Kerry Blue Terrier Performance Newsletter
November, 2006

By Jane Eno

For November we have Eve Fishell’s report on the All Terrier Agility Cluster, the 2005 Delaney Obedience Ratings, and Joy’s write up of the performance events at Kimberton in October. I have been promised a write up of a herding event for next month. It’s good reading for a damp and cold December evening. Thank you to everyone that has contributed to this newsletter.

From Eve Fishell:
ALL TERRIER AGILITY CLUSTER 2006
Kimberton, PA
October 3 – October 6, 2006

If we are not careful, our most guarded secret will come out – that the Kerries are highly trainable dogs who love nothing better than to compete with their beloved “masters” - well really more the “Nearest and Dearest”..

The Kerries were strongly represented this year at all levels and one and all, they did our breed proud!

This year there were 14 Kerries entered. (Please note that 5 of these are Champions of Record.)

Novice
Ch Adare’s The Right Answer ( Athena) – Joy Ellwanger
Ch Wedgewood Blubelle of the Snow CDX RE (Belle) - Carol Wert
Isobel – Tracy Fulmer
Lughnasa’s Jenny Lovebug (Jenny) – J. Ricketts
OTCH Tantara’s Phoenix UDX2 NAJ (Phoenix) – Evelyn Gansfuss
Tantara’s Unsinkable Molly (Molly) – Eve Fishell

Open
MacRearzie’s Finnigan OA NAJ (Finnigan) – Tracey Thorpe

Excellent B
Blue Bays Hurricane Warning AX AXJ (Bates) – Brenda Vogel
CH Casey’s Rae of Sunshine CDX RA OA AXJ (Katie Rae) – Lisa Frankland
CH Kallehan’s Blue Moon Rising MX MXJ (Riley) – Maggie Hall
Lynmar My Bleu Heaven AX AXJ (Bailey) – Tracy Fulmer
CH Tantara’s High Tide MX AXJ CD (Tide) – Eve Fishell
Tantara’s Honky Tonk Girl CDX MX MXJ MXP AJP (Tonka) – Eve Fishell

Many titles were earned:

Athena – NJP
Molly – NA, NAJ
Bates – MXJ
Tonka – MJP

Double Q’s for MACH title were earned by
Katie Rae (The first time she ran Excellent B!!!)
Riley
Tide

Double Q’s
It was a joy to watch these Kerries perform. Both handlers and dogs all showed confidence and great deal of rapport – so needed for success in any endeavor, especially in Agility. There were some miscues – occasional bar was dropped, some contacts missed, some off courses or hesitation causing “refusal”, but all the runs were great, demonstrating well trained handlers and dogs. None of the Kerries wondered aimlessly around the ring or ran out of it as sometimes happens with dogs which are not ready for competition.

On a personal level, this was for me a great event. This was Molly’s second set of Agility Trials. It was wonderful to see my Unsinkable Molly compete with confidence and joy. Hard to believe that this is the same puppy who limped around last year with drains and open wounds on her rear end.

Tonka, who had me worried sick throughout the spring and summer, because she had been dragging on courses and was slower than “molasses in January”, suddenly reverted to her former self and qualified 7 out of 8 runs, all well below the course time. What a relief it was to see her back to her old form! I had been certain I harmed her by having her spayed in December.

Finally I want to thank the club and all those who participated for the wonderful surprise party on the eve of our 50th wedding anniversary. What surprise it was and what fun!!

I predict that next year’s Kimberton Agility Cluster will have more Kerries competing at all levels, doing as well or better.

The truth will out – the Kerries are truly a great breed!

From JOY LOUISE ELLWANGER
I can't believe that October is gone and that it's been a month ago that Athena and I were running agility courses at Montgomery.

Several years ago I became interested in agility classes and started with my wheaten terrier, Xena. Xena has both Novice agility titles (Standard and JWW) and a Versatility Award from the SCWTCA. I am a member of our local breed club as showing in the conformation ring is one of my greatest passions, however, I like exposing my dogs to various challenges. Athena (CH. Adare's the Right Answer) finished her championship title at 10 mos. of age and was specialled for selective shows thereafter, which included exhibiting at Eukanuba last January since all her points were acquired from the Bred-By class. Last year after Montgomery, Athena was enrolled into a basic agility class where our instructor admired her willingness to learn and work with me. Athena really caught on fast to some of our training techniques; in fact, at Eukanuba, she was bored standing in the breed ring so started doing nose touches to the mat looking for me to reward her and then would bark at me as to say where's my treat?

I'm sure many of the spectators and other kerry exhibitors wondered why this dog was barking at me in the ring.....she was just doing one of our homework exercises. I did not want to rush her into agility competition, so over the months we enrolled in classes just building her confidence and being socialized with other agility dogs. I then made Montgomery Terrier trial our target for competition.

Athena's first weekend trial was immediately prior to the Montgomery trial, which I co-chaired with her co-owner Henry (Hank) Hillard for the Lancaster Kennel Club. We both are supportive of all breed clubs holding other performance events and wanted to see our local all breed club get involved, so we both stepped up to the plate to see it happen. I purposely chose that weekend because of AKC availability and to attract terriers as a warm-up for Montgomery. Athena acquired her first leg in Jumpers Preferred and also her first leg in Novice Standard Preferred with clean runs and perfect scores of 100. Our instructor was very pleased with her performance and wished us good luck as we headed for Montgomery.

Athena had two perfect runs in Jumpers on Wednesday and Thursday so received her first Agility title at Montgomery and received her medallion from the Montgomery County Terrier Club.

We are practicing the teeter as this was her downfall in the Standard ring, however, on Friday she did the teeter and decided to jump off the dog walk missing her contacts. I had also fallen flat on my back in the mud during Friday's run, and we still finished 17 seconds under course time!

On Wednesday at the Montgomery Rally Trial, Athena finished her Novice Rally title with a score of 94, also making her the highest scoring Kerry, and we thank the USKBTC and those who sponsored the prizes for this award.

Athena is a very special girl to me and from the time she was in the whelping box she always gave me eye contact and built that bond of trust, and I knew that we would always work together as a team ,no matter what the competition would be.

2005 Delaney Ratings

Delaney Points are won over the year by placing in their classes. They win one point for every dog beaten. Congratulations to all the winner!

OTCH Tantara’s Cosmic Phoenix UDX2 NA
E Gansfuss 298

Primrose Jessie James UDX NA NAJ RA OAP AXJP
J Eno 83

CH Casey’s Rae Of Sunshine
L Frankland/L Croley 30

Wildside’s Quiet Man
P Sontag/W Sontag 13

Phoenix also had the honor of being the Number 3 Terrier in overall Delaney Points for 2005.

BRAGS

From Tracey Fulmer
I'm delighted to share that Bailey earned his Master Agility Excellent title (requiring 10 qualifying runs) and we also picked up our first few double Qs. So he's now Lynmar My Bleu Heaven MX AXJ.

Last Updated: 12/11/2006, 9:11 pm