To Friends of Rafe

To friends of Rafe:
I usually don’t brag until we finish a title, but

given the difficulty of this one I decided that Rafe

deserves an announcement for his first UKC UD leg. It

was not a great performance, but I will quote the

judge when he was announcing the only qualifier:
“It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done. And

getting a qualifying score in Utility A is one of the

hardest things in the world.”
By today Rafik’s brain was fried (maybe a good

thing?), so he was very slow, lots of non-sits,

almost-anticipation, etc. (Yes, Lorelle, he really did

do every finish, even if not with speed and

precision). The previous trial he blew the drop in

the back-to-back recalls, but this time he held

together, if barely. I suspect his performance will

improve as he gets more confidence that he can do all

of it.
We owe special thanks to three people: Julie, for the

article bag that we have been using for a long time

now, Lorelle, for patient long-distance coaching on

how to teach the exercises when I was in Lincoln on my

own, and to Duane, who volunteered to teach a Utility

class this summer and has been doing his best to get

me straightened out.
Today’s side benefit was that two of my long-time

obedience models were there, Dode Froman (now 83,

finally finished Dolly’s UD in June), and Sharon Long

(those of you who remember Rick and his heeling

backwards on the Figure 8 know her training skills).

I wish we had given them a better performance, but we

take every ribbon we can get.
It may be another year before the next leg, but I am

very proud of a certain totally exhausted GSD.
By the way, he also met a twelve-week-old puppy Sharon

bred and he is definitely in love–he was busy kissing

the puppy through his wire crate. Fortunately the

baby went outside as we headed for the ring, or he

would have been over there instead of with me.
Cheers!
Ann