Anutta Blog

Life With Poodles

Merlot Sunday: Earning our first title

by | Jul 17, 2011 | Our Dogs | 0 comments

Merlot's first Q in Obedience- FIRST PLACE!!

Merlot was my first working dog.  Before him I had many Shiba Inu, one English Setter, one Boxer, and my childhood pets- two Boxers,  an Irish Setter, and a Sammy.  All those dogs either were pure pets or were conformation dogs.

When I started looking for a breed to do Search and Rescue, I was not thinking about showing in Obedience or Agility.  I just wanted a breed that would not shed and would get alone with my other dogs.  There are many great non-shedding large dogs, but they tend to be very high prey drive and often dog aggressive.  Poodles scored high on everything I wanted to do, so I took the plunge with Merlot.

I brought him home at 12 weeks and started SAR training.  On our team, The North Alabama Search Dog Association, almost everyone was an obedience instructor at a local training center.  A requirement for being on the team was to have a dog who was completely controllable off leash and classes were encouraged.  As everyone on the team also had their own dogs in class or were teaching the classes, it wasn’t long before I was being pushed towards showing.  I was told Merlot was ring ready at a year, but I wasn’t sure I WAS!  It is very nerve racking to go into something for the first time, even with a lot of practice and my friends right there with me.  One great thing was that several of my team members were at the same level of training with their dogs, so we all entered the shows as a group.  I found a great photo of me with Merlot and Ana Franklin with one of her GSD’s (Ana is now the Sheriff of Morgan County in North Alabama!!).  Both dogs gained their Companion Dog titles that weekend with 3 qualifying scores in a row.  Merlot had one other qualifying score from the previous weekend, so he ended up with a bonus win.  You only need 3 wins with 3 different judges to gain a title in Obedience.

Becky with Merlot, Ana Franklin with her GSD

During his very first show, he left the ring to visit with the crowd.  🙂  At the time, I was mortified!  I quickly learned that everyone who shows their dogs has similar experiences and now I am thankful because I can say “Oh you think your dog breaking his stay is bad?  Well mine walked out of the ring to smooze with the crowd during the off leash heeling!”.

After returning home, I talked to my friends about how to fix his issue.  We took him to a park with ducks, kids, people everywhere.  We set up rings gates just like at the show and Darcy (an amazing teacher in all things dogs- Leader of the NASDA K9 Team) called out patterns until Merlot understood he must pay attention even when we are not at the training school.  His next show was several weeks later, again I only entered the one day.  He won first place in Novice A class!!  I was now hooked.  A month later, when he was 1 year and 4 months old, he Q’d the entire weekend for his title in Birmingham AL with 2 third places and one “just barely”.  I found out three days was one day to many for my boy to enjoy.

Merlot and I, the weekend he gained his CD title

For those of you interested in doing some sports with your dog, find a good training center and jump in.  These days you have the option of Rally, which is a ‘pre’ CD level, and Rally has 3 levels of it’s own.  I’ve never competed in Rally myself, but I plan on doing some with Jazz, our new puppy girl.  What is the worst thing that could happen?  Your dog walks out of the ring?  Been there, done that, got the t shirt.  🙂  Anyway… those are the moments that make the best stories and the best memories!