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| Clover, December 2010, at nearly 14 |
Shamrock
Shenanigans, CDX RN NA NAJ
Shenanigans, CDX RN NA NAJ
"Clover"
He's kind of a big deal.
Clover won just about every obedience, agility, rally, and junior showmanship class I took him into. He wouldn't just win. He'd effortlessly annihilate.
To finish his Companion Dog (CD) obedience title, Clover walked into a class of more than 50 other dogs. While I was warming him up, a woman with a Golden Retriever asked, "He's cute, does he ever qualify?" She was second place with a phenomenal score of 194 out of 200. Clover was first - with a 198.5.
To finish his Companion Dog Excellent (CDX) obedience title, Clover needed 1 more qualifying score, so in a security measure, I entered him in a four day cluster of shows in May. He not only qualified all four days in a row - a rarity in this challenging class - he WON all four days.
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| Clover at his (and my) first ever obedience trial |
To finish his Novice Agility Jumpers title, Clover blasted through his third course in 23 of the 68 seconds allotted and made no errors.
To finish his Rally Novice title, I read about what each station sign meant online, entered him, and received qualifying scores three times in a row, all with class placements. The thing that prevented us from winning each class? All three judges told me that I'd misread a sign and asked him to do the wrong thing. They all noted that he did exactly what I asked - it was completely my mistake!
At the time, my attention was not focused on performance sports. I have no doubt, and had many judges tell me, Clover could have been an Obedience Trial Champion and Master Agility Champion if I'd only give him the time.
These days, he sleeps on my sofa, visits the dog park, plays with his squeaky ball - and oh, yeah, gets his knees replaced.
He is truly a once in a life time dog.
