Moving from Training to Competing with Young Dogs
11 Sep 2024
It’s funny making that mental shift with a young dog from “learning all the things” to competing. I’ve been dabbling entering Spark in UKI trials. I’ve been slow to compete with him because I was so long in teaching his running contacts. He is doing alright - though I do give him an FEO/NFC run to get used to each location’s contacts.
Anyway, Dana (K9s In Motion, LLC) asked me if I had entered Spark in the AKC International Sweepstakes Championships or if I was getting him qualified for AWC or EO World Team Tryouts. It hadn’t even occurred to me! I’ve been so used to thinking of Snap! as my boy for those types of events.
So I think it is time to start putting in more trial “time and miles” to see if I can get Spark qualified for these big events. If nothing else we’ll learn where we stand and what we need to work on.
Puppy Spark will be 3 yro in December! I added a video of us running a really fun Stacie Cwik workshop sequence from this past weekend - he was perfect on this our first attempt until I mishandled it! DOH!
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