9 month old Xena is doing 15 obstacles

Linda Hall called on Sunday to tell me about Xena. Xena is one of the Rincon x Faith puppies and this week she will be 9 months old. If you click on Xena's Label to the right- you will get to see a few videos of her as a young puppy. Linda has been training Xena from the moment she got off the plane- but this past weekend Xena really showed her accelerated training.

Linda went to a NADAC agility trial to compete with her two older dogs. Xena went along for the socialization and experience. One of the nice things about NADAC is there are LOTS of classes to compete in and each one is very different. In AKC there are only 2 classes- Standard, which is jumps, weave poles, tunnels and 3 "contact obstacles", or Jumpers which is just jumps, weave poles and tunnels (no contact obstacles).

At the trail that Linda was at, a class called "Tunnelers"- (because every obstacle is a tunnel) was the last class of the day. Linda stayed to help the club clean up, and when most everyone was gone, she asked if it would be OK to run the course with Xena. They said yes and Xena ran a 15 obstacle course under course time!!!!!!! How GREAT IS THAT!

Linda had to send her from one tunnel to the next, making sure she took the correct entrance, making sure she took the correct TUNNEL! It is not easy to do a course where all obstacles are the same- but it is even harder when the dog can not see you most of the time (because she is inside a TUNNEL!). Changes of course, become more difficult and your signals must be clear and the dog must understand, or they "pop back out" the same way they went into the tunnel. Linda was amazed at the maturity level and work ethic of Xena. True- Xena has work ethic and drive- but it is Linda who is developing the mental mind of this dog and making Xena the working partner she is becoming. Congratulations Linda and Xena- I KNOW we will continue to be reporting GREAT THINGS about you two.