Five Seasons cluster at Amana

Talk about your roller coaster weekends! I hadn't planned to enter Novice ever again with Phoenix but when it came time to mail entries for the Five Seasons cluster, it was clear 'Nix was not ready for Open. Since they weren't offering any of the non-regular classes, it was Novice or nothing and I certainly wasn't going to miss a show 7 miles from our house. 

Phoenix won Novice B Saturday w/199, tied for High In Trial and lost the run-off to the Open B winner. He did an amazing job of heelwork and was totally into his job, bright, focussed, bouncing on the releases and setting up quickly. This is the dog I want in the ring with me ALL the time. Yeah, I'm greedy that way.

Today, we NQ'd when he didn't hear me call him on the recall. It was one of those bad deals where the handler in the Utility ring next to him gave a very loud command at the same exact time I called Phoenix. I was 40 feet away from him, the Utility handler was directly behind him. Poor guy, he honestly didn't hear me. Well, stuff happens. Guess I need to train with loud, obnoxious people. Hmmm . . . where can I find some of them?

Funny enough, a Phoenix still won Novice B today. Julie P.'s Nova Scotia duck tolling retriever Phoenix won the class w/198. We were trying to figure out what the plural of "phoenix" is. We decided it probably isn't "Phoenii," which sounds like something you need to get your house fumigated for. "Call the exterminator, dear, we have PHOENII!"