# yeah Lily and Peeves



## Chagall's mom

*Congratulations* to Lily, Peeves and you--good going all the way around!!:cheers2: I don't blame Lily for not wanting to dirty her hair; such a bother to get it all fixed up pretty again!! All kidding aside, good for you all for weathering the conditions and doing so well!! Inspiring, always and continually inspiring to hear about your poods!!:thumb:


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## sarahmurphy

YEAH!! Lily! (And Catherine!)



Sarah


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## lily cd re

*Lily's first AKC agility leg*

This was an agility weekend. It was only our second weekend of AKC trials. We qualified in Novice Jumpers today and placed first in our jump height. It was very satisfying to get our first leg. Lily is very proud of herself. 

Standard courses are proving to be very hard, no success there yet. We didn't even take our standard run today since it had started to rain heavily during open standard and I was ring crew in that class. I could see that some dogs were slipping on the dog walk. I didn't want to let anything happen that would have hurt or scared my dear girl. I also really didn't want to end up on the ground myself!


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## Minnie

Congrats!!!


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## murphys

Congrats Lily, Peeves and Catherine.


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## Quossum

You're on your way! Good for you for pulling your entry when the conditions didn't look good; no need to be penny wise and pound foolish when it comes to our dogs!

Congrats on the blue and much agility joy ahead!

--Q


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## lily cd re

Quossum, I know there are die hards in agility who will run their dogs no matter what. Despite the efforts of a friend of mine to convince me to stay (Her case being go for it since Lily did such a great job in jumpers accompanied by an offer to pay Lily's vet bills if she got hurt!), I am really glad I pulled her. I saw too many scary near disasters with dogs having unsure footing on the dog walk and see saw. Lily had fallen off the dog walk once during a class and even though she didn't hurt herself, she did scare herself and it took a lot of gentle work over a long time to get her back on it. A fall off it (or even a slip) yesterday would have been horrible in so many ways.


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## MaryLynn

Excellent work, you must be very happy!

You did the right thing pulling her on that wet day, no sense losing all that good work to a little impatience!


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## CT Girl

You made the right decision. In the long run one missed competition means little but a possible injury or confidence issue could have long term consequences. Congrats!


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## lily cd re

The more I've thought about deciding to pull that standard run the happier I am. My beautiful girl loves to work with me because she trusts me. If I had done something that let her get hurt it would have been a deep, deep betrayal of that trust and undermined our relationship in many ways. 

Thanks to all of you for your congrats and support of my decision. We have another AKC trial in five weeks on Long Island and then will be at the Thanksgiving cluster in West Springfield, lots more opportunities ahead.


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## cavon

Congratulations to Liy, Peeves and you, Catherine!!!

i support your decision to pull Lily 200%! I pulled Finnegan from lure coursing the last day of the Wine Country Circuit show because it had rained heavily and I always worry about him hurting himself because he runs so hard.

I would rather lose my entry fee than put my dog in a dangerous situation every time!


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## lily cd re

*My marathon is over....*

I just got home about an hour ago from this weekend's cpe agility trials. Lily finished her standard level one title and we got a q in full house yesterday (placed first in both), but didn't q in jumpers today (so no fun games title yet). We had a great time. It is a very nice time of year to be outside on Long Island. Also my aunt who lives near where the trial was came and spent the afternoon with us. Lily liked having company with us.

The other day, I said to my honey that I thought it was funny that we both have hobbies that make us get up earlier on weekends than our jobs make us get up on weekdays. Lily and I will both be happy to sleep in next Saturday and rest up for a couple of weeks before our next AKC trials November 10-11.


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## sarahmurphy

:cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2:Yeah!!!:cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2:


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## Indiana

Good for you guys, you're doing so awesome with her! And Peeves


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## cavon

Congratulations Lily and Peeves!!!! You guys are tearing it up!!!!

Keep it up, we're cheering for you!


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## lily cd re

Hey everybody, I just got these pictures of my leaping lady (on a jumpers course) from our last AKC agility trial. The photographer is M. Nicole Fischer. I must give her proper credit. She also runs a black standard in agility so she did nice work to bring up Lily's features. I love how she is smiling in the picture of her going over the orange jump. And yes, I know she "over jumps," but she is a poodle!


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## cavon

WHEEEEE!!!!!!

Lily can fly!!!!!


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## lily cd re

It does my heart good to see her looking soooooo happy. She always is a happy girl, but boy is she in heaven when she is flying.

It gives me new appreciation for Leslie McDevitt's title "Control Unleashed!"


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## Chagall's mom

Lily looks like she has wings! I can see why she makes your heart soar. The joy of seeing a dog that happy is incomparable. The photographer_ is _terrific, but then Lily is a sensational subject.


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## 2719

She just looks so darned happy. congrats.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle

Well done! Congratulations to you all!!


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## lily cd re

*Wish us luck tomorrow*

Hey everybody,

We will really need the agility spirits smiling on us this weekend. We still have no lights, heat, hot water, internet, tv or phone service at our house (today is the 11th full day) as a result of Sandy. Thankfully we had no damage to our property, but our lives have been pretty upside down and we haven't been able to do much training since the storm.

We have an agility trial tomorrow and Sunday. Hopefully some qualifying runs will come our way and provide a bright spot in an otherwise stressful couple of weeks.


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## Chagall's mom

Wish you the very of best of luck tomorrow and I hope things get easier on you soon! I feel (some of) your pain...still without electric here in New Jersey, but we got phone and internet service back. Hope you have some qualifying runs, good weather and a fun time of it!!:clover:


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## Minnie

Best of luck to you!!!!!


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## sarahmurphy

We'll do some yoga to appease the powers that be... 

WE did a little training last night, for the first time in a little while, and were surprised at how much had been retained....

Maybe the break is what they needed to shine like the stars they really are! 

(We're thinking of you - let us know if you need us to ferry anything over....)

Sarah and Spike


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## CT Girl

I hope you had a successful day. I bet she will be raring to go after her training brak.


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## lily cd re

We got our 2nd novice jumpers leg yesterday. No weave poles today:frown::frown:, she had too much speed going into them and I couldn't get her to collect. Even if we Q'd we wouldn't have titled since we would have gotten all scores from one judge (oddly we had the same judge twice in about a month at two different trials).

We didn't qualify in standard either day, but I really liked the things that she did a good job with both days this weekend. I also know what I need to work on (table, chute, getting onto seesaw and dog walk) before we go to W. Springfield, Mass for Thanksgiving weekend.

More good news, drum roll please.........the lights came back on finally last night around nine PM. It is very nice to be in my house wearing short sleeves instead of two sweatshirts and gloves.


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## Chagall's mom

A commendable performance after being "powerless" to train for so long! Glad you got your power back on, and I'm sure the lights will go on for Lily to master the weave poles. To celebrate Lily's 2nd novice jumper leg--we got our power back 35 minutes ago! Woohoo, and Congratulations!


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## lily cd re

Yeah for you and your lights too.

It was strange that she didn't weave today. Her weaves have gotten much better recently. I am happy to have gotten anything this weekend. On top of everything else, I was supposed to take a private agility lesson on Friday, but we cancelled because of the snow on the ground. The world definitely looks more normal today.


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## cavon

:cheers2::cheers2::cheers2:

Congratulations Lily & Catherine!!!! Finnegan and I are JUMPING with happiness for you both! Very well done considering all that she (and you) have had to endure for the last couple of weeks!

Now that things are getting a bit back to normal, I just know that she will shine on Thanksgiving weekend!! Keep us posted and know that you have some cheerleaders up here in Canada!!!


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## lily cd re

We still have entries tomorrow, but I thought I would post the news that we finished RAE today! I also got a leg in open yesterday, so if we Q tomorrow we will have a CDX too. I also have a chance to finish novice jumpers this weekend. Wish us luck on open obedience and the jumpers tomorrow.


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## sarahmurphy

YEAH!!! See you in the morning - anyone else who will be there should let us know so we can get together for coffee or lunch or something.... if you send a private message we get the e-mail notifications on the phone, or you can text me on two zero three eight nine two nine seven eight six. I'm leaving home when I get up and dressed in the morning. 
Sarah


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## Chagall's mom

*lily cd re*:*CONGRATULATIONS!* :clap2: What _excellent _news!!:cheers2: I see you are well over the "Storm Sandy training drain"--_GOOD ON YOU!!_ I absolutely wish you the very best luck again tomorrow!!:clover:


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## cavon

*CONGRATULATIONS, Lily & Catherine!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

We knew you would do it!!!!

Now go get that CDX and jumpers tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!


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## CT Girl

Very impressive! That is a big show with a lot of commotion. I am thrilled for you.


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## Minnie

Congratulations!!!! Hope you had another great day today!


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## lily cd re

Hey everybody, no new titles to add to the list yet. However Lily did a great job in all except the drop on recall (our nemesis exercise) yesterday. The judge is someone who I have seen win HIT and high combined more than once. I was a little intimidated at the idea of showing under him at first, but Lily did us proud. He made very nice comments at the end of our individual exercises, and he spent time with me at the end of the class to give me some suggestions about how to fix the drop. I have two weeks to work on it before our last entry of the year at Poodle Club of the Lehigh Valley (hope for no blizzards). We may be a CDX in 2012 after all. Is anybody here going to Lehigh Valley?

That Springfield show is a crazy scene, especially in the agility area. I was very happy to spend most of my time in the obedience area. I just stashed an extra crate in the agility room and put Lily in it during walk throughs. She can be noise sensitive and since obedience dogs don't usually bark in their crates, but nearly all agility dogs seem to have bouts of it I have decided that she will do better in indoor agility if I can do things like that to keep her away from the chronic high level noise.


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## cavon

Sorry you didn't get it this weekend, Catherine, but I know you will!

Isn't it great when a judge gives you helpful advice so that you can work on it before your next trial!!

Keep us updated, a CDX for Lily would be a GREAT Christmas present and a wonderful way to close out 2012!!!!


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## Sookster

You are doing so many cool things with Lily. Congratulations on all of her accomplishments! I love to see poodles out showing the world how awesome and versatile they are.


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## lily cd re

Thanks Sookster. She is a really cool dog. I am very proud of her and happy that she shows our well loved breed to such great advantage. I will be at poodle Club of the Lehigh Valley Dec. 15th. Hopefully we will finish Open obedience there.


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## CT Girl

How wonderful that the judge took that time with you. In obedience training my instructor did an exercise to help with the drop on recall. Put your dog on a long lead which you attach to a weight (she used tunnel weights). Then I jogged with Swizzle heeling. While jogging I give the stay command when there is two or three feet left on the lead. If the dog breaks the lead gives the correction. We only did this a couple of times but it did wonderful things for Swizzle's stay. No creeping, no breaking and a great drop on recall which we did next without the weight. That was a year ago and his drop while running or on recall has been stellar ever since. I am not sure why that made the connection for Swizzle but it did. Good luck on the 15th.


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## lily cd re

CT Girl, thanks for the suggestion but I am having a hard time envisioning this. Do you have a video of your own or a link to one that you can share. I will say that I have been working on the things the Springfield judge suggested to me and I think she is getting it. We will be at our club tomorrow and work on it more formally. Hopefully I will see continued improvement. I also decided to go to PA the night before the trial on the 15th. The hotel that I stayed in last year (and same place this year) was super quiet and I actually did lots of heeling and recalls in the halls there, so hopefully I will find the same opportunity to proof the night before.


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## lily cd re

*Check my new signature*

Lily is now a CDX! We went to the Poodle Club of the Lehigh Valley trial today. I got a really nice drop on recall (great sigh of relief). I can't say it was the most beautiful heeling she's ever done and I had a couple of crooked fronts, but we got the green (most important) and actually took first in Open A! There were only three qualifiers out of 9 entered and 7 who showed.

There was no winner for high combined since the only people who Qd in utility were in A and not also showing in open. It was very hard to watch utility and open B while waiting. Poodles do such creative things when they decide not to qualify! I kept seeing things happen that I've never seen before and thinking oh no, what if Lily does that. Overall this is a very nice quiet trial and the people are very nice.

We also got our 2nd leg for RAE2 today. I am very proud of my clever girl. She worked hard and had a good time too.


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## Indiana

Yay, congratulations! That CDX is a LOT of work and I'm so proud of you both!!! Hope you are having a well deserved celebration tonight!


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## Chagall's mom

Big* Congratulations* to you and Lily!!:cheers2: _Woohoo!! _ :congrats:It's evident how much you enjoy working with Lily, and she really shined it on for you today. A victory celebration is order for you both! :cheers:What a nice holiday gift she just gave you, and it doesn't even need to be wrapped. Way to go!!:clap2:
​


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## lily cd re

Thanks so much Indiana and Chagall's Mom. Lily is a great worker. There have been times I thought this was never going to come together, but now that we are done, I realize it only took about eight months. 

I was thinking you you and Chagall as I drove through New Jersey yesterday and today. It is funny how we both live in states that people think of as being sort of ugly or over-developed. Once you get away from the city both NJ and NY are really beautiful.

We will have a nice steak dinner tomorrow. Whenever anybody gets a tile I cook three steaks. One for each person and one for Lily and Peeves to share. The people will pop a cork off a bottle of bubbly stuff too!


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## cavon

YAHOO!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful holiday gift!!!!!! Way to go Lily!!!! Finish the title and top it off with a first place!!!! WHEEEEEE!!!!

Steak for sure!! I really hope that one day Finnegan and I will meet up with you and Lily at an event so that we can cheer each other on!!!


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## sarahmurphy

Big Congratulations to you and Lily!! Woohoo!! 

She's such a good girl and a hard worker! 

We are so proud of you both!

Sarah and Spike


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## lily cd re

cavon, do I recall that you went to the wine country cluster in Romulus, NY? It is the same weekend as my own home club's fall trials, but maybe if you plan to go next year too.......

I also go to the Salt City cluster in Syracuse at the end of March. This year I think I will be doing agility there if I get in since I don't think utility will be ready by then. If they offer grad open I would probably give that a go. I also might be able to finish RAE2 there, but I have to add up my planned entries to see if that is a possibility.

It would be nice to meet in the real world sometime at trial.

Sarah check your PMs. I thought of something for you to consider for Spike.


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## Specman

Congratulations to you and Lily. Great to see how well you are doing!


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## lily cd re

*Changed our signature again*

We qualified for our title leg in novice jumpers with weaves yesterday. Here is my wonderful girl with her prizes.


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## sarahmurphy

CONGRATS!!! Lily and Catherine!!! 

Sarah and Spike


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## Indiana

lily cd re said:


> We qualified for our title leg in novice jumpers with weaves yesterday. Here is my wonderful girl with her prizes.


Congrats!! You guys are amazing!


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## Minnie

Congrats!!!!! So very inspiring!!!


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## Quossum

Awesome! And a placement, too! Will video be forthcoming? We'd love to see your run!

--Q


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## Specman

Congratulations!!!


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## Chagall's mom

That's fantastic, Catherine!!:cheers2: Big *CONGRATULATIONS* to you and Lily! You set a goal and you nail it.:thumb: You deserve to be busting with pride!!roud:


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## CT Girl

Just amazing. Whenever you and Lily sets your sights on something you are unstoppable. Minnie, you nailed it -this is inspiring.


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## lily cd re

It has all happened with lots of patience and persistence. We don't get Qs every time we go out, but I always learn something to help us do better the next time. 

Quossum, sorry to say I don't have video for this one. I will have to make a habit of bringing the camera that can take it and lining a person up to record us. Usually i don't have family with me since that is something I haven't trained too much for. The last times my boyfriend or my mother came to obedience trials with me, Lily spent time looking for them during the routines. I have to take them with me to training so she doesn't think they are there to play with.


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## cavon

WHOO HOO!!!! What a great way to kick of 2013!!!! I can't wait to start agility with Finnegan!

Congratulations, Lily and Catherine!!! Can't wait to read what you get up to next!!!


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## ArreauStandardPoodle

Very nice! Congratulations!!!


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## lily cd re

*It has been a while since I updated....*

We have been busy. I haven't been on in a while since I've had lots to do at work, but we have had some trials in late January and since. We have gotten four more legs towards RAE2 (have six now). We have also gotten some Qs in CPE agility including the legs needed for the CL1-H title.

We've also been doing lots of training (mostly agility). We have an ambitious schedule over the next six or so weeks.

March 28-31 we will be in Syracuse, NY at the Salt City cluster mostly for agility as well as a couple of rally(RAE) and open B obedience entries.

April 6th, Poodle Obedience Training Club of Greater NY for rally(RAE) and open B in Allentown, NJ.
April 7th, AKC agility on Long Island.

April 13-14, Lenape Tracking Club (NJ) tracking experience days (yes I am adding something else to the mix).

April 20, AKC agility on Long Island.
April 21 traveling to Maryland (Mom and Wolfie coming to keep up company) for Poodle Club of America--agility on Monday and RAE (hoping to title RAE2) and open B on Tuesday the 23rd.

April 26-27, AKC agility on Long Island.

If any of you is near Syracuse or any of the other sites we will be at, PM me and we will see if we can get together.

Lily will then get a well deserved break for a couple of weeks while I finish the spring semester, take Peeves to work on rally novice and then go to the Indianapolis 500.

Wish us luck and easy travels. Hopefully by the time we are finished all of these events we will have some more alphabet soup at the end of everybody's name.


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## lily cd re

*Lily update*

We now have nine of our 10 needed legs for AKC RAE2. I am hoping that Lily will think it is a great idea to finish this title at PCA in two weeks.

We haven't Qd in Open B (haven't had too many entries). We are working out the concept that the exercises don't always come in the A order. Pattern training doesn't work forever with a poodle. Lily had memorized the Open A order. By the time we finished the CDX in December she was getting ready to do the routine on auto-pilot (i.e sending herself over the broad jump). I am not at all surprised that she is pretty baffled about why the exercises keep getting mixed up, but I think she needed this. She has done some really lovely work, just not a complete good routine. We were at a trial yesterday where she did terribly with just about everything until the figure 8 and heeling (last exercise in the order we had). I almost pulled her out before we got to it. I am so glad we stayed in the ring. She did one of the best figure 8s she's ever done and the heeling was in the judge's (a spoo man himself) words "a moment of brilliance."

We had an agility trial today (first time outside this year). I have a bum knee at the moment, so I had my private trainer run with Lily. I think Lily was pretty startled to see that she had to work for her friend. The first run was shaky, but she stayed the course for the second run. Since we arranged for the handler change on the fly last night, I am pleased with how she did.


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## sarahmurphy

Sorry about your knee, but Congrats and BIG HUGS to Lily and to Peeves!


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## Chagall's mom

Good for you and Lily, I envision you completing the title at PCA in style! (Wish I could be there to witness it, but we'll be arriving Tuesday around lunch time.) What a good girl Lily is for making the adjustment to work with the handler at the last minute. Smart, eager poodle! I hope your knee issue calms down, sorry you have to contend with that. Chagall and I plan to be at the Lenape Tracking Club meet this week end to cheer Lily on. Looking forward to it!


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## CT Girl

Catherine, I am so sorry to hear that you are having problems with your knee. That is great that Lily still performed so well. 9 legs Woo Woo!!! Congratulations!


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## lily cd re

Chagall's Mom, I now have yet another reason to look forward to Lenape this weekend, not only will we have fun nose work, but we get to meet you!

Thanks everyone for your good wishes for my knee. Front crosses are not in my immediate future, that's for sure.


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## Chagall's mom

I just want to brag about what a WONDERFUL girl Lily is! Chagall and I met Lily and Catherine yesterday while they were attending a nose work event locally. That little spoo girl of hers is off-the-charts adorable, clever, AFFECTIONATE, and, in the nicest way possible, an all out flirt! I had the pleasure of having her to myself, along with Chagall, while Catherine attended the indoor wrap up meeting for the event. I seriously considered putting Lily in my car and driving off with her! :car:Were Catherine not so nice, and their bond so deep and evident and lovely to witness, I might have! I look forward to seeing them both at PCA next week, and every chance after that I can get in the future. Lily is such a winner of a spoo, she's the total package! (And I forgot to bring my camera, _drat!_ I will not fail to next time!)


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## cavon

Finnegan says to tell Chagall that he is very jealous that he got to meet Lily!!! LOL!!!

I wish that we were heading out to PCA to join in the fun and cheer for Lily and Catherine!!!


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## CT Girl

Swizzle and I are jealous too! I do love a flirty poodle. Good thing you did not abscond with Lily I am sure Catherine would have hunted you down, bum knee and all. Have a fantastic time at the PCA.


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## Minnie

Bella wants to let Changall know that she is highly jealous ;-) Best of luck at the PCA!!!


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## lily cd re

Thanks for that lovely message Chagall's Mom. Lily and I had a great time with you and yours. You were lovely hosts to us both. We both slept *very* well last night and turned out for another tracking working day today. Lily did ok yesterday, but even better today. When my knee is better and I can keep with her pace I think she will teach me lots about tracking. Who knows maybe we will be able to get a TD at next year's PCA.


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## lily cd re

I have to add that Chagall is even more handsome in person than his portrait! He and Lily together were quite the attention grabbers in town.


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## lily cd re

The folks who ran the tracking workshop were incredibly nice and they sent me some pictures of Lily and me working. Here are a couple of them. In the first picture we are just starting our second short track. For the first track I had baited a lot of food and she was more into looking (visually) for the food than using her nose to follow the track. In the picture showing the start of the second track (which had less food rewards) you can see she is putting her head down onto the scent and pulling forward on the track. This was the first sign that she understood what she should do. In the second picture you can see her head is right down on the track and she is really pulling. You can also see her shoulders are down. She was working the track strongly here. This picture is from the second day. The last picture is of us relaxing.

Lily was very popular with all the people from the club. She flirted with all of them! We plan to do some more session with the same club in May and June. Hopefully my knee will be more solid by then. Right now it is still pretty tender. Being pulled along at the end of the leash and watching out for wood chuck holes is not part of our usual routine!


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## Minnie

Love that last photo what a happy girl!


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## lily cd re

That's her best trick, called "give hugs." She is a happy girl. We got a novice standard agility leg (her first) today too! Actually I can't really take the credit, Lily ran with our private agility coach. My knee is still not too good.


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## Chagall's mom

Congratulations and YAY for lovely Lily!! :cheers2: So sorry you were sidelined with an injury, but proud of her for going on with your agility coach. Your Lily is such a lovebug! All your training paid off so the credit IS due you! Safe travels to PCA, please pace yourself and take care. See you there!


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## lily cd re

Thanks, yes since I have been the trainer all along I do know that she couldn't have really done the run today without me, but I am lucky that she is so willing to please whoever she is with (as you and Chagall know). I think I will be able to get some help on Monday for agility at PCA. For obedience and rally on tuesday I will work with her. For those I don't think she would work for anyone else.


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## CT Girl

It is a testament to your training that she got her novice. Swizzle likes my agility instructor but when she tried to show me a move (a rear cross with a 180)with him Swizzle freaked out like he was being kidnapped or something! I guess this will have to be another thing to work on. Best of luck Monday and Tuesday. I do hope you knee is on the mend. Have fun! Love the give hugs trick - adorable.


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## lily cd re

Well we had a mostly good time at PCA, but came home with nothing to show for it. Having my friend run Lily in agility on Monday was very hard for Lily to make sense out of. She was distracted from the start. They ended up getting whistled off in standard, so I didn't even have her try the jumpers course.

I know I should have proofing against all distractions and oddities, but we had so many on Tuesday for rally that we NQ'd for the first time ever (in 26 entries, I excused myself one other time) in excellent, so we didn't take the advanced run, no title.... oh well there is always another day. The first surprise to me was that they ran excellent A before B (backwards from any other event I've entered) and I didn't realize it until judging was ready to start. I thought I was first dog for the trial since we were the first excellent B entry. Ok, no big deal, there were only three Excellent A dogs. Unfortunately one of those dogs fouled the ring and it took a very long time to clean up the grass. Excellent A finished and the stewards called me to the line. There we were at the entry gate, all warmed up and ready to go. the judge looked at me and said so I guess you are the last A team. I told her we were a B entry. She told me to go away since she was going to stop to score and award A. I also have never seen this happen at rally. Usually it is more efficient to do A and B for each level, then give the awards for each at the end of the level so the stewards can build the next course. Part of how we are successful is based on knowing how things run, we had too many surprises yesterday.

No Q for open, but some nice work. It was one of the orders that is still very hard to Lily, with the drop on recall first. No drop, so we just looked to have fun for the rest of it. She did nice heeling and nice retrieves.

Today I can be matter of fact about the rally mess, yesterday steam was coming out of my ears.


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## lily cd re

My obedience club awards dinner was last night. Here's our loot for 2012!


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## CT Girl

Your loot is impressive, soon Lily will need her own trophy room. Too bad about PCA. What a shame that there were so many surprises that really throws any dog off their game. The judges choice was very odd. iam glad you both had a good time as that is what is most important.


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## lily cd re

The most important thing is for our activities with our dogs to make our relationships with them deeper and more meaningful. It was really hard to have that at the front of my thinking in that rally ring though. We are none the worse for wear though, and there is always another chance.

I have a scrap book and a wall for trophies and certificates, but the room may be in order soon!


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## Chagall's mom

Sorry to have missed you at PCA, Catherine! We arrived a bit later than planned Tuesday afternoon. Sorrier still that things got a bit, uh, "fouled up" in the ring. But as ever, your outlook and "go forward" attitude are the best! You have so much for show for all the effort you and Lily put forth. I adore your smart, pretty, agile spoo girl and your attitude. Chagall loved every minute of PCA, me too! Watching all the action tired him out. Imagine if he had to compete!


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## cavon

Sorry for the problems at PCA, Catherine. Chalk it up as a learning experience and think how prepared you will be for next year! maybe you will be able to give Finnegan and I some tips on the ins and outs of it all next year!


:bounce:


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## MaryEdwards

Great shots of her jumping. What a beautiful girl. Congrats


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## lily cd re

*Yeah for Peeves*

Peeves got his second rally novice leg today! We got an 83, which is not bad since he was a little shaky at the start. He collected himself pretty well by the fourth station and gave me sits for every stationary exercise where I needed it. Yesterday he was too stressed out to get his nose off the grass. Many dogs in both rally and obedience, both days had issues with the grass which is freshly laid sod. It must smell wonderfully more important than paying attention to what mom or dad is asking for.

I gave him rescue remedy today (didn't have any on hand yesterday). I think it really helped to get his mind off all of the things that stress and distract him. I have friends who use it for themselves as well as for their dogs. I think it will always be in my gear bag from now on.


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## Minnie

Congrats to Catherine and Peeves!!!! You guys are an inspiration!!!!


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## CT Girl

I use rescue remedy on Swizzle for flights but I never thought of it for competition. That is worth considering.


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## lily cd re

I may try rescue remedy with Lily the nest time i put her in open B to see if that will settle her in to do the whole routine successfully. She still has been acting stressed and flaky when we aren't doing the A order. When I get the chance to try it out with her I'll let you all know what happens.


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## lily cd re

We have a new signature! Lily qualified in level one jumpers at our CPE trial toady so we now have CL1-F. She also got a level 2 colors leg today. Next week we are off to Cape Cod for an AKC agility trial (three days). The next weekend we have a working spot in an Ian Dunbar two day workshop. then we will buckle down to get utility obedience ready and knock off our last RAE2 leg (hopefully) in July.


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## cavon

Congratulations!!! Love to see signatures grow!!!!!


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## CT Girl

Congratulations Catherine! It is so nice to see all your hard work paying off. Did you use the rescue remedy? I hope you tell us all about the Ian Dunbar workshop. I bet you will learn a lot.


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## lily cd re

I did not do rescue remedy. I have a private scheduled for tomorrow so I may give it to her in the morning just to see how she works there. I will take it to Cape Cod since she was loopy in the first run of the day yesterday. If it gets her to be focused from the get go I am all for it.

I will definitely dish on the Ian Dunbar seminar. He has so much to offer.


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## Chagall's mom

:cheers2:CONGRATULATIONS! Delighted to hear of your latest success!:clap2: You and Lily make such a winning team. I much admire your approach and attitude toward training and competing. You are fair and level and diligent and the pay-off is easy to see. It also shines through in the bond you and Lily share, that was evident the moment I met you two. Wish you well as you go on, and I can't wait for you to serve up a "big dish" of Dunbar goodies for us. Cheers to you and Lily!! :thumb: Hope you'll be out our way again sometime soon. Enjoy the seminar!


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## Joelly

Congratulations!!!!


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## Minnie

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!

I am pea green with envy on the Ian Dunbar workshop - can't wait to read all about it!


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## lily cd re

Well I've been running around like a headless chicken since Memorial Day. I need to update. 

We had a good time on Cape Cod, but came away empty handed. It rained Thursday night into Friday morning and the start of the trial was delayed. There were showers on and off and it was very windy. I mean windy enough to blow small dogs off the top of the dog walk. Saturday and Sunday were hot. I really still think Lily is better for agility outside, but it does mean I have to contend with weather. We stayed at a very nice place and had nice visits with family friends. Wolfie caught the attention of many admirers and having him and my mom along for the ride helped reduce lily's distractedness for the audience. 

When not working since then we have been working on utility obedience to get ready for the trial we went to this past weekend (Susquenango Kennel Club in Binghamton). We entered for RAE legs Friday and Sunday. Friday got us our RAE2 title and qualifying Sunday has us committed to an RAE3. We did graduate open all three days. We didn't qualify, but then again nobody else did either. I liked how Lily did with the things that were good (scent articles, gloves, moving stand) and she showed me what I think I already knew which is that she doesn't really understand the drop signal or the go out. We did utility A on Saturday (really just to test what she understand). Again the go out and the drop signal NQ'd us, but I was thrilled with her scores for the other exercises (we lost no more than one point on anything). We also did Open B on Saturday and Sunday. We didn't qualify on Saturday, but on Sunday we got a 192! I feel like a jinx is off. This is just an extra leg, but now I know that we will have a hope for trying for a UDX once we get through utility. 

We started back at square one for the go out and the drop signal when we trained on Tuesday. I think we will be able to fix those things pretty quickly.

Peeves and I are going to a rally trial on Saturday. He only needs to qualify once to finish his RN and we have two runs. It is indoors so I will probably work from the car to keep him relaxed.


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## cavon

Go Peeves Go!!!!!!!

I just know you will get Lily sorted out in short order and she will making class placements!


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## lily cd re

cavon, thanks for your encouraging words. She is a smart girl and I know she will get it when I get clearer for her on those exercises. 

That trial in Binghamton is a qualifier for AKC national obedience. The 192 in open B wasn't close to placing. There was a 199, 198.5 and then a four way run off of 197.5s. It was great to see those teams. I learned from watching them. They have practice ring time on Friday and Saturday.

The rally entries were very strong too. We got a 99 in advanced on Friday and didn't place!

Placements or not it was all good. I am looking forward to getting Peeves another title to go after his name. Hopefully he won't stress out too much. I did finish his beginner novice title at the same facility.


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## lily cd re

*Yeah Peeves*

We got our rally novice today and a bumper leg. We didn't place but he got an 86 in the first trial and a 74 in the second. Both courses had the halt sit one step-sit-two steps-sit-three steps sit and the second one also had the call front with back up 1, 2, 3 steps. For Peeves sitting is hard when he is worried so we didn't get the halt sits going forward in either course. He did sit at front though and he was good and relaxed around the other dogs (thanks to a little rescue remedy).


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## cavon

*hooray peeves!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*


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## CT Girl

That is fantastic! Those letters are stacking up.


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## lily cd re

So now I am going to try something daring. At the end of August I am going to take both Lily and Peeves with me to the same rally trial by myself. It will be a one day event with no overnight hotel stay. I take the two of them to my club to take classes, but I've never entered both of them without having someone else along for the day. Also they will both be in advanced B. I am putting a note in with my entries asking that one of them be the first dog in the class and the other the last so that I have time to switch them and get whoever is second warmed up. Wish us luck.


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## Quossum

Good luck! This is a very common occurrence in Agility, where many people run multiple dogs. Our trial secretaries always try to separate the dogs, so I'm sure the Rally secretaries will, too. 

It will be fun, you'll see! Always nice to have a second chance for a Q.

--Q


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## lily cd re

Yes, I see many people at agility with multiple dogs. Peeves doesn't like the contacts at all (got scared falling off a dog walk when he was young) so I won't have that multiple agility issue until I have another poodle ready to go, by which time Lily should be working on a MACH (if we ever get out of novice standard).

I do a lot of rally and obedience stewarding so I have had people ask me for all sorts of things ringside (some nicely, others not so much so). I am sure I can enlist their help with the right way to ask. Also the president of the host club is someone I know moderately well. I figured a one day event would be the best way to see how this will work.

Thanks for your good wishes Quossum.


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## cavon

you can do it, Catherine!!

Finnegan's breeder and I have had a group of spoos entered in Rally and Obedience trials and the organizers were very good about the spacing of the runs. When we had back to back runs, one of us handled and the other ran dogs back and forth!! So much work, but sooooo much fun!! On more than one occasion we have taken all of the placements in different trials!

Take a deep breath and have fun!!!


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## CT Girl

I am sure someone will lend a hand if needed. You are going to be a busy girl but I bet it will pay off.


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## MaryEdwards

congrats


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## lily cd re

Here are a couple of pictures from our rally and obedience trials in July. The day the rally pictures were taken were the day we earned our RAE2. The others are from open and graduate open. She is a happy worker, isn't she? I love the one with the dumbbell. And yes, I know she looks super skinny. I do feed her generously (free feeds), she just burns it off as fast as she takes it in. I also have these and a few other pictures in an album.


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## Chagall's mom

Beautiful photos of you and your delightfully flirty, accomplished girl! Having met svelte Lily I know she's fit as a fiddle. She's just the most balanced and endearing girl.  (I_ know_ you feed her, and when I fed her treats with Chagall she ate them eagerly. She has an enviable metabolism!)


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## lily cd re

Yes, her metabolism should be sold in a bottle. It would be a truly effective diet pill!


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## Indiana

Aw she's a doll! So elegant, and I love her face. Congrats on the new title!


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## Minnie

Congrats she is just fabulous!!!


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## lily cd re

One of the things I really like about this trial (other than air conditioning in July) is that they have a photographer there for the whole weekend. It is so unusual to have a professional photographer at an obedience trial (agility to shoot the runs, yes; conformation to shoot title portraits, yes). He is very nice and will come to your ring to shoot your whole routine if you ask. He also does lots of candids. I always buy something, but this year is the first time I took web ready images as part of my collection. I am happy to have them to share.


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## CT Girl

She is elegant and so focused. The photographer got some lovely shots, the dumbbell one is my favorite too. AC in July and a photographer, you picked a good trial to go to.


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## Sookster

Love the photos! Very nice job. I can never seem to get good shots at rally trials, would love to go to one that had a photographer.


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## lily cd re

*Really both Lily and Peeves get a yeah!*

I took both Lily and Peeves to a rally trial today. It was just me with the two of them and it was the first time I had them both in the same class (advanced B). somebody at the show superintendent's office was nice to me and put Peeves as the 2nd 16 inch dog and Lily as the last with about nine dogs in between them. Switching them off ended up not being any problem with Lily going 2nd.

Lily got her second leg towards her RAE3. We got a 90 in excellent since I had to re-do 3 stations and lost one point for some miscellaneous thing. A dog (belonging to a novice handler who came way too early and had no crate for her dobi) got up her butt right before we went in the ring which I think was part of why she goofed around. She did much better in advanced with a 100 (one of five in the class) and placed 4th.

Peeves had his first advanced entry. He didn't take the jump and I had an IP for a halt, call front, finish left, halt. He didn't do the first of the three sits. Since he doesn't like to sit when he is worried (and he still finds trials worry inducing) I was pleased that the only sit he missed in the whole routing was that one. I guess we IP'd another station since he only got a 70 (but it is still a green ribbon), but I wasn't able to check what it was since I had to get Lily ready.


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## MollyMuiMa

She is just lovely! Her leaness gives her elegance and a sense of grace, I think!!!


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## Minnie

Congratulations Catherine!!!!!


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## lily cd re

*Here are the rally dogs*

I didn't have a chance to post this Saturday, but here are my great dogs (Although not the best picture, they just wanted to go home.) after their rally trial.


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## Chagall's mom

Aww, I can see the cartoon bubble, "We are so done! Would somebody _please_ call our chauffeur?" Sweet looking GSD, you already know I think Lily is a darling. :car:


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## lily cd re

He is a very sweet boy, really a very soft dog. I wish he wouldn't worry so much about the environment at trials. He could do way better than he does. Hopefully some gentle coaxing will bring him out a little more. His breeder (whose picnic we were at yesterday) is very interested in using him to breed to one or the other of two young girls she has coming up right now. They won't be ready until about 18 months from now. In the meantime, I would like to finish at least through an RAE with him so he is a little more credentialed (like his smarty pants sister). CM, I realize I should probably have gotten in touch with you before we went to that trial. It was at Top Dog in Flanders. Perhaps we could have met for lunch.


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## Chagall's mom

lily cd re said:


> He is a very sweet boy, really a very soft dog.


I had a run-in with a GSD when I was 9. For decades I was scared to death of them. Then I met a friend of a friend's soft-hearted guy, Baron. He immediately saddled up to me, leaned his big, handsome furry head on my leg and looked up at me with eyes so much like your Peeves'! I wish you all the success I feel certain you will have with Peeves going on to earn his RAE!



lily cd re said:


> CM, I realize I should probably have gotten in touch with you before we went to that trial. It was at Top Dog in Flanders. Perhaps we could have met for lunch.


Oh I would have loved it!! I was just there recently myself! I feel certain our paths are meant to cross again.


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## lily cd re

I was bitten by a GSD when I was delivering newspapers when I was in middle school. No blood, but not relaxing. Also our next door neighbors at my childhood home had two. They used to bark and lunge at us when we played in the driveway. One day one of them actually jumped through the glass of the picture window while my brother and friends were there. My mother also had gotten afraid of GSDs when we went to a woman's home to buy a canary when i was young. That dog followed my mom all around the lady's canary colony.

Needless to say when I met BF and found out he had a GSD I was uneasy at first, but that dog (Becks) was from the same breeder as Peeves. He helped me get over my nerves. When we told my mom we were getting Peeves I think she was pretty horrified, but she came to an adolescent training class with me and both dogs. She handled Peeves for the class since BF couldn't go at the time it was offered. Peeves now loves her as much as he loves the two of us and she loves him very well too.

I will make sure I get in touch in advance the next time I go to Top Dog or come to NJ to go tracking.


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## CT Girl

Congratulations Catherine.

My best friend Paul had a GSD his family recued from a shelter. That dog was a biter and I refused to be alone in the room with it. My other friends thought I was over cautious but unfortunately one found out my concern was justified. I drove to Paul's house with another friend Mandy. The dog was in the yard and I wanted to wait in the car till the dog was secured. Mandy thought I was being ridiculous and hopped out of the car. I knew immediately she was in trouble as Paul's dog ran to her. The dog instantly bit her on the bottom and would not let go. Paul and his mother pried this jaws open as he would not let go. Fortunately Mandy just had a large bruise and some puncture marks.

This has made me very cautious around GSD but I have met some amazing ones since that are wonderful dogs. I think it is such a shame that poor breeding and in some cases bad training have taken their toll with this breed because the good ones are such nice dogs. Peeves does have a very sweet look. Some dogs you just look at and you know they are sweethearts.


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## lily cd re

CT girl, the problem in GSDs is the AKC standard for the breed. The sloped top line puts their hindquarters all out of whack which is why there is so much hip dysplasia and they run around on their hocks (How could they possibly work sheep like that?). They also select for a much narrower longer muzzle and head. Somebody once told me that he read that someone had done a study of why dobis go on rages and they concluded that the change in the head (narrower) hadn't really been accompanied by developing smaller brains. They therefore extended to conclude that they all have headaches all of the time because their brains are under pressure. If this really is true, then the same could be true in GSDs that are bred to conform to the AKC standard. Generally they have very unreliable temperaments (headaches) and lots of health problems. When we first brought Peeves to our vet he said something to the effect of "please tell me he isn't from a local breeder," and was very relieved when our answer was no. 

People down the street from us have an american line GSD that I think is the craziest dog in the whole neighborhood. When Lily was a puppy she really hated walking past that house. I think she got a very bad vibe from the nature of the barking and other commotion. As she gained confidence and learned to trust me, she came to understand that the dog couldn't do anything to her and now walks past that house with an attitude like "shut up already, nobody cares about you!" I don't take Peeves that way because these people think he should be friends with their dog and they have let it out of the house loose to play with him more than once (so unfair to a dog that is on leash). He doesn't like the vibe from this dog either. 

Peeves is from german show lines. I have some other (better pictures that show him in one of my albums on PF). You can see he has a pretty straight top line, doesn't walk on his hocks and has a really big blocky head. He also has the beautiful red color that you only see in european derived dogs. The best GSDs in the US are from german or other european lines. They excel as working dogs and I see lots of them do great work in obedience. Sadly they do horribly in the AKC conformation ring.


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## CT Girl

That explains a lot. I actually have noticed the correlation with head shape and temperament and mentioned this to a girl in my agility class that has two lovely GSDs. I like the look and movement of her dogs (they are from German lines and do have a blocky head) and she has the same opinion as you. She actually does compete in herding competitions too. I have also heard that about dobermans which is a real shame because a well bred dobie, like a well bred GSD is a delight. We have seen similar issues with poorly bred poodles too which can be very yappy and tend to snap and growl. Some of these issues can of course be training issues but breeding definitely factors in. Ironically I too was bitten by a dog when I was six but it was one of those yappy poodles I spoke of. 

I really love Peaves coloring. Strictly from an aesthetic viewpoint I find the wider muzzle and richer color of the German lines of GSD much more appealing. I feel a lot of people are noticing these issues and are getting German GSD.


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## lily cd re

*we finally got cpe jackpot level 1!*

Yeah, we are finally done with all of our level one in CPE agility! Getting the jackpot Q has been a long time coming, but we did an excellent run today on a traditional gamble course. Lily did great distance work and basically ran the whole gamble line out in front of me (at my direction, not the zoomies). When she landed after the final jump I started yelling yeah we did it and she came flying back towards me and just about jumped in my arms, so I just scooped her up and gave her a great big hug.

We also got Qs in level two wildcard and full house yesterday. Yesterday on standard we didn't get the weaves, but today we did, but went over time. We also went over time on colors today. It was a beautiful weekend to spend outside, but it was a bit on the warm side when there was no breeze. I think Lily was hot and not feeling tip top when we went in for jumpers since she didn't finish the course. Overall I am happy since we are out of level one and we got good practice in for next weekend's AKC trial.


Here is my smart girl with her loot. Pardon the picture quality (cell phone camera).


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## Minnie

Wow congratulations!!!!!


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## CT Girl

Fantastic news Catherine, well done!


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## lily cd re

I do feel like a hex has been lifted finishing that level one CPE stuff. Hopefully it will carry over for AKC Qs in agility and utility obedience this fall as well.


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## cavon

Go Lily, Go Lily, Go Lilly!!!!!

Congratulations!!


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## liljaker

Way to go Lilly!!!!!


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## lily cd re

*What a nice weekend!*

I finally have a few minutes to sit and relax. It was a very hectic but fun weekend for me and Lily. On Thursday evening we took the ferry from Long Island to Connecticut so that we would be well rested before the Quinnipiac Poodle Club Obedience and rally trials on Friday. It was an evening with a beautiful sunset and Lily got lots of loving on her on the boat. We got up early (for us) on Friday and headed over to get set up for the trials. We were the only dog in Open B in the AM trial. We didn't get a qualifying drop on recall, but she did really nice heeling and retrieving. Everybody also said she was rock solid during the sit and down stays. We also entered utility in the afternoon trial and we NQd on the signals and the go out, but I liked most of the rest of what she did. One of my friends said she thought her scent articles looked great too. We did two more legs towards RAE3 and got high combined rally awards (ok, we were the only advanced/excellent team) but we got a combined 180 (85 and 95 (advanced)) in the morning and a combined 194 (95 and 99(advanced)) in the afternoon.

The nicest non-working thing about Friday was connecting with all my poodle friends in the real world. Friends of mine from upstate NY were there with their spoos (also in utility, and a youngster in beginner novice). We email all the time, but only see each other a few times a year at shows. The coolest thing was that PF was well represented in the gallery. CT Girl and sarahmurphy both came and spent time with us. It was very nice to me CT Girl (unfortunately without Swizzle) and to see sarahmurphy again. We had a really nice picnic lunch with some of the other obedience and rally folks. Needless to say we only talked about our poodles the whole time. We exchanged great ideas about training and performing in both obedience and agility. Lily had a nice time hanging out with us too. She especially enjoyed the lavish attention she got from our PF friends when she wasn't working.

Yesterday and today we had AKC agility entries. We came very close to Qing in novice standard both days. Yesterday we had three Rs (one over limit) and one W, today just three Rs. Yesterday the W and last R were totally my fault. Lily really worked very hard to get everything done. She was flaky both days in open jumpers, but it came right after novice standard and both classes were small so we didn't have a lot of turn around time. I am thinking I really need to focus on getting out of novice standard so I don't have to worry about her being ready to run in back to back classes.


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## CT Girl

I enjoyed Friday so much. It was so nice meeting Catherine and Sarah. Lily is such a sweetheart, so affectionate and eager to please. The venue was challenging as a breed show was going on simultaneously. I am sure the sound of squeaky toys and clapping was distracting but nevertheless Lily got two more legs and high combined rally. Her stays are rock solid and she is a beautiful heeler and I expect she will get the utility ribbon in short order. Sarah and I got busy shopping and each got a pretty slip lead. The story of the day was a cute toy poodle who has been competing for years and still had not Qd in utility. The dog is fantastic but always does something wrong and what is wrong is always different. The Roy's owner had one more run for the day that she was thinking of skipping because she had to go to work. We convinced her to stay and after seven years she Qd. She was so happy she started crying and soon everyone else including the judge started happy crying too. It was a beautiful moment.


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## lily cd re

Yes that toy did such a beautiful job for her owner. It just goes to show we should never give up or think we can't reach a goal. As much as Lily is a great worker now, we were so chaotic when we started out I thought of stopping many times. I am very fortunate to have lots of supportive friends here and other places, and a very patient forgiving and clever girl in my pupchick.


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## lily cd re

My obedience club had their fall trials yesterday and today. For the first time we had them at our club's facility rather than outside along with another club that hosts a large conformation show. It was definitely somewhat hectic, and things ran very late last night since most of the non-regular classes and rally were offered in addition to novice, open and utility.

Lily and I qualified in graduate open yesterday with a 190, but not today (anticipated go out). We didn't qualify in utility either, but I do now have a very clear picture of what needs work (go outs and the drop signal). Clearly Lily needs to have more time to feel really confident enough to work at distance for these exercises, but everything else was really great with just a point off here and there. I hope that her increasing confidence to work in agility will help her to see that it is ok to do it in obedience. I am truly coming to appreciate why most people call utility "futility." As easy as those exercises sound on paper, they are really hard in the ring. We will take our time and continue working in rally and agility, as well as getting back to tracking.

Peeves and I got his second rally advanced leg at about 10:00 PM last night. Once again he got a 70, but it does get the all important green ribbon. He took the jump with confidence yesterday (something he often seeks to avoid). He did a couple of goofy things to get IPs, but I am happy I stayed, even though the three of us all are tired today! Tomorrow is a day off for everyone.


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## Chagall's mom

Never get tired of celebrating Peeves' and Lily's accomplishments with you! You have a world-class attitude about training and competing. I think we need to clone you!!:adore: Congrats, and get some well deserved rest. You've had quite a week, in and out of the ring.


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## lily cd re

It is a beautiful fall day here. We will be hanging in the yard.


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## lily cd re

*Lily got two more RAE3 legs today*

We went to a two trials in one day rally event today where the trials ran simultaneously. One ring did excellent, advanced and novice. The other started with novice and ended with excellent. One ring ran slow and the other one was pretty much on time. All in all it was a little hectic. I was waiting with Lily for advanced in ring one and low and behold they call us for ring two, so I had to change the course map in my head on the fly. Lily Qd on all four of her runs. She now has six of ten legs towards RAE3. 

Sadly Peeves did not. He ended up in ring one as his first course. It was loaded with too many sits (especially since the first station was halt, call front, finish left, halt). He did not qualify there and then had to make the quick turn around to get in the other ring. I think if things had been reversed and he had done ring two first instead of Lily there first, he would have been ok. It would have been his RA title leg to have gotten a Q today. He was a good boy and was very relaxed around other dogs and in his crate so there were positives even for him. Also if you were a four for six hitter in baseball I think people would think you were cheating so I will not be a complainer at all.


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## lily cd re

*check out our new signature*

We finished RAE3 on Sunday at the Thanksgiving cluster in W. Springfield, MA! Lily worked beautifully all weekend (4 days). She did exactly what I told her to (even when I was wrong, I blew a 100 in advanced one day and high 90s in both excellent and advanced on Sunday because I made stupid mistakes that IP'd us (costs 10 points), oh well). Many people who watched complimented me on how lovely her heeling was and how nicely she collected after the jumps (something that hasn't generally been her strong suit). We played around with graduate open and a little agility, no Q's but some flashes of brilliance. I got to watch her from afar on open jumpers with our trainer. She looked awesome all the way to the last tunnel (which she refused totally). Our trainer finished a MACH4 with her older border collie and then came right over to run Lily. She is the best!.


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## CT Girl

What a great accomplishment! The cluster is a huge show with lots of commotion too. I love to go to that show but was in Florida. I wish it was after Thanksgiving as usual as I would have be enable to attend. I especially wanted to go this year too to find out what happened to my groomer. Her sister is always at the cluster as she is a handler.


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## cavon

Congratulations Lily & Catherine!!!!


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## lily cd re

So I don't think I can figure out how to edit my signature from my phone, but we will be adding Novice Agility to Lily's titles. We qualified and got the elusive 3rd leg in novice standard as almost the last dog of the day today. She is a very good girl.

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## poolann

lily cd re said:


> So I don't think I can figure out how to edit my signature from my phone, but we will be adding Novice Agility to Lily's titles. We qualified and got the elusive 3rd leg in novice standard as almost the last dog of the day today. She is a very good girl.
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Congrats on your new title! Those last novice q's can be hard to come by 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## Chagall's mom

Huge Congratulations!:whoo: (I'm a bit behind on foruming, but just _delighted_ to see how far ahead you've gone!) Good for flirty, lovely, smart Lily and you!!:cheers2: Celebrate BIG! :cheers:You deserve to be so very proud!roud:


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## lily cd re

*NA title picture*

Here is Lily posing with her title and placement rosettes from Skyline agility during Thanksgiving weekend.

photo credit: M. Nicole Fischer


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## desertreef

*Catherine- with Lily!*

Hi Catherine- I'm not seeing your Lily's registered name. Can you post that here or you can send it to me privately. I would love to see her pedigree. You guys are doing some amazing things together!
Thanks, Karen


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## Minnie

Somehow I missed this CONGRATS Catherine!!!!!!!!!


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## CT Girl

Lily has an absolutely fantastic temperament too, a total love bug.


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## desertreef

Thanks for that info- VERY important!  I'm wondering if she came from LouAnn, in NY. Still hoping to hear who her parents are. 
:adore:


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## lily cd re

Ok so I know this picture is terrible (cell phone), but Lily and I got high combined in rally advanced/excellent at our club's winter trial this morning. Between one trial in January and three this weekend, we now have four legs towards and RAE4. Mostly it is about getting ready for the nationals though at this point, more than the title.


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## poolann

Congratulations!! That is a great achievement. I love it when the rosettes are bigger than the dogs!

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## CT Girl

Congratulations!!! That is fantastic news.


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## Poodlebeguiled

Oh my! I'm wowed. Stupendous!!! What team work. You should be very pleased and proud.


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## jlf45764

:cheers2: :cheers2: :cheers2: :cheers2: :cheers2:


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## CT Girl

Love the blingy congratulations.


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## lily cd re

Yes, CT Girl, jif45764 is quite the cheering section!


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## Minnie

Wow!!!!! Congratulations that is quite an accomplishment!


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## lily cd re

Lily and I did two RAE legs today (now have 6 towards RAE4). Lily did a great job, but boy did I have a screw or two loose today. First I missed my first walk through because I misread the judging program and got to the site late. Then somehow I missed the other advanced walkthrough also. Thankfully for both of those I was able to watch other people (while watching what the judges wrote points off for) so I had the walkthroughs in my head. I am really glad I don't actually have to think at all about what the signs mean anymore though. In our second excellent run I knocked into a cone and lost 10 for that. Lily sat on a pivot right-forward since I was a little slow to move along. 

We got 92/93 in one trial and 80/88 in the other. To my good girl's credit she collected well after all of the jumps on all four courses. She was willing to be serious for all of the runs too. She did a bit of sniffing, but got back in the groove right away when I gave her a good firm "leave it" order.

Hopefully I got all of my dopey mess ups out of the way. The rally national is just under 4 weeks away! Better to have done silly things today, hopefully not then.


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## poolann

Huge congrats!!

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## Minnie

*Congrats!!!!!!!!*


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## jlf45764

*CONGRATULATIONS!* *Good luck with The Rally National!*


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## lily cd re

We did another rally trial on Saturday to practice for nationals. It was at a big sports dome with 6 conformation rings, 2 obedience rings plus rally and lots of grooming noise, vendors etc. I went just for the purpose of working in a very distracting environment and on an unfamiliar surface (artificial turf). I am happy to say that I didn't mess up like last time and that we got 2 4th places with scores of 91 in excellent and 98 in advanced. I left a couple of out of position sits related to pivots alone in excellent since I didn't want to beat Lily up over doing anything "wrong." I just wanted her to feel relaxed in that environment. We will train correct positions for pivots out of trials between now and nationals. It isn't very far away now. We only have one trial left before Harrisburg. Starting to be a little nervous....


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## CT Girl

Very wise to keep the happy, upbeat feeling instead of correcting pivots. Much better to tackle that in practice and have a happy, confident dog at trials.


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## lily cd re

Today was our last trial before nationals. It had a big rally entry and was a big trial overall (4 obedience rings, with two of those in the same gym as rally), so I feel like it was a good set up for what nationals will be like. I didn't do a lot of correctly for out of positions since I can easily do that at home but I did a couple of re-tries in excellent and got an 86. We got a 94 in advanced (now have 8 legs for RAE4). The judge is one of the novice rally judges at nationals. I mentioned nationals when i was talking to her right after excellent and she said she thought the courses there would be a little easier since they will want fast runs. These were really challenging courses with lots of out and back along the same general path at different points in the course. Like you went to 1 from the start and on the way to 2 you passed 11 and 12, if that makes any sense. Next weekend we will be loafing at home.


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## Minnie

Congrats on getting the 8th leg that is fantastic!!!! Hope you have a great time at Nationals!


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## lily cd re

Lily and I went to a poodle specialty obedience and rally trial in New Jersey today. One of us spent a lot of time playing around in utility A (but at least everybody there was pretty much been there done that, its a poodles thing). Mischief collected herself very nicely for rally though. We placed first in both excellent and advanced with scores of 93 and 98 respectively. That makes the ninth leg for RAE4 (which we hope to finish at PCA later in the month).


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## patk

congratulations! you have to stop playing around in utility competition, though, and holding lily back from taking firsts!:aetsch:


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## Chagall's mom

:cheers2:Way to go, Lily & Catherine!







(My home state is lucky for you.)  Wish I could have been there to watch!


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## poolann

Congrats!! Sounds like a great time was had by all


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## jlf45764

Wow! That's great! *CONGRATULATIONS!* :cheers2: :cheers2:


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## CT Girl

It is wonderful to hear how you and Lily are progressing, congratulations!


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## lily cd re

patk said:


> congratulations! you have to stop playing around in utility competition, though, and holding lily back from taking firsts!:aetsch:


If only it had been me who played in utility...but, in fairness to my sweet girl, we hadn't worked on the utility exercises all that hard before rally nationals. We will try to do some intensive rehabilitation before PCA.


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## atlflier

Congratulations to you both!!! With your permission, I'll enlarge this photo and tape it over both doggie beds--Lilly (Peeves too) can be their idols.

Alex...Alex...come over and take a look at this drive, reach, focus...dang, I thought I had him enthralled and then SQUIRREL, poof, he's gone. Maybe I'll have better luck with Micah? LOL

All kidding aside, I'll just say "WOW!!!"


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## lily cd re

If I could tell you how many crazy moments there were getting to this point.....persistence pays off. The first time I took Lily in an obedience ring (outdoor trial) she took off on me as soon as I took the leash off. Zoomies like you wouldn't believe. I had to just about lie down on the ground in the middle of the ring to get a hand on her collar. The judge, as she excused us (deservedly, but who I won't show under again after another poor experience with her) told me I should forget about obedience and just do rally with Lily (like rally is actually easy). I guess I got p*@#ed off at the comment and have made sure that judge was wrong. It was really disheartening to hear that from a judge. My training mentor who also has me judge lots of matches always reminds me to say something positive to exhibitors even if their dog did terribly. We want to encourage people to come into the sport, not drive them away. Thankfully I am stubborn and like to prove negative attitude people wrong.


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## lily cd re

Chagall's mom said:


> :cheers2:Way to go, Lily & Catherine!
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> (My home state is lucky for you.)  Wish I could have been there to watch!


Your state has been good to me more than once. We were back yesterday for a tracking club event in Monmouth Junction. I will get in touch in advance of the next time we come to the garden state, so we can try to arrange to meet. We need to see Chagall's beautiful silver coat in person.


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## lily cd re

*Check out our new signature!*

We finished our RAE4 yesterday at PCA. We didn't do great in excellent (score in 70s). Lily wandered away from me at one point to look up into the gallery for mom and Wolfie, but she came back and finished well. Advanced was much better (94) and that was our 10th double Q for the fourth time (40x total)! We will mostly leave rally alone for Lily and focus on getting some Qs in utility.

We also had a darn good run in open JWW on Monday. We didn't get the weaves, but given that we have had little practice in agility lately I can't blame Lily. I am optimistic though for this weekend. I will spend time on weave pole entries today and tomorrow before heading out for trial on Friday.

I also will be doing some rally advanced with Peeves in May and hope to finish his RA title in one of those runs.


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## poolann

Yay!!!!! Congrats!!!

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## Chagall's mom

:cheers2:Yay! Good showing at PCA!! Sorry I wasn't there to see it, huge congrats! :whoo:


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## atlflier

WTG for you two at PCA!!! I prepaid to watch the live Monday stream and Wednesday's conformation events, since I couldn't be there, and didn't even realize you were entered! Oh goodie, another excuse to re-watch the feed!


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## lily cd re

We are in Binghamton, NY this weekend for obedience and rally. We didn't get much of a performance out of utility today, but we were able to get practice ring time late in the day so hopefully tomorrow will be better.

We had much more success in rally. We got High Combined. We had a 97 in excellent (had to redo back up three steps dog stays in position) and a 100 in advanced. I liked that we were the most consistent team. There were two 100s in excellent and three in advanced, but no one else was so consistent as Lily and me today. We got a very pretty rosette and some bucks to boot!


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## poolann

Great job! It's always good when you can get some money back. Don't tell Lily but Racer and I shared steak when he finished his Ch & uro1 at a UKC show. Best of luck tomorrow!!

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## Minnie

Congratulations what a wonderful accomplishment!!!!


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## lily cd re

poolann said:


> Great job! It's always good when you can get some money back. *Don't tell Lily but Racer and I shared steak* when he finished his Ch & uro1 at a UKC show. Best of luck tomorrow!!
> 
> Sent from Petguide.com Free App


Don't tell Racer, but when anybody gets a title or something special at our house I buy three steaks, one for each person and one for Lily and Peeves to share! Maybe we will need one for this weekend (not that anything great happened today, but utility was better than yesterday and we had good practice in grad open and practice ring after trial was done). Tomorrow we will try (f) utility again and do another RAE.


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## Indiana

Yay you two! I hope you're very proud!


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## poolann

lily cd re said:


> Don't tell Racer, but when anybody gets a title or something special at our house I buy three steaks, one for each person and one for Lily and Peeves to share! Maybe we will need one for this weekend (not that anything great happened today, but utility was better than yesterday and we had good practice in grad open and practice ring after trial was done). Tomorrow we will try (f) utility again and do another RAE.


Don't worry I'm sure not telling him that anyone gets a whole steak to themselves 

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## lily cd re

I am happy even when we don't Q. It is the journey, more than the destination that matters, after all!


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## Indiana

That's so true! And that's why we wouldn't stoop to tricks or shortcuts. It's awesome to love the process as well as the end result, and it makes for a relationship beyond compare and a dog that is an awesome household companion.


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## hopetocurl

Best of luck!


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## lily cd re

We got a 91 in rally excellent and a 97 in advanced today. Lily definitely seemed somewhat stressed since she yawned a couple of times in rally and in utility. It was a hard three days. We were at the trial site for almost 12 hours on Friday to wait for our practice ring time. Yesterday the practice rings were much more sparsely used so we didn't wait so long, but it was still a long day. A friend from my club helped me in the practice ring yesterday and she made some good suggestions for my problems with the drop signal. We worked based on her idea in the hallway at the hotel and the signals were much better today. We still didn't Q in utility but it looked better in everything except the go out. Getting closer...

We are happy to be home. BF is out visiting his mom at the nursing home and Lily has been looking for him. She was surprised he wasn't here when we got in, but she got a big happy hello from Peeves. Chinese food I think tonight!


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## lily cd re

*This one is a brag on Peeves*

Peeves and I went to a rally trial today and finished his Rally Advanced title. Yeah Peeves! It was hard work. I love my boy but he is very noise sensitive and he has some problems being around dogs he doesn't know. He isn't aggressive, but he gets over excited and will bark and has been known to lunge at other dogs. He isn't aggressive, actually very playful, but it is hard to convince people that my 90 pound GSD just wants to play with their pomeranian or tpoo (even though he play bows to them while he barks). I had to do a lot of work just to get him to the start sign since I had to make sure I kept his attention even though it was a busy trial, but he did great staying focused. I actually think working on redirecting his attention away from the chicks when we've all been out in the yard helped tremendously. We got an 84. I had one IP at the last station that required a sit since he was having none of sitting at that point. We were at a station that pointed him right at a mirror wall and he was looking worried about that other dog pointing back at him. I also lost other points for slow sits and for him sniffing the toys on the offset figure 8, but we qualified and we got a nice title rosette!


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## lily cd re

Oh yeah and thinking about it Peeves' title means steaks for dinner in the next couple of days!


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## cavon

:cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2::cheers2:

Congratulations Peeves!!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Way to go, Big Boy!!!


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## lily cd re

Cavon, thanks for the big cheers! As an aside, are you going to the Wine Country this year? I am going with Lily.


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## deemarie03

So happy for you Catherine! A happy dog flying through the air is thing of beauty to be sure!


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## lily cd re

deemarie03 said:


> So happy for you Catherine! A happy dog flying through the air is thing of beauty to be sure!


This will make our trip to Chittenango next week all the merrier. Peeves will have his title brag and it is Lily's birthday weekend.


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## deemarie03

Wow, a celebration, indeed! We're looking forward to it. Today we happened to be driving on Falls Road and noticed the sign for Olmstead Road, it's only several miles from our house! How old is Lily? She's gorgeous, I just loved those pics of her jumping!


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## Minnie

*CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!! *That is wonderful news all that hard work paying off must feel awesome!


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## poolann

Good boy Peeves!


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## nifty

Congratulations, Catherine! And of course well done, Peeves!!


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## Indiana

Yay! good for Peeves!! Picturing you having steak tonight, lifting a glass to you! Especially with the rough start this morning, good for you for staying focussed enough to do what you set out to do!


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## MollyMuiMa

Good boy Peeves! You make your Mama proud!!!!!!


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## lily cd re

Donna, Lily will be 6 next week. The steak dinner will be tomorrow, so all of you who already gave a toast you now have an excuse to give another one tomorrow!


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## cavon

lily cd re said:


> Cavon, thanks for the big cheers! As an aside, are you going to the Wine Country this year? I am going with Lily.


Catherine, we will not be going to Wine Country this year. I have spent most of the last year focussing on Schutzhund and agility and while we accomplished our goal of earning Finnegan's BH this year, we will only start trialling in agility next year. Rose would be ready for her RE and CD, but Finnegan is not ready for obedience open, so instead we are going on vacation at the end of September this year!

I'm sure we will meet up next year though!!


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## lily cd re

We have revised our signature again! Lily is now an RAE5! Good girl Lily.


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## Indiana

lily cd re said:


> We have revised our signature again! Lily is now an RAE5! Good girl Lily.



Yay!!


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## Minnie

*Congrats!!!!!!*


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## Charmed

Good job to all of you! Pretty soon Lily is going to need a whole page on poodle forum just for her titles. For all the hard work and dedication you have more than earned that steak dinner. Thank you again for being such a good ambassador for Poodles.


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## cavon

Huge Congrats!!! Good Girl, Lily! That is one gigantic accomplishment!

I have a friend who has just completed her URX10 (UKC equivalent to RAE) with her wonderful spoo! That ties the record for the most URX titles!!

Go get 'em, Lily & Catherine!


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## poolann

Wonderful!!


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## lily cd re

Charmed I am amazed you remembered about the steaks! Yes there will be steaks all around. Cavon I have a friendly acquaintance who just retired her RAE 14 corgi. I am not sure how any more we will earn but there will be more, but once we work out the issues in utility and get through the UD we will probably put rally on hold for a while to work on UDX.


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## Streetcar

lily cd re said:


> We have revised our signature again! Lily is now an RAE5! Good girl Lily.


Congratulations on 5 !!!!!!


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## MollyMuiMa

Congratulations Katherine and Lily!!!! Hope you have a wall of fame that just keeps getting bigger and bigger!!!


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## ericwd9

The dogs come first! Good work Lilly and Catherine
Eric


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## Suddenly

Congratulations Lily. Keep up the great work.


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## hopetocurl

Congratulations!


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## lily cd re

*And this is for both of them....*

partly a cheer and partly a better luck next time story.

We had two rally trials at my club today. I had Peeves in his first rally excellent entries and Lily for RAE legs. My mom also was the only rally novice A entry. In the excellent class in the morning Lily and I got a 99 and a first place! Peeves got a 76 which I was happy with since I haven't taught him a couple of the things that were on the course with certainty. My mom arrived befofre Lily and I ran in advanced. Although we didn't pass close to them Lily figured out that they were there left me to look for them. We got an 88 in advanced. Mom and Wolfie got their first novice leg in the morning trial too!

This afternoon was ugly all around for me Lily and Peeves. The weather was terrible with drenching rain so Lily was not happy at all. She also was well aware that mom and Wolfie were there. I made sure she said hello and then told her to leave it. She was giving me good attention when we were on deck, but as soon as we took the first jump she left to go look for them (didn't leave the ring, but looking none the less. Then I IP'd a staion and she did some more looking around and at the end broke the sit stay. We didn't qualify for the first time in about 40 excellent runs. I didn't take her in for advanced. As one of my friends said you can have a humbling day any time. the afternoon course had more halts and sits on it, so Peeves just stressed out too much to qualify either.

Happily mom and Wolfie finished out the trial by qualifying their second leg in novice A. 

Overall now Lily has one leg towards RAE6, Peeves has one leg towards RE and Wolfie is just one leg away from RN!


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## Charmed

Isn't it sweet that Lily loves your mom so much? I hate it when owners don't allow their dogs to get attached to any other people; it makes it so hard on their dogs when they have to stay with someone else. Lily just knew her grandma was somewhere and she thought she should go say, "Hi"... again. I think Lily pulled the equivalent of a kindergartener who stops performing on stage to wave at her grandmother. Glad you could see the humor in the situation. Better luck next time.


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## lily cd re

Charmed, thank you for putting such a nice spin on Lily's inattentiveness yesterday! Actually the one who is really obsessed with my mom is Peeves, but when he is at trials there is so much else he is concerned about she clearly just faded into the background for him yesterday. I agree with you that life is much harder for a one person dog than for dogs who will accept the attention and affection of many different people. Part of being able to go on vacation happily is knowing that Lily and Peeves are happy and well cared for in our absence. They both love my mother and my neighbor's whole family who are the potential caretakers when we are away. 

I wish that Lily was just wanting to be social with my mom yesterday, but I actually think she was looking for her as an excuse not to work. She is still showing lots of signs of stress after the incident with the rottweiler back in October. For rally she normally would never try to leave me even if my mom was there and even if there were other distractions like being outside. I am sad to say I think her behavior was a stress reliever. I am still trying to unravel what the issues to deal with are for both rally and obedience. Utility has really fallen apart badly.


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