September 2014 Issue

 

Maaya has now achieved three more titles since the last news letter - Can CDX, SH and Am RN.  It’s been a quite journey for me with not only her but with my husband, Donald who always gives me a huge support and has been involved in a big portion of her field training and I must say it wasn’t easy at all. Particularly, JH to SH was a tremendous step up for us as a first time trainer.  But it is so very rewarding when we see her improving.  We started training, it was because I wanted some titles on her.  But we realized it’s not just titles, of course it’s great to have ones that also encourage you to do more but I feel there is something deeper to that.  It is quite commitment but I have to say it is well worth it!!

 

First I would like to bring up one very special leg of her SH which I feel very honor to receive from the judges.  It was her 2nd leg and on that day, after Maaya had done all the tests pretty well and we had one last test to do, a water blind.  When I saw the setup, I felt pretty good about it.  But at the line, I must have confused her because she headed to the wrong direction where there were a lot of weeds in the shallow water.  With my casts, I saw her trying to get out to the open water but she had a hard time doing so.  It looked to me that she felt as if the weeds were tangled around her legs.  So she decided to head to the comfort of the land and I felt that this would be the last chance given by the judges for me to cast.  However, I thought there was not much hope as she looked confused and I know she wasn’t comfortable going back in that area….  I told myself “One last cast”.  With a hope of her getting back in the water…..a remarkable thing happened, she somehow got herself back and took my cast to go back in the water and managed to step out of the uncomfortable weed area and then all the way right towards the blind with my casts.  I felt nothing but just her trust towards me…..   The judge told me gently “good job…”.  It was obviously not a sharp start but to me, it was just an amazing moment and I felt that she really worked with me as a partner which made me very proud of her even if we didn’t qualify.  The time came and the marshal started passing the judges’ decision… “Chizuko….you are good!!!”  I couldn’t believe and can’t tell you how grateful I am to the judges’ decision.  The judges told me “You didn’t give up but kept challenging… you deserved it...”  I truly appreciate the judges not giving up on us so soon but giving us a chance to work as a team.  I still get very emotional when I remember that particular test….

 

Her CDX title wasn’t easy either.  Training each exercise wasn’t very hard in my opinion but putting all exercises together successfully in actual trials was the hardest part to me.  It was like a puzzle i.e. one problem got resolved and another problem came up etc.  But we managed to work together again and earned the required legs plus an extra leg with all high in classes!

 

As for her Am RN title, I have to say it wasn’t that tough for her to do as a Can RE but it was nice to finish the title at the US National in Albany, Oregon in front of Kathy Kondrat (her wonderful breeder!) and our friends cheering on us where we had so much fun!  We just received the certificate from AKC today and found that this is the 2nd title that she earned right on her birthday!  What chances!!

 

One great thing of participating in whether hunt tests or obedience trials other than getting a qualifying score for us is that we meet such nice people every time we participate!  It is very fun even just to be there!!