The day before the test the weather in Bragg Creek was beautiful: sunny, green grass, dry – PERFECT
Well as mother nature likes to do here in Calgary, we all woke up Saturday morning to two inches of snow!!! So needless to say it was a tad disheartening to see this snow on trial day. Even though the weather started out a little iffy, the day ended with all of the snow melting and enjoying some sunshine (albeit a little mucky and wet out there)
The RCC was very fortunate to be able to hold their test at Blue Ribbon Kennels in Bragg Creek – thank you so much Kim Zippel and Harry Zippel for allowing us to use your property for this test. What a fantastic site – probably one of the best backpacking routes I have seen for the DDX dogs. The terrain was both challenging and delightful – you felt you were right in the mountains and forest during many aspects of the course.
We had a fantastic turnout – 17 dogs competing. 9 Draft Dog teams, 2 Brace Draft Dog teams and 4 Draft Dog Excellent teams. Unfortunately we had one DD team pull and two of the DDX teams pulled. Out of the 12 teams remaining, we had 5 passes for the day. The ones that did not pass came ever so close and I have no doubt that they will be successful the next time around.
The RCC would like to thank our three judges: Lisa Williams, Paul Bagnall and Judy Snowdon. It was a honor to have you judge our first ever test. The judges had wonderful comments to make regarding the teams that were there competing.
The following are the teams that passed:
New Draft Dog Title (DD)
- Castanewf’s Date with Keavura (Newfoundland) Owned by: Denise Castonguay, Kevin and Laura Gallagher
- Hollowoods Aphrodites (German Shepherd Dog) Owned by: Judi Rich
New Draft Dog Excellent (DDX)
CH Sikome’s Cruisin To A Shout, CD, DDX – new DDX (Newfoundland) Owned by: Pauline Baldwin
New Draft Dog Brace Titles (BDD)
-
OTCH CH Tierney’s A Real Head Turner, DDX, BDD, BH, IPO1, TD, CGC, HIC (Rottweiler) Owned by: Gwen Haynes - GCH Seebrooke Somethin to Talk About Pouch Cove, CD, DDX, BDD (Newfoundland) Owned by: Pauline Baldwin
- GCH Nautica’s Not A Secret Anymore, CDX, WRDX, DDX, BDD, CGN (Newfoundland)Owned by: Grace and Dead Edwards and Dawn Fretts
CH Mostabear’s Million Dollar Baby, CD, WRDX, DDX, RA, CGN (Newfoundland) Owned by: Amber Ringer, Agent: Dean Edwards.
It was nice to see that the two BDD entries – that all four dogs had their DDX so no doubt we shall see them again out there competing for their BDDX.
[separator line=”yes”]Volunteers & Supporters
Thank you to all of the competitors that showed up regardless of the weather to compete in our trial. Without your entries we could not have a trial. A HUGE thank you to our volunteers (and in no particular order):
- Betty Osing (stood in for Shannon O’Briant as our Trial Secretary the day of the test)
- Garry Baldwin – our Chief Ring Steward and Trial Superintendent
- Kristi Wright Fraser – assistant Ring Steward
- Tracey Rodd – assistant Ring Steward
- Marina Skoreiko – made the fantastic and delicious lunch
- Dana Kingsbury – for tear down and clean up duties
- Alberta Sand – for donation of the sandbags for our freight haul weight
We hope to make this annual event for the RCC – hope to see more teams ready for next year. Happy Carting!!!
Gwen Haynes