Swing's housemate

When Swing joins the household she will have two boys to hang with.  One is an older rescue named Dirk who is happiest when there is a comfy couch or sunbeam (preferably both at the same time) to lounge in/on.  The other is my current performance dog (and her future suitor...) and best buddy Dodge.  As I reported in a previous post, Dodge just finished two agility titles and we are now concentrating on obedience.  We've had a few decent Open A runs but no legs yet (I'll explain that in a second).  Most of the hiccups we have had were green dog issues as well as how I prepare him to enter the ring.  I am fortunate in that Dodge enjoys being in the show ring, we just need to work on keeping his focus and energy up for an entire test.  And of course there are the out of sight sit and down stays and the confusion and uncertainty of them.  But he is coming along and hopefully we will both have our acts together for the next trial (we will have to concentrate extra hard in training once Swing arrives!).

When Dodge is on he is a dream to show.  Here is a lovely shot taken by Terri Borman at the Weim Nationals back in May.

Yes, he can heel with lovely attention!  He's a joy to train and show and I think that once we get in the groove we'll earn those legs for that Open title.  Then it is on to Utility!

Open is the second level in obedience, Novice being the first level.  In Open the dog heels off leash, does a drop on the recall, retrieves a dumbbell on the flat and over a jump and jumps across your body over the broad jump.  The stays are done out of sight (handlers leave the ring).  There is a huge jump from Novice to Open and the drop on recall and stays tend to be the hardest exercises for the dogs to master.  You can read all about the class levels at AKC's website.