The Next Big Goal

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

 

Louis L'Amour (1908-1988);

    I love this quote! It is very fitting considering we have just finished a major title and I am now looking forward to our next set of goals. I have been very fortunate in surrounding myself with a group of friends that are more about the journey than the end and so after the hugs and congrats were over what I heard was, "So now it's time to get her PCH, right?" The answer is, YES! Getting Diva's PCH is definitely on my radar as well as getting her ATCH. I also plan on trialing in AHBA this fall and have toyed with doing some AKC. Diva and I have many adventures ahead of us and I don't see getting her WTCH as the end of anything.

    So with the PCH (Performance Champion in ASCA) in mind I sat down to evaluate where we are and what we need to do to accomplish this. The requirements for a PCH are 2 advanced stock titles, all of your open level agility titles, and a CDX. This means Diva needs one Open Regular agility leg and her CDX to finish this goal. Not that much! I have been talking about getting back in to obedience for a while now and I definitely want to continue on in Rally. What I don't want to do is go back to obedience classes because I feel like that took away the fun. Instead I plan on working at home and with friends to make sure I keep things light and exciting for Diva. I doubt we will continue on to utility work but ya never know ;-). So my first step in training is to build my own set of obedience jumps. I have agility jumps but I want to make a nice set that is specifically related to obedience. The next thing  need to do is order a new dumbbell. Diva has a plastic one but I think that a wooden dumbbell will suit her better. Her retrieve is very natural, my throwing...not so much ;-).

    The one leg of RS-O will play a part in not only the PCH but also because I want to start working towards her ATCH. Our agility training has been sporadic but I am committed to changing that this fall/winter. I have continued to work on training the box for her running A frame and we will be proofing our other contacts as well. We will be back in the agility ring soon and burning it up! In the mean time everyone needs to take a vacation once in a while and our family just got back from a fun weekend on Chincoteague Island! Diva enjoyed just hanging out with us but we are both itching to get back to working stock. Good thing we have some sheep time scheduled for this Friday!