SCABR Feb '08 Trial
Leri Hanson
The SCABR held their 3rd annual FR trial on February 23 & 24 at Pete Medina's lovely field in Riverside, CA.
In an effort to be more organized and not rushed, this year we set an entry deadline which greatly helps with secretarial duties, food organizer and field rental plans.
The weather predicted showers on and off over the weekend. That's sort of a big deal for us Sunny Californians but we were prepared with plenty of tarps and EZ ups. The bigger concern come Friday was if Bryan Cristan would be able to arrive. Coming in from Minnesota which was having a helluva storm, he had one flight canceled after the other. His original time of arrival was suppose to be 11:30am, then it moved to 7:11pm, then it went to 8:45pm. Finally, with some flexibility and persistency on Bryan's end HE MADE IT. THANK YOU SCOTT WILLIAMS FOR DOING THE LAST MINUTE PICK UP.
Saturday drew a beautiful morning with the sun shining through a few clouds. The spectators continued coming into the late afternoon. The decoys for the day were Thuan Ha, Bryan Cristan, and Adrian Centeno. Adrian and Bryan are old hands at this, and each brought their own experience and moves to the trial, fairly testing each dog they were up against. This was Thauns first trial as a decoy, and he did an excellent job with a distinct style and individuality to his work that brings a certain spark and pizzaz. I look forward to putting my dog up against Thuan in future trials. Before 9am we called the Brevet handlers for handlers meeting and the day began. DIW was young up & coming decoy AND handler Dean with his nice young male "Blitz". They did a nice job and look like they will be ready to hit the trial field the next time out. First up in comp would be Loi and his feisty young Des Barriques dog "Jake" putting in a very nice first time dog/handler performance (You'd think they were more seasoned to watch the smooth handling!) with 91.7 points. Then up was Patricia Hariston and robust Mali “Capone“. Pat comes from a Personal Protection background and this was her first “internationally“ recognized competition experience. I originally met her back in the NAPD days when she was competing an awesome little red pit bull dog named “Bomber”. Pat works regularly with Mr. Louis Williams of Black Mask Training/K9 Gladiators and they did a very nice job of preparing both Pat & Capone at keeping their cool, staying composed AND controlled bringing in a nice respectable score of 89.5. Pat had quite a bit of support from her fellow club members coming out to cheer her on. She says she plans to continue with her PP sports, but also hopes to move up the levels in French Ring. I have no doubt this team will do well! Also competing in Brevet were Jose and Scorpion, who walked out there and showed everyone what a perfect 100 point routine looks like. To round out the Brevets were Elizabeth with her des Ombres Valeureux Malinois Breeze and Robert with Chic. Unfortunately both Chic and Breeze had some problems and did not pass.
After the Brevets we moved onto the 1’s. This was a nice group, with some very nice dogs, and everyone turned in a passing performance. Both Jose and Loi moved their dogs up from the Brevet, and each turned in a nice routine. Tim Welch and his Beauceron showed the Malinois how it’s done, and walked away with first place in FRI. Thuan trialed with his dog Duco, on the smaller size but it doesn’t effect his ability to hit those decoys. And Brenda Arao trialed her exuberant male Malinois Echo. Despite biting way to early on the Defense of Handler (before the conversation) they were still able to turn in a passing score, with a near perfect performance in all the other exercises.
A short lunch break then into the 2's. Our perfect weather just couldn't hold out any longer. Erin Suggett and her always crowd pleasing "Vite" dawned the rains to show us all the DiW, with some parts being very entertaining. Erin and her mad man have come a long way!
Just three entered at level 2. First up was myself and Changa, then Kadi and her infamous Mac the mouth both teams pulling off a passing score by the skin of our teeth. There is always room for improvement ;-) The least experienced of the three level 2 handlers was club member Daniel Anderson with his strong young male, Ender. Ender is Daniel's first sport dog and his training time has been somewhat limited with a new baby and a recent bout of pneumonia. But this exciting team NEVER ceases to impress me. I've not seen many first time handlers, in any sport walk out on the field and consistently put in excellent performances like a seasoned team. This team has something special indeed! Daniel and Ender performed an impressive score of 280.1 for the day!
With some family members visiting from out of town, I didn't get to visit much with Judge Richie or Bryan at all during the weekend or the judge’s dinner and I truly regret that. But at "that" end of the table I could see both guys were kept quite busy with lots and lots of dog talk.
Saturday evening the clouds hovered over and it rained most of the night. I had concerns about the condition of the field and the dirt driveway leading up to the field. The spectator draw was surprisingly large for only 4 ring 3 dogs entered especially under the inclement weather. On my way to the field I got a call from Scott who had been housing and hauling our judge and decoy from Pasadena to Riverside daily. Scott's van broke down and they were a good hour away. With a couple more quick phone calls we were able to have valued club member Carlos drive out to pick up Richie and Bryan. This put us a bit behind schedule, but no one seemed to mind too much.
As soon as Richie got to the field the handler meeting commenced. Two first time Ring 3 handlers, and two more seasoned Ring 3 handlers showed their stuff. Up first was John Nguyen and his handsome hard working import "Vinco" to put in yet another victory for first place. Second up was club member Kadi Thingvall and one of my favorite females - "Chaos" with an "oh so close" routine and score of 314.325. As soon as those jumps and send away are proofed, it's in the bag! Third up from Las Vegas, Nevada was Kyle Sprague with his MR 3 crossover "Pedro" with a pretty darn nice routine. I must add Kyle's spirit of good sportsmanship is always a delight to see! He and Pedro make a very nice team and I enjoy watching them very much! Last but not least was our clubs very own Adrian and "Tosco". Tosco sustained a minor leg injury just a couple weeks before trial so they had very little prep work. As seen on the field, Tosco was feeling pretty good and although he worried Adrian between exercises with his borderline out of control attitude, he remained focused and on task for every single exercise earning them a very respectable first leg of 366.025 points.
Spectators from Schutzhund, PSA and several loving “pet” dog owners were plentiful. It was nice to hear many positive comments from those seeing Ring for the first time. Questions regarding Deputy Judge, DIW and Judges Secretary were a hot topic that some folks had not seen before, yet thought was quite nice!
We had excellent support from our many generous friends and send a heartfelt THANK YOU to SCABR equipment supplier Mr. Greg McCoy of McCoyK9TrainingEquipment.com in Utah for his generous donations of tugs, puppy leg sleeves, collars, leashes etc. Dogtra.com, Arnaud Le Maguer of the K9 Tool Shop and Jon Norditsky of Falawoods, Afsheem of BonChien, Beth Jones & Erin Suggett of So Cal Mal and many others who contributed to our raffle both days!. Without the donations from these fine folks, our raffles would be minimal and probably more work then worth. Thank you ladies and gentleman for your continued support of the SCABR and Ring sport in general.
Mr. Pete Medina, field owner has gone above and beyond in accommodating our group especially with the recent loss of our regular “home field” by allowing us a couple nights a week to train at his field. Pete is always encouraging of our efforts to promote Ring sport here in So Cal.
