Sporty and the GRCA Triathlon Award

At the last minute before the National entries closed, I decided to try qualifying Sporty for the Triathlon. This meant at the National she had to qualify in a field event, performance event, and earn a placement in conformation. We had it easy in a way, since we were Novice everything– WC for the field, Novice B Agility, and since we haven’t done any Breed showing we were eligible for the Novice class in conformation.

Sporty passed her WC with flying colors although I dare say she thought hard about keeping her live flyer pheasant. Also, I almost blew it because there were several minutes while we were in line for the water series where I got more and more nervous to the point that Sport didn’t want anything to do with me! She thought I was a complete alien. Thanks to Terry Southard for helping to calm me down so that Sport could be happy again.

The next day was agility, where she qualified in Novice B JWW class with a 2nd place. I really wanted 1st place, but a few dogs before us I saw a red blur speed through the course and I knew our chances for 1st were history. Kudos to the ‘red blur’ Golden, who is aptly named ‘Rainier Ramroc Wild Spirit’. 🙂 It was his first trial, too.

I almost chickened out of showing Sport in the breed ring, but was helped along by a few encouraging people, including a very nice woman who also happened to be showing in Novice Bitch, too. I think she had gotten the Triathlon award a few years back. Early on Thursday morning I bathed an indignant Sporty in freezing cold water, then Cindy Krajanowski blew her dry and did a fantastic job! Thank you Cindy!! We literally had 45 minutes to get her bathed and dried, then ran into the ring where she won 1st place in her class. It was a very happy moment. The next day we showed in the Winners Bitch class where we didn’t go any further, but what a thrill to be able to show in that class at the National.

All of that meant Sporty qualified for the GRCA Triathlon Award at the 2007 GRCA National. Thanks to dear friend Suzanne Bria for being our moral support and cheering section through the whole thing! This was a challenge as her boy Finnegan was Sporty-crazed-obsessed and we were having to stay away from each other much of the time!

Huge thanks to Wendy Lepper, Sporty’s breeder, especially!!