Five years ago, Reuben was a lost little coondoggie roaming Lorain County, Ohio. Today, he is an agility coondoggie extraordinaire. And by agility coondoggie extraordinaire, I mean that he occasionally enters CPE and ASCA trials, where he sometimes qualifies.
But now, largely because of his little sister Sparrow entering the scene, Reuben has his very own American Kennel Club PAL number, and he is likely going to enter an upcoming AKC trial. He says that he is going to throw down at said AKC trial, and he will be the fastest Coonhound there.
I did not have the heart to tell him that, with about 99.9% certainty, he is right, only because he will be the only Coonhound there.
Today, we have a fine musical selection of Okkervil River, "Kansas City," and Stars, "Ageless Beauty." WMG has probably never heard either of these songs. And that's the way we like it.
It's the sound of the Hound Express, speeding his way to agility success. All Aboard, Aroooooo!
Reuben and Dave and all of the other cool kids who attended Friday night's CPE trial had fun running Jackpot and Standard. Reuben came away with 2 Q's, a second place in Jackpot, and a first place in Standard.
The best part is . . . he did the teeter in competition for the first time ever without crawling under a rock and giving up on life. We suspect that his previous aversion to teeters was due in part to his undiagnosed and untreated Addison's disease. His poor little adrenal glands were limping along on their last legs, and just weren't up to the challenge of "OMG dog show!" plus "OMG scary teeter thingie!!"
Now that Reuben is on his daily dose of prednisone--just enough to replace the cortisol that his body cannot produce--and his monthly shot of percorten-v (ouchie!), teeters are no problemo.
Unfortunately, Sparrow had a bout of the Whoopsie Belly last week, so she didn't get to play. It was supposed to be her debut in Standard, too. Booooo! AND the course was a great set-up for a running dogwalk, one tunnel, dogwalk, right into another tunnel. Double booooo! Hiss!!!
As a consolation, here is the video of her last Sunday earning an Open Jumpers leg and 1st place at the ASCA trial. Go, girlie, go!
(One more leg and she'll be in Elite Jumpers. Gulp!)
