We traveled to Clayton, NC to practice for the retrieving ratings tomorrow. I felt confident that Mia would pass the NRD test but wanted to make sure she would carry a pigeon. She had no problem at all! I actually ran her in practice at the RD level (retrieving dog) and she did really well. She had an awesome double on land but did struggle with the water retrieve. The RD test requires the dog to complete a double retrieve with decoys in the water. She did great with the first bird but got a little confused with the decoys. We were able to work through it and I was so proud of my girl, especially because she had never worked with decoys before. She is also a little out of control at the start because she's so excited. In NRD, you an hold the dog's collar but you can't in RD. Even though she is steady in training with bumpers, it's hard for her to contain herself when she's working birds. We will stick with NRD tomorrow but I know we'll eventually get that RD and even RDX.
If working Mia on birds wasn't enough fun, I also got to play with 5 week old puppies, thanks to Betta Brehaus. They were so adorable and I even had 7 asleep in my lap at one point. Miss Pink was the first to crawl into my lap (which I find fitting, since Mia was a Miss Pink).
