April 14th 2008 6:36 pm
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Last weekend I went to my first Swissy Draft Test and earned my Novice Draft Title!! It was the longest car ride ever…all the way from Dallas to Kansas City!! We made plenty of stops though…got to stretch my legs and smell around all sorts of new places along the way. Saturday was my best performance. When we first arrived I saw lots of other dogs that looked just like me!! There are hardly any Swissy’s where I live…so it was nice to play with dogs just like me! But it wasn’t all fun and games…my mom put me to work! First we had to so some obedience work in the ring, but nothing too hard that I could handle. Next was the maneuvering course pulling my cart. We maneuvered along through turns, circles, gates, and the narrows. But the hardest part was when we had to stop by a stranger two times and my mom wouldn’t let me greet them! That took a lot of will power for me! We successfully passed the maneuvering course, and the last part we had to pass was the freight hall… which is my favorite part! I love going on walks with my cart! It might have been a little nicer if I didn’t have to pull the weight of 25lbs, but it was my job to pull it for a mile. When we arrived at the finish line we were delighted to hear that we had passed all three events and earned my Novice Draft Title!! It was only my second draft test, and my mom was very proud of me!! I even got a special treat when we made it back to our hotel that night!

Day two was a different story. Mom wanted me to work hard again and all I wanted to do was play around!! What do expect a 2 year old to do?! I figured I did my thing the day before so today I would have fun, and lots of it! In the obedience ring I started out ok until the last command which was a recall. As soon as my Mom took the leash off I thought it was time to play! She managed to calm me down enough to sit and stay while she walked across the ring, and when she called me to come to her, I came barreling down towards her and at the last second decided to go crazy! I ran right past my Mom and ran around the pasture as fast as I could until I came to rest next to another Swissy. My Mom wasn’t too pleased with me, but I didn’t care, I was having fun!!! I really wasn’t paying attention during the maneuvering course either, but when we got to the freight haul I was ready to go! At least I passed one portion of the test! I had a great time and crashed as soon as I was put in the car to head down the road again. We stayed in one more night in a hotel before we finally made it back home. It was fun to go on a road trip, but I was sure glad to be home and sleep in my own bed!