Echo was a star 

 Last weekend, we headed off for our first weekend agility trial of the year.  In a weak moment, I'd entered three girls, two of which had never been to a trial before and were definitely unproven in terms of what they'd do in a barn.  

Well, Ticket, the more seasoned of the group, was obviously shaking off some winter blahs and frolicked around the course, managing to avoid qualifying on any of her runs...eeeep.  Unfortunately for training purposes, she always ended on a great note, with twirls, flourishes, and yodels at the end of each run, making it impossible for me to try to get the point across that she'd not done all that well.

Tatum obviously needs some barn training before we try this again.  She was a total loose canon.  She met, jumped on, and kissed everyone on the course, including the judge.  On one run, she took out every pole on the course.  On another, she did this amazing finish through six jumps at full, take-your-breath-away speed.  Unfortunately, prior to that, she'd also managed so many off course faults that it wasn't going to make a difference.  For just being two years old though, I was pretty excited about the promise she showed in speed even if the execution wasn't there.

Then there was Echo - the surprise of the weekend.  She has almost a year more training on her but was the dog for which I had the least expectations.  Without question, she's been the hardest dog to train in all my years of training dogs.  She's so unusual that even one of my trainers once said "you know, not every dog needs to do agility".  However, I'm stubborn that way and figured I should be able to get something out of her and, if not, at least training time was good for a little one-on-one and that's always something I want each dog to have. 

I went into her runs with minimal expectations, hoping only to get her around the course without wandering off or at least have her notice that I was in the same building.  What a shock!  Seven runs over the weekend and Echo qualified in every single one of them.  On some of the runs, she had no faults and she was in the placements for every run she did.  That means she now has her own first titles... an AgNS and an AgNJS to add to her name... and the distinction of being the poster child for the 'never give up' philosophy.  Yea, Echo!!!!!