit for me! We hadn't even started and already we're having trouble!!! But he finally sat, we were given the "forward" and off we went! Not perfect, but I was happy with him. I am used to agility so I was probably a little more exuberant at the end than I should have been (I think you're supposed to "quietly" praise your dog) but hey, I was really proud of him! I was pretty sure we qualified and I hadn't expected to qualify so I was very excited. After the judge finished his paperwork they had everyone come back into the ring and they gave out the ribbons. I'm from the agility world so this was another new experience for me. Kinda neat! And then nobody was more stunned than me when they called my number as third!!! We got third in Novice A! OMG!!! I couldn't believe it! I was so proud of Dudley! His very first time in the Rally ring and he got third. What a good boy! And not only did we get a honking big ribbon, they gave us a pottery plate with a Cardigan painted on it. It's, well, I just can't even describe how much I love it. It's just beautiful. Dudley's first Rally leg. Good boy!

On to our next event, Agility. Well, what can I say about our agility run? Oh how to describe the action? Zoomies! Zoomies! Zoomies! Dudley totally lost his mind! It was hysterical. I hoped he'd follow me, and he did for 2 jumps. But then he saw the tunnel, his favoritest obstacle in the whole wide world and whoosh! He's gone! His brain shut off and he's running as fast as he can doing circles! I couldn't help but laugh. I tried to get his attention and get him back on course but it wasn't happening so I told the judge we were done and managed to get him to chase me to the exit, where there happened to be another tunnel. He took that tunnel at least 3 times before I managed to block his exit which just made him stop in the tunnel and bark at me! I couldn't hear anything but Dudley barking but I'm sure the crowd just had to be laughing at me. I'm bet it looked like I'd never, ever trained my dog. It's another one of those "but he does it perfectly at [insert location here]" cases. I was unsure of whether he'd be able to do the jumpers run because he's never done agility outside before and I've learned that Dudley does not generalize well. With Rally we had to "take the show on the road" to get him to understand that he has to do these behaviors whenever he's asked, not just when we're in the back yard. Since we have no place to train agility outside (my back yard is only big enough for 2 jumps), I was afraid he'd get the zoomies. The only thing that Dudley does outside off leash in a large area is "dog park". To Dudley being outside and off leash means "I'm free to run and do what I want!" And that's what he did. Well, that's not totally true. He had an EXCELLENT start line stay. He sat there in front of the first jump and I took an enormous lead out, all the way past the second jump (which was at a 90 degree right turn from jump one) so I could get him to turn toward jump 2. He sat perfectly still in his stay until I released him. GOOD DOG! :D And for entering agility we got a beautiful pin made by our Emily Rose, owner of DreamEyce Studio! It's absolutely beautiful! And it was so fun that all the pins were different and you could pick the one that looked most like your dog. It's a treasure, thanks Emily Rose!!! And thanks to the agility folks! What a great memento!

Now on to our final events of the day, Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International tests. After our agility performance I wasn't sure how he would do at these tests. I had visions of more zoomies and tons of barking. We'd been working on greetings, brushing, staying with strangers and Dudley had been doing really well. He'd "got it", you know? But I wasn't so sure. But I tried to put on my "I have the perfect dog" attitude and KNOW he was going to be perfect. And guess what? He was perfect!!! The evaluator even complemented us on how well trained Dudley was. Yippee!!! We'd been working really hard on things so I was really proud of him. I think that 3 minute stay out in the hallway was so much harder on me than it was on him. I wish I could have had a camera in there so I could see what he did while I was away. I know I paced and tried to put my sonic ears on. But I couldn't hear anything so I just had to pace and fret. But the fretting was all for naught because he passed! Woo hoo! As soon as I complete all the paperwork and send it in Dudley will be a Therapy Dog and can visit nursing homes and hospitals. Won't that be grand? I think he'd be really good with kids. He adores children.

That was the end of our performance events on Monday. However I do have to mention the event we watched on Monday--Obedience. How impressive is that? I've never seen Obedience 'in the flesh' before, only You Tube videos and special interest stories on TV when they're covering a dog show. This was so cool. Dare to dream that one day we could do that. I particularly liked Brace. How do you train two corgi's to heel? My two corgi's can't stand to be that close to each other much less cooperate off leash! I have a lot to strive for now given all the good examples I had the privilege to see on Monday.

The Performance Banquet was Monday evening but I wasn't sure I was going to go. I guess from all the cold on Saturday and Sunday, my husband got sick. And I mean really sick. He was throwing up and throwing up. I was going to stay with him in the room but he urged me to go to the banquet. He insisted I go. It was our first time at Nationals and he wanted me to go. I finally gave in and went. While I felt bad that he wasn't there and was sick, I had a great time. This time I bidded high at the silent auction and made a haul! I got a coolio Rally shirt (I so wanted it to commemorate Dudley's first Rally leg), a crate fan, lots of doggie treats, a really neat travel dog bed that I'm going to use when we go camping, a disposable camera and I can't remember what all else. It was SO much fun! I also bought a crying towel that is a hoot. I just had to have it. At the dinner I got to meet a lot of nice people, hear all about their dogs, tell about my dogs, what could be better?

But that turned out to be the end of Nationals for us. I had told my husband that if he didn't feel better on Tuesday morning we were going home. While he did feel somewhat better, he was far from 100% so I told him we'd skip the agility run and just go home. So we loaded up the car, said good bye to our new friends and hit the road. It took us about 9 hours to drive home and my husband slept in the back for about half the trip. I had to nap at the beginning because I couldn't sleep the night before because I was worried about him. He has a few health issues so whenever he's sick, I worry. I think I messed up and didn't get my raffle tickets deposited where ever we were supposed to deposit them (oh well, I just supported the Nationals), and I never got to see the pictures in the photo contest but it was more important for us to get him home so he could get better. Or so we could be close to our doctors, just in case he didn't get better. I had a great time. It was SO much fun. I can't wait until next year. He is better today, but I'm glad we made the decision to just come home. We only missed one agility run which is not a big deal.

I loved the entire experience. I met so many nice people, saw and met so many nice Cardi's, and got to meet a few Pems too! I can't wait until next year!