Shake and High Five were the first tricks my cocker spaniel learned when he was a young pup. At 10 years old, he is now teaching my son to high five. As you can see from this video they are both having a blast!

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This past weekend was the Colardo Kennel Club American Kennel Club trial at the National Western Complex. Many of my agility friends love the excitement and energy of this show as this arena is very large and there are usually a lot of spectators. For me, this show is extremely stressful because my normally consistent cocker either becomes frozen with fear or makes unpredictable choices.

Given that TJ is 10 1/2 years old, I have a 1 year old baby, and I was volunteering as a chief score keep, I decided to only enter TJ on Friday and Sunday. On Friday, I planned to run per the usual with lead offs and distance work – result – TJ froze on the startline because he was stressed and I was too far away. Needless to say we walked away Saturday without qualifiers.

On to Sunday… I decided to do restrained starts by gently pushing on TJ’s chest and whispering “Ready, Set, Go” before running off the line. This worked great to get TJ running comfortably on the course. We were able to navigate the course traps and even perform the weaves successfully (the 1st obstacle to go south when TJ is stressed)! However, three obstacles to the end, TJ apparently thought we were finished and turned 180 degrees to take a jump near the ring exit. I was totally unprepared for this off course because TJ is normally very tight and attentive. Needless to say I was bummed!

In AKC when you reach the top levels the only way to make progress towards a Championship is to qualify on both the Standard course and Jumpers course on the same day. Consequently, TJ’s jumpers run in the afternoon was essentially just a practice run. This wasn’t all bad because we were able to successfully practice layering a jump which I would never do if I needed a qualifying run. Although we didn’t qualify this weekend, all was not lost because I learned how to keep TJ motivated in a stressful environment and I got layering practice in.

Lessons learned – success doesn’t have to equal qualification – success can be defined as making positive training progress.

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TJ earns his USDAA Agility Dog Championship!

This is an amazing accomplishment for dog that was initially labeled as “not championship quality” – afterall Cocker Spaniels aren’t exactly the agility dog of choice (hmm… Border Collies?)

My husband and I started dog training because TJ was very eager to learn new tricks. TJ learned the obstacles quickly and was very willing to please. Unfortunately, TJ was also somewhat fearful so we had to overcome a lot of confidence issues. We had our ups and downs over the years. I began to think that earning a Championship was just not achievable. However, at 9 years old, TJ has become really consistent and confident allowing us to earn the last 3 elusive Master Standard qualifiers.

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