A few years ago when Debbie first started running our two field spaniels in agility, there was little thought of titles, ribbons, and so forth. Debbie was looking for something to do with our dogs and with her friends, and someone right down the road was giving lessons in obedience and agility. That’s dog obedience, of course — there’s no hope of the time-honored “obey your husband” with Debbie! The agility part, though, is a pretty even mix of human and dogly skills.
Well, in the time since that beginning, both our dogs (especially Mo’i) and Debbie have built their skills and experience. Field spaniels are an unusual — and arguably unlikely — breed to choose for agility, but they are the breed we love, they’re are pets and companions, and the agility has been secondary to those considerations. But looky here what’s happened: we’ve now got whole walls full of ribbons, and both dogs are now rated “Excellent” in agility. Mo’i has some Excellent-level titles; Lea is just getting started. Just this week, Debbie discovered — to her great surprise — that Mo’i’s accomplishments (which are modest in the grand scheme of things) have made him the number two Field Spaniel in agility — nationwide!
Woo Hoo!
This little fact has a very interesting side-effect. Several people have told Debbie (and her reading of the AKC rules confirm this) that the top three agility dogs in each breed are invited to compete in the AKC nationals. That’s an annual event where the top-ranking dogs and handlers end up on television. Who’d have thunk it? And it gets even better… If you click on the AKC report (the little picture above), you’ll see that there are only two rated field spaniels (e.g., field spaniels with points toward a Mach title and/or having double-qualified at the excellent level during meets). Mo’i is “Wolftree’s Pearl King” (and you can see he’s got quite a way to go to catch up to number one!). If Lea gets even a single point, or a single double-Q, she’ll show up here as number three field spaniel (assuming no other dog pops up) — and Debbie would be going to the nationals with two dogs.
Holey moley!
And the crowd went wild!!!
