Ch. FFT Carpe Diem RN
Posted: February 16, 2010 Filed under: DRambles on Black Mountain, FFT Lhasa Apsos | Tags: Debby Rothman 8 CommentsSee those letters behind her name? RN. Edie finished her Rally Novice title, 3 for 3. I am so proud of her! Her scores were 83, 97 and 93. The low score the first day had to do with our inexperience – mine in particular.
A fun story… Years ago, Sondra and I flew to Specialty shows in Houston with the first Lhasa Apso I bred – Ch. Fleetfire Zhel Lee Bhel Lee ROM*. We shared a room with Samoyed breeder Judy Mears and a friend of hers. The first night Sondra and Judy marched me to a nearby Target and made me buy ‘show clothes’. No more batik print wrap-around hippie skirts! Inappropriate! If you mean business in the show ring, you must dress for success! I bought an a-line khaki skirt, two cotton pullover sweaters – one royal blue, one bright red – and – gasp! – a string of pearls. Say what?! A hippie chick from Nebraska wearing a string of pearls! The entire episode cost me $40. For that $40 I learned a valuable lesson.
That same weekend I met Judy’s daughter Susan. She must have been in her twenties. This past weekend, there she was ringside at the Rally ring! It was her first time competing in Rally too, with her pretty Miniature Poodle Mandy. She competed in Rally Novice A. Because I have put obedience titles on dogs in the past – the distant past – I had to compete in Rally Novice B. We sat next to each other all three days, giving each other support and encouragement, reminiscing a bit, talking about plans to continue with performance. Susan and Mandy are continuing with Rally Advanced and Rally Excellent. Edie and I are focusing on agility. It was really nice to share the Rally experience with someone of similar background…years of experience in conformation making the leap into the performance events.
Kunza at FleetFire Timbers 
That was lovely.
How long have you been working on Edie to get her to that stage?
Whoohoo!!! Great job Edie. Kudos to Debby for all the hard work. Keep it up!
~Melissa
Nice Debby!
If you want a versatility title from ALAC for Edie you will have to do a CD, RA plus an agility title along with the CH in front of her name. The reason for not using just the RN is that is completely on leash! Titles have to be earned in two different performance venues plus the CH.
I found that training in Rally Advanced and agility at the same time worked well for Oreo. But, it is a big time committment!
Congratulation to you and Edie !! I know that you have worked hard at your new endeavor and even more, you had fun !! Yeah !!
Any suggestions as to how the Gompas with their luxating patellas should be evaluated for participating in agility training? None of mine have the skip-walking that makes the LP so easily diagnosed, but when the vet checks, she can tell that their patellas have more than the recommended amount of slippage.
Thanks
Knee deep in stuff for the Native Stock Committee…but check out this link. I met with this canine physical therapist a few years ago, with the thought of ways to keep the knees healthier. The key is keeping everything around the patellas strong and flexible. A lesson I’ve been learning myself with my own knees this past year!
http://www.fleetfiretimbers.com/FFT/Articles/PhysicalTherapyForDogsProneToLuxatingPatellas.htm
Aha….I guess that agility training class will be “just what the doctor ordered”….maybe for me, too….:-))))))
Susan,
One of the best things you can do is strengthening their core, ball work is fabulous and does not require a lot of space, I highly recommend the “On the Ball” video by Dr. Debbie Gross Saunders. All of my dogs do ball work
The video can be found;
http://www.cleanrun.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&Product_ID=2122&ParentCat=344
~Melissa