On July 27th, Reese earned his Junior Earthdog title!  It was a crazy weekend filled with mud and rain, but wow, was it exciting!  It started off with him not even attempting to enter the Intro tunnel that had a huge puddle at it’s entrance, and I thought to myself, oh man, this is going to be a long weekend…But, he did it.  The Judge that titled him, is also a member of our training club and said that it was the best she had seen him work yet!  It had only been our second Trial, and I couldn’t have been prouder of my boy, and Reese seemed so full of himself!

Reese is now running in the Senior Earthdog class.  Senior involves a longer tunnel with more turns, a false exit and a false den.  Working time is now 90 seconds.  Then, the rats are removed from the tunnel and the handler has another 90 seconds to recall the dog from the tunnel and regain control.  The longer tunnel and the obstacles are not my concern.  My concern is getting Reese to come out of the tunnel and back to me.  We had one training in Senior and a Trial the very next weekend. 

August 9th was our next Trial and our first time running Senior.  I was so nervous, and asked so many questions at the orientation with the Judge.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t so something to disqualify Reese.

It’s now our turn.  We get to the line, and I release him.  He takes off flying into the tunnel, totally bypassing the false exit and den.  Holding my breath as I wait for him to reach the rats and start working.  The first bark sounds and he’s now franticly barking and working the rats.  Those 90 seconds seems like it takes 90 minutes.  The Judge finally motions for me to approach the entrance of the tunnel to get ready to start my recall.  The rats are removed, I take a deep breath and blow my whistle and starting calling for Reese.  I am on my knees in the dirt, my head is down in the tunnel entrance calling for him, blowing my whistle, rapping on the side of the tunnel.  Calling and calling and calling.  I can hear him coming.  He’s getting closer.  All of a sudden I can see his eyes as he comes around the corner.  I call him out of the tunnel and he comes trotting over to me, like the whole thing was a piece of cake.  Our first time in Senior Earthdog, and we get a qualifying run!

The next day we ran Senior again.  Reese made Sunday a little more interesting though and during recall after he had come out of the tunnel, he decided to go back in.  But I was able to call him back out and scoop him up, all in time, and we picked up another Q in Senior! 

How exciting!  I never thought he’d get this far this fast!  Only one more Senior Q needed for a title!