Kerry Blue Terrier Performance Newsletter

By Jane Eno

As we get into the summer months of 2006, Front & Finish has posted its Front & Finish Novice B Ratings. These ratings are based, not on beating people, but more importantly, on the scores earned in the classes. The higher the scores, the more points they receive. Novice B is a very special class because these are the trainers that have already titled one dog have returned to try it again or continued in Novice past their CD to compete in more classes. Why is this so important to the sport of obedience? Because these are the people that have found obedience a worthy challenge and have dedicated themselves to continuing on in it. The fact so many Kerries are ranked this year is a real comment on the commitment Kerry Blue Terrier owners have to train their dogs and show them in this very demanding sport. Here are the dogs and owners that were ranked in Novice B for 2005.

Kerry Blue Terrier
Melbee’s Pattiaine - S Stroh 13
Cladaugh’s Murphy Brown - K Smith 12
Eidenbock’s Jamison Lee - S Coliton 11
Finbar’s End Of The Rainbow - V Barishek 4
CH Harmony’s Flint To Fire - D Flint/W Flint 4

Congratulations!

I am putting together the wonderful discussion we had on the club list about the differences between male and female Kerry Blue Terriers. I hope to have it ready for print for the July or August web newsletter. Until then, have fun training and trialing your Kerries!

BRAGS

From Virginia Barishek
It's been a busy month here. We started the month of June as Obedience Trial Chair for my all-breed club, Greater Philadelphia Dog Fanciers, on Friday, June 2. Finn (Finbar's End of the Rainbow, CGC, RA) participated as a trial volunteer by acting as the Courtesy dog in Rally Excellent. As such, he did the Excellent course twice (for A and B classes), including the Honor exercise (a Down), which gave him a good chance to roll on his back in the grass.

On Sunday, June 4, at the Burlington County KC trial, Andy (U-CD Garryowen's Smarty Pants, UD, NA, RE) took 2nd Place in Utility B---and got 2 OTCH points. Our first OTCH points ever! (Unfortunately, we NQd in Open, mainly due to handler inattention. Live and learn.)

On Sunday, June 18, at Delaware County KC, Andy took 4th Place in Rally Excellent B, and qualified in Rally Advanced B, for his first RAE leg. It was the first time we had been in a Rally ring since he finished his RE, on October 15, 2005.

Last but not least, on Tuesday, June 20, Rosie passed her Canine Good Citizen test at an event held by Philadelphia Dog Training Club. Rosie will be making her debut soon in Rally Novice.

From Kathy Ninnes
Our little ex-pat.kiwi..... REGENSTAUF BLU IRIS now resident in Melbourne Australia has had 6 Baby Puppy In Show wins from 7 SHOWS in the last 2 months. We are eagerly awaiting her 1st show as PUPPY/6MONTHS......next weekend.

From Lisa Frankland and Katie Rae (Ch. Casey's Rae of Sunshine CDX, RA, OA, AXJ):
Katie Rae and I had a very busy and fun June! We started off the month with a weekend of agility trials here in Albuquerque, whereKatie finished her Excellent Jumpers title and earned the second leg for her Excellent Standard title. All her runs were beautiful--she was fast and attentive and is constantly inspiring me to improve my handling so she can go on. This is a dog that tries very hard to be good! We're really looking forward to the fall trials.

The following weekend we were up in Colorado to visit friends, and Katie finished the last two legs for her Rally Advanced title at the Colorado Springs KC shows. The second day was especially interesting--somebody had left a plate of BBQ brisket on the table just outside the ring gate, and when we got close to it during the pattern and Katie got a whiff of it, she veered widely out of heel position AWAY from the food! At that point, the brisket was whisked away to a less-distracting location. She had a beautiful run otherwise, and it turned out that was the only thing we lost points for.

We finished up the month with a road trip to California for the Great Western Terrier Association weekend. As usual, the KBTC of Southern Cal and GWTA did an outstanding job with their shows, in spite of above-average temperatures and working the inevitable bugs out of a new location. I showed Katie in Rally Excellent for the first time at Friday's show, where she got her first leg with a second place, and then she got her second leg at KC of Beverly Hills on Sunday. Like with agility, Katie did great...it's ME who needs to improve my handling! Saturday was the day of the KBTCSC specialty, so Katie, who earned her CDX last month, had her last hurrah in Open A, not only qualifying but winning the class. In addition to the wonderful prize the KBTCSC put up for high-scoring Kerry, (a pair of tiles showing Kerries in beach scenes, hand-painted by Youlia Anderson), GWTA had blue and gold rosettes printed up for the high-scoring dog in each breed that was having a specialty that day. Southern Cal is hosting the traveling national next year; so if you have a rally or obedience Kerry, (there's also talk of GWTA offering Terrier Group agility), and can possibly come out and support the entry, this is a show that definitely knows how to treat its performance dogs right!

Although this is not really performance-related, I have to mention that my daughter, Meghan, handled Katie in Junior Showmanship both days at GWTA, and had so much fun with her that she asked if she could use Katie more often! She showed her own dog, a Papillion named Ripley, in Juniors at the Toy Group show held at the same location on Saturday, and earned the third class win she needed to move up into open competition, which she competed in (with him, not Katie) for the first time the next day. Flattered as I was about her working so well with Katie, I was very proud that Meghan got all her required wins on her own dog. Junior Showmanship is a great place to learn how to handle a dog, (a lot of those kids could be professional handlers), make friends, and learn good sportsmanship.

We skipped out on Monday's show to participate in a Strongdog match, where Katie had a blast, flying down a 10 ft. long, 11" square introductory tunnel with a right angle turn, grabbing a 20 lb. weighted badger hide and dragging it back out to wild cheering. She was one of I believe only two dogs out of about eight competing to do this, (the other was a Glen of Imaal), and at 19" was by far the tallest terrier there. The organizer was so impressed, that he asked me to bring Katie to another Strongdog match in Colorado next month as a demo dog! Like I have said before, this type of Strongdog competition is far more appropriate for the type of work our breed was historically used for, than Earthdog, (which the USKBTC is no longer petitioning the AKC to be included in), and I urge all Kerry owners to support this new sport and encourage the AKC to recognize it as a titling event for the larger terrier breeds. Speaking in one more unrelated brag, Meghan and Ripley passed a Canine Good Citizen test that day, along with Nancy (sorry I don't remember her last name) and her Kerry bitch, Tynan.

From Jane Eno
In less then a year after competing in Novice A agility for the first time, my Kerry, Jessie, has finished his first Excellent title (AXJP) and has two legs towards his AXP title during the month of May. I am only writing about it now, because I completely did not realize we had even qualified that day and got the title! It was a pleasant surprise I got via email from a friend congratulating me, and then followed up quickly by the AKC certificate. Now we have started taking some tracking classes as well and hope to someday add a TD on to the list of titles he’s accumulated over the years. We also went back into the Rally ring and got our 2nd Advanced legat the SOTC trial in New York.

Last Updated: 07/09/2006, 6:27 am