Kerry Blue Terrier Performance Newsletter

March 2006

By Jane Eno

For next months newsletter I want to answer some questions about herding with the Kerry Blue Terrier. If anyone has experience in this activity and would be willing to fill out a short interview about it, please contact me, Jane Eno

This last month has been very difficult for me. My roommate went for surgery on her throat. She came through the surgery well and things are back on track, but the surgery got me thinking about dog obedience. One of the side effects of the surgery was temporary and possibly permanent loss of her voice. When she came home from the hospital her voice was reduced to a low whisper, and it hurt to talk.

I found myself thinking about our dogs. They are all trained on both voice and hand signals. Even our little female Shih Tzu, who does not have any obedience titles beyond a CGC, follows hand signals for all the basic commands. But I never really thought of this being important in a young, healthy dog. I thought that maybe someday, in old age, one of my dogs might lose their hearing and the hand signals would become important. I never thought of the possibility that I could loose my voice. Now I know there is another side to this. It was very helpful for my roommate to be able to control the dogs without her voice when she came home. She could call them in, have them sit, have them lay down, all on hand signals.

Teaching hand signals can be done when your kerry is still a puppy. As you teach each of the commands (come, sit, down, etc.), use both a hand signal and your voice. As they learn the commands, sometimes use only voice, and sometimes use only a hand signal. They will learn quickly and with little effort on your part. If you do have success in obedience, the hand signals will be important, as you move into Utility level. But even if the dog, like our Shih Tzu, excels only at sitting on the couch, you might find these alternate ways to communicate very important someday.

"Front & Finish" Reprinted their results for Open A and Utility A 2005. They missed some downloads. Here are the corrected results for Kerry Blue Terriers:

Open A

Tontine’s Once In A Blue Moon AX AXJ
J Porter 12

CH Casey’s Rae Of Sunshine
L Frankland/L Croley 9

Wildside’s Quiet Man CD RN
P Sontag/W Sontag 6


BRAGS

From Virginia Barishek, Philadelphia, PA
Andy (U-CD Garryowen's Smarty Pants, UD, NA, RE) qualified in Utility B and Open B at First Dog Training Club of Northern New Jersey's obedience trial in Ramsey, NJ, on Sunday, March 19, to get his first UDX leg. (A first time for me, as well.) He got a 181 in Utility under Judge Frank Washabaugh, and a 194 in Open under Judge Phyllis Broderick. He worked cheerfully, and really kept it all together!

Finn (Finbar's End of the Rainbow, RA, CGC) completed his AKC Rally Advanced title on Sunday, March 26, at Lower Camden County Dog Training Club's annual trial. Finn had a nice run on Judge Susan Trotto's Advanced A course, and earned a score of 95 (out of a possible 100), which also put him in 2nd Place in the class. He merely glanced at the stuffed toys and tennis balls used as distractors on the Offset Figure 8! All three of Finn's Rally Advanced A legs, have been placements (two 3rd's and a 2nd). Finn was adopted through USKBTC Rescue in 2001, at the age of about 7 months. He's come a long way, physically and emotionally. His eyes light up when I ask him if he wants to be "Rally boy." He also has two legs toward an AKC Companion Dog (CD) degree, and one toward a CD in UKC obedience, both of which we're still working on.

From Lisa Frankland with Hairy Blue Terrors Lav and Katie Rae
I was at agility trials two weekends in a row (home recuperating this weekend) and have to brag about my Kerry Blue Terrier Katie Rae's accomplishments and the fun we had!

March 11th and 12th I was up in Castle Rock, south of Denver, for the Front Range Agility Association of Denver's agility trials. FRAAD actually offers three days of agility, with just Excellent classes on Friday, but being Katie just recently finished her Open titles, I wasn't thinking in Excellent terms yet. This is a GREAT venue--a large indoor dirt arena, plenty of parking, clean restrooms, and right off of I-25. The only drawback was that crating space was extremely tight. Katie had two close, but no cigar runs on Saturday (missed contact in standard, and a wrong course on my part in jumpers), but I was very pleased with how fast she was and responsive to my direction. Sunday, however, was definitely our day. Katie's breeder and co-owner, Lois Croley, was there, along with her daughter, Charlene Dwyer (I'm also proud to consider both of them among my closest friends), and got to see Katie earn her first legs in both Excellent standard and JWW! Lois was so thrilled that she bought me a Tien Tran photo of Katie taking the double and ordered another copy for herself. Our success definitely made the drive home feel that much shorter, even with the snowstorm that dogged us the first hundred miles or so.

The next weekend Sandia DOC held their agility trials right here in Albuquerque. This was the first time they had used Balloon Fiesta Park, an outdoor venue. Keep in mind that New Mexico is the desert southwest, and we are currently in the middle of a severe drought, but of course a major storm system had to pick that weekend to move through the area. Saturday we had snow, then some drizzle, and increasingly high winds throughout the day. Cynthia Kean judged all the Excellent classes that weekend, and came up with what were easily the most challenging courses I have experienced yet. Katie had a nice standard run in the morning, but knocked a bar so we didn't qualify. While waiting for our JWW class to start, I noticed the wind was really picking up and decided to take the cover off my EZ-Up. I was checking on Katie in her ex-pen and debating whether to switch her into a crate instead when WHAM! It felt like somebody had taken a baseball bat to my throat. When I looked up, my canopy had completely vanished--one leg apparently clipped me as it blew over and away. Some other exhibitors helped me corral it some 50 yards away--aside from some broken plastic connectors it was remarkably undamaged. At least two other canopies blew over in the next couple of hours, and the rest were quickly taken down. The wind was blowing so hard by lunchtime that several owners of small dogs decided it was too dangerous to run their dogs in standard, fearing that the little guys would get blown right off the dog walk in particular. On the jumpers course, the ring help was restaking jumps and the weave poles after almost every run, and poles were being blown off by the wind. The judge finally had the poles attached to the jump uprights with rubber bands; they could still be knocked off by the dogs but it minimized the number that the wind knocked down. I almost threw in the towel and went home, but Katie seemed unfazed by the conditions so I decided to give it a go. To my amazement, she flew through the jumpers course and qualified, the only Excellent A dog to do so! Conditions were better the next day, but I was sore from being clipped with the EZ-Up the previous day, and tired and unfocused, and handled Katie poorly as a result. She still did great, though we didn't get any Q's that day.

Oh, and I almost forgot--since it was St. Patrick's Day weekend, Katie ran in her shamrock collar instead of naked like she usually does!

Here's hoping for good weather and clean runs at the spring agility trials!

From Jane Eno
Jessie finished both his Open Jumper Preferred and his Open Preferred title the last week of the month. He got 3 1st place wins as well. He is now Primrose Jessie James UDX, RN, NA, NAJ, OAP, OJP. On a non-kerry note,my male Shih Tzu, Bailey Powderly CDX was #1 Open A Shih Tzu and #9 Open A Toy Breed for 2005.

Last Updated: 04/07/2006, 4:50 pm