Seeing green on a blanket of white

It's been a winter-like week in central PA and some areas were surprised when they woke up Thursday morning to find five inches of snow on the ground.  Here at the Duff Farm I ended up with 1-2 inches and some drifting since the wind tends to blow down off of the fields.  Just enough to cover the ground and make the sidewalk a little slippery.  However, the roads were clear and fairly dry on Friday when I made my way to Allentown for Swing's debut in obedience.

Yes, we are following in our brother Milo's paw-steps and beginning our obedience career.  As I mentioned in my last post, it's been a few months since we lost Dodge and I am slowly getting back into training.  I entered her in the trial to give me a reason to start training again, a sort of kick start so to speak (we hit a show n go and met with our trainer Nancy a couple of times).  I felt good about all of the foundation work I did with her when she was a baby and her heeling was coming along as well as her stay work.  She isn't keen about holding a down stay in a full line up so I put her in Beginner Novice since the only stay is a sit while I walk around the perimeter of the ring.  Our first attempt was a success and here we are waiting for the judge to give out the green qualifying ribbons and our scores.

Swing, 191 in Beginner Novice, Lehigh Valley KC, Dec. 12, 2014

We lost a number of points on heeling, some of it my fault, some of it because she is a green dog.  Our friend Sallie was along so we have a recording of the test that I will analyze and learn from it so that our next attempt goes as well if not better.  My goal was to come home with a green ribbon and we accomplished that goal.  Now we'll work on those things that need addressing and try to get to some shows in late January/early February in hopes of finishing the title in February and adding a BN to her name.

Winter may be white and grey at times, our mission is to bring some green into it in the form of qualifying ribbons.  I have a sneaking suspicion we won't be the only ones earning those ribbons this winter.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to the M&M crew and their families.  Swing and I wanted to put that out there in case we do not get a chance to beforehand.