Merry Christmas!

We hope you've had a wonderful holiday!  We sure did! :)

Santa Paws was very good to Mia.  After all, she was a very good girl this year.

Time for a romp in the yard

All of this celebrating just wears the princess out :)

Happy Halloween!

Mia earns her 2nd JHR leg

Beyond thrilled that Mia earned her 2nd JHR (junior hunter retriever) leg today at the Lumber River Retrieving Club Hunt Test is Rose Hill, NC!  Love this girl and how hard she works :)

Retrieving Practice

Pictures from our summer field training - pigeons and ducks

Agility Practice

Thanks to our dear friend, Missy Gordon, for taking these pictures during agility class the other night.

Utility, take 2

We traveled to Raleigh, NC this past weekend to take another stab in utility obedience at the Durham Kennel Club Obedience Trial.  Even though we didn't qualify either day, I was very proud of how Mia performed.  We had several compliments from other exhibitors and I know we are really close to earning that first UD leg.  Here are some pictures from Dean Lake Photography.

Signals - down

Scent Discrimination

Directed Retrieve

Directed Jumping

Directed Jumping - Bar

Directed Jumping - stop and sit

Mia's 2013 Blue Ribbon Ad

Thanks to Sara Renee for designing the ad and Linda Hartheimer for all of her work in coordinating the ads.

New Open Agility Title for Mia!

I am thrilled that Mia earned her 3rd and final open agility standard leg with a first place this weekend at the Moore County Kennel Club Agility Trial in Sanford NC.  This leg gives Mia her OA (Open Agility) Title and also her VX2 (Versatile Excellent 2) rating.  Mia is now CH Grayhart's Special Request, CDX, RA, JH, OA, NAJ, NSD, RD, VX2!  Mia also earned her second open jumpers leg with a first place.  We made our excellent standard debut and even though I was proud of how my girl ran, we had a couple of faults which are not allowed at the excellent level.  I have posted a couple of videos below (videos were shared via phone so unfortunately, the quality isn't great).

Open Standard

Open Jumpers

Excellent Standard

http://youtu.be/luOqWhDn9eQ

2013 Weimaraner Nationals - Day 3 and 4

We ended our trip with agility - and boy did we have a blast!  This was our first try at open agility and we had not competed since earning our novice titles in August.  Mia had gorgeous runs on Saturday and handled beautifully!  She double Q'd earning a jumpers and standard leg, both with first places!!  Sunday was the Weimaraner Club of America trial and Mia qualified in open standard for her second leg with another 1st place!  We ran in jumpers but just couldn't get in sync but I was still proud of how she did!  

Saturday's Open Standard Run

Sunday's Jumpers with Weaves Run

We had a wonderful time and will hopefully be able to attend another Nationals in the future!

*All photos by Phyllis Ensley Photography*

2013 Weimaraner Nationals - Day 2

On Friday, we made our debut in utility obedience at the Weimaraner Club of America Obedience trial.  The utility class is sometimes called "futility" because of the difficulty of the exercises.  We did not qualify but I was beyond thrilled with how Mia performed.  We NQ'd on 2 exercises but all of the others were great and the judge gave us some very nice compliments.  We have a few things I want to work on but I have no doubt that we will earn that UD title.  There are 6 exercises in Utility: Signals, Scent Discrimination (done twice - once with metal and once with leather), Directed Retrieve, Moving Stand for Exam, and Directed Jumping.

Signals - heeling

Signals - Stand you dog

Signals - down

Signals - Sit

Signals - Recall

Scent Discrimination - metal - I was thrilled with how Mia worked the pile!

Scent Discrimination - leather

Directed Retrieve

Moving Stand for Exam

Directed Jumping - High Jump

Directed Jumping - Bar Jump

*All photos by Phyllis Ensley Photography*