Bragging Rights

Second Leg - First Place

August 27, 2010 - Free earned her second Rally Advanced leg at the Oriole Dog Training Club trial with a first place finish and a nice compliment from judge Elizabeth Chase:
"a fine working dog"
Free also did ALL of her sits!!

2010 BTCA National Specialty Successes - Tryon NC - May 12-16

Free stepped out in style to place 3rd in the 10-13 years Regular Veterans Class under breeder judge, Robert Naun

The "new" adventure continues - December 11, 2009

While pal Colin was celebrating his 6th birthday at home, Donna and Free went to the Oriole Dog Training Club trial and made it worthwhile under judge Mrs. Paula P. Barras.
Of course, being Free it could not be straightforward - I'll let Donna explain

Free now has her first Advanced Rally leg and she got FIRST place in the class too! I am so proud of her. Half the class failed because of the judge's two little stuffed dogs. Sometimes in rally the dog and handler have to do figure 8's around bowls filled with semi-blocked food or a toy in them. This judge replaced the bowls with two little stuffed dogs, just standing in the ring. What made this course particularly hard was that the first station was a fast running with the dog within a foot of one of the stuffed dogs. Sometimes it takes a station or two for the dog to settle down and get into work mode. Starting with a fast, Free and a lot of the other dogs weren't positive that we were really doing rally at first rather than just running with their owners. If they started even a little wild, they were lost at the first station. Luckily Free had a good call off and was able to settle down and focus after the start, many of the others didn't. She is such a good dog.

2009 BTCA Specialty Achievements - September 27-October 01, 2009 - Centreville, MD

Free overcame the poor weather and difficult field conditions to qualify and place 4th in her Agility class (FAST Novice B).

It may be that inclement weather is to her liking as once the sun came out she decided to just have fun and that she did in Earthdog, Rally and Obedience!!

Veteran or not - she's still "flying"

From Donna

Today (September 13, 2009) Free passed 80,000 in earned flyball points (NAFA), giving her the FG80K title. Her team was a Doberman, a Flat Coated Retriever, a Border Collie, and Free. She ran beautifully all day. She was very happy to be out and it was wonderful weather for it. As a special treat she was given a full body massage after racing on both Saturday and Sunday. She came home both days and went right to sleep.

Starting a new adventure

One long weekend in Vermont was all it took for Free's Rally Novice Title though it came with some comic relief!!

From Donna

On the Friday of the Green Mountain Circuit in VT (July 10-12,2009) Free got her first Rally Novice leg with a decent run under judge Janet Lewis.

On Saturday, The judge was Michael Calhoun, that some might recognize from the 2004 BTCA specialty. She did most of the Novice run very well and we were down to the last two stations. The second to last one was an easy drop to a down on halt rather than a sit. Obviously she thought that it was too easy. I halted and said down and she dropped.....and rolled...a beautifully executed rollover ending at heel position, but a few feet to the side. Mike's eyes indicated that he hadn't seen this too often. The people watching all started laughing. Free must have misunderstood and you can repeat exercises in Rally, so we tried again. We backed up, heeled to that point, I said down, and Free even more sure of herself started the rollover before she even hit the ground, rolling right to Mike's feet. We went on, failed station so 10 points off. Free got a score of 88 out of 100 for her run. When the ribbons were handed out, Mike said that he wished that he could give points for the half gainer, but unfortunately the rules don't allow it. An embarrassing leg, but a leg nevertheless.

On Sunday (judge Catherine Thompson), Free again had a decent run, one rollover on a sit to a down (we really need to fix this), but did it right the second time and got a 95 and her third leg too.

Canadian senior vacation.....

Free demonstrated that getting older is no impediment to success when she earned the first leg towards her CKC SE ED Title at the BTC CKC ED Test on July 27, 2008 in Sheffield, NB (judge Maria Sacco)

Simply stated.....

Today (January 19, 2008) Free earned her flyball FG70K title.

Getting the hang of it....

Free earned her first Master Earthdog leg in Crosswicks NJ on October 08, 2007 at the National Earthdog Test, run this year by Thee Westie Club of America. Judge was Lou Herzog.

Just who are you calling a veteran....

Free (pictured on Donna's right) polished off her Canadian Junior Earthdog Title in fine style at the CTAO and BTCO Tests in Moffat, Ontario on June 23/24, 2007 under Judges Jean Callens (shown) and Russ Wischover.

The start of a New Year....

...and the start of new titles

Free earned the first leg of her AKC Novice F.A.S.T. title (agility) at Oriole Dog Training Club Trial on January 26, 2007 and the first leg of her USDAA PIII Snooker title (agility) at the Artful Dodgers (local Club) Trial on May 20, 2007

That's a Wrap

At the National Earthdog Test - no less!
Free completed her AKC Senior Earthdog Title on October 09, 2006 at the Cairn Terrier Club of America ED Test (judge Doreen Workman) held at Village Green Farm. Crosswicks. NJ.
Free was one of only six dogs to qualify in Senior out of an entry of 44.

Marg Pough was rat steward and summed up the class this way
The dogs that qualified did a GREAT job, and knew what they were doing.

GREAT JOB FREE!

Two down.............

On Saturday, September 23, 2006, Free managed to earn her second Senior Earthdog leg under judge Sharon Yon. Her run was neither really great not really poor, but just a clear pass.

Another "10K and Counting"

Last weekend (July 22/23, 2006) was an exhausting tournament for many reasons - none-the-less I truly enjoyed running Free all weekend. She just loves the sport and will do it for no reward at all, over and over. As a result she earned her FG60K title after running flawlessly all weekend.

2006 BTCA National Specialty Success

Free passed her CGC test at the BTCA Specialty on June 8th, 2006 and then on Friday earned her first Senior leg at the BTCA ED test under judge Camilla Moon

Two Legs to Stand On!!!!

In a weekend of roller coaster emotions, Free came through to complete her Junior Earthdog title under judge Karen Zeman at the New Jersey Beanfield AKC ED Test in Crosswicks, NJ on November 12, 2005

Advanced Agility Dog!

On October 17, 2005 Free had a great day. She spent the day going from the agility ring to the arena to participate in some flyball demonstrations. She earned one leg that day, but it was an important one. She got her Advanced Agility dog standard leg and that was enough for her to earn the AAD title in USDAA agility. To get this title she had to have three standard legs and one leg in each of the games. The games are Pairs where the dog has to run with another dog on the field and then honor while the other dog runs, Jumpers where the dog is rewarded for accuracy and SPEED, Gamblers where the dog needs to work at a distance from the handler, and Snooker where the dog needs to follow the handler to obstacles indicated despite having other obstacles inbetween. Now on to Masters courses.

Junior Leg Finally!

Free finally got her first Junior Earthdog leg at the Border Terrier Club of America Earthdog trial on October 10. 2005. Free has been very eager to do earthdog tests for years, but it has taken a long time for her to decide to follow the rules. Since she turns age 7 at the end of November it would be nice for her to be a Junior earthdog before she becomes a Senior dog.