As We Stand

Since I'm going to be chronicling where we go from here, I thought I'd make a post about each dog, what we have planned right now, and where we're at with that.

Shiner - 

Shiner finished his confirmation championship despite my ridiculously novice handling at 9 months of age.  I've started him on Rally Obedience, and we're working towards his first rally trial in February.  There's also confirmation during that show and he's now eligible for the Champion's class. So if we could get a qualifying score in Rally and a win in confirmation, that would earn him a Total Dog - a pretty cool accomplishment!

Tibbs - 

Due to a variety of factors, at 1 year of age, Tibbs has never actually won a confirmation class.  For one thing, on the mental level he's been a goofy baby longer than I anticipated, which means he's lost to dogs with more precision.  He's taking a while to mature and has been, as I've had it described to me, "All legs" - so he's lost to faster maturing females and also his brother. I've also been handling Shiner, so Rachel (his breeder) has been handling him.  According to the UKC, Tibbs currently has 10 points and no wins in competition so to say the least we have a bit of a ways to go.

Going forward I'll be handling Tibbs in shows and training him with more regularity so when we walk in the ring, we do it as a team.  He's got the right stuff, we just need to bring it together.

Guinness -

Guinness has been trained within an inch of his life as long as I've had him.  I've taken the necessary registration steps so he can compete, and will be going into Rally Novice this February alongside Shiner.  Going off of our drilling, he's gonna do great!  I'm really looking forward to the chance to show off our teamwork.

In a perfect world, I could show Tibbs in all 4 confirmation shows, Shiner in all 4 rally and confirmation, and Guinness in all 4 rally trials.  The challenge comes here:

If I handle my two boys in the same show, they'll end up in the Best Male ring together, quite likely - and I want to handle both of them.  So I don't think I can show them in all 4 shows each.  But I definitely want Tibbs in all 4 confirmation shows so.....what to do, what to do.