The First Time....So Cal Mal Trial, Banning, CA

Erin Suggett

There’s an old saying that most of know...”There’s a first time for everything.” Well, the Southern California Malinois Ring Sport Club had the fine experience of finding that out first hand in the days leading up to our first trial on Labor Day weekend, September 4th & 5th, 2004 . For those of you who have hosted trials already, you know the experience. And for those of you who have not, just wait, your time will come, and boy will you have plenty of tales to tell. I think it’s important for clubs to share their first time experience in hosting trials. It gives the rest of us (especially the new clubs and new members) a different perspective on an experience that many of us already know quite well. It also, in my opinion, may give others that enticing push to get out there and host a trial for the first time themselves. It really is a blast! Okay, it’s as stressful as hell and I wouldn’t wish what you have to go through on my worst enemy! But in the end, the rewards for everyone involved are priceless! So, let me start my hell-raising/rewarding story with you. What seemed like years prior to the trial, we were trying to develop a strategy to make everything run as smoothly as possible. Of course, we changed our strategies and plans a thousand times. One thing would sound good, then it wouldn’t. One thing would look good, then it wouldn’t. We had tons of things on our list of “To-Dos” that made it look like a grocery list! Well actually, come to think of it, it was. Costco was loving us during our trial preparation time. We made several trips to gather goodies such as food, drinks, food, drinks, and more food and drinks! Why is it that no matter what, you can NEVER seem to get out of Costco without paying at least $200.00 at the check out counter? Anyway, the food was the last thing we had to purchase. What was really building the stress was the fact that we needed to build a Hurdle and a Long Jump before the trial! Thanks to fellow member Kadi Thingvall, we already had a Palisade. But we knew we were going to have Hurdle jumpers in Ring I as well as the teams competing in both Ring II and Ring III who needed all of the jumps! We needed all of the jumps to be ready. We wanted them to look nice, too. After all, we had Michel Chirat coming over from France as our judge. Not only is he the Secretary of the GTR, but he’s also the Secretary of the CUN. This was going to be his first time in the United States, as well as his first time seeing what the Americans were capable of doing with Ring...both on the field and off. Thankfully, our club President & Training Director, Arnaud Le Maguer and our club Vice President, Ken Coombs were able to literally pound, grind, cut and weld our two much needed jumps just in time for the trial. A huge thanks to the both of them! That was not an easy job. Another stress factor that was plaguing our minds were the awards. We had planned on giving out customized plaques with our club logo atop with an engraved plate on the bottom. It was a task to say the least! Arnaud prepared all of the club logos for the plaques as well as purchasing the wooden bases. However, two nights before the trial we realized we were still short about six bases! Frantically I made it to the Michael’s craft store just a they were closing their doors at 9:00 p.m. They were kind enough to let me in, and in turn, I cleaned them out of their stock of plaque bases. After the plaque logos were finished, I stained them over and over again with color and gloss. The house smelled real nice after that. Once that was done, we were ready for the engraved plates to be put on. Thanks to our fellow club member, Mac Rembert, who took over the task of handling the engraving on the plaque plates. Which brings me to a funny [not really]story about that. As Arnaud and I sat in our home office, the night before the trial, going over some final points, I sat and stared in awe at all of the award plaques that were strewn about the floor. They were finally finished. Logos, plates, gloss and all. They looked beautiful. But as I began to look closer at one of the engravings, I noticed that our club name didn’t look quite right. There was something funny about it. As I squinted my eyes and leaned in for a better look, I noticed that instead of our club name reading...Southern California Malinois Ring Sport Club...it read...Southern California Malinois Ring SUPPORT Club! Okay, if there ever was a time to completely stress out...it was now! Like a maniac, I read every plate over and over again, hoping that it was my eyesight playing tricks on me. It wasn’t. However, we did notice that this horrifying mistake was only on the plaques that we handed out to those whom we were thanking for their support in our trial. Probably the reason for the word SUPPORT getting into the mix of our club name. All of the competitor plaques were correct...whew! It was too late too change the “support” plaques. But we figured, with everything that could go wrong in organizing a first time trial, this was pretty minimal. Besides, it made for a good laugh and a good memory. However, we do apologize to those who had to receive the misspelled plaques. But hey we DO support Ring! Thank you to the “support” plaque holders for your understanding. Your plaques were equally as important as the competitor plaques. Really. And in no way did we hold any grudges or place the blame with our club member, Mac. After all, he wasn’t the one who actually engraved them. We just appreciated the mere fact that he was able to get the plates for us in the end. Thanks again, Mac! So, to make a long story longer, we now needed to re-stain the blinds on the field...all six of them. Sure, it doesn’t seem like much, but when it came down to it, thank God we had the help of some guest teams who had decided to come and train with us that particular night. We were in no way expecting them to help us out. But when the time came for us to grab the brushes and buckets after training was done, they too did the same, instead of going home. These people were not even members of our club and they got on their hands and knees and dirtied their clothes and spattered their faces with redwood stain liquid to make sure that the rest of our club didn’t have to stay on the field until 1:00 a.m. in the morning staining those huge blinds. A very sincere thank you goes out to those people who helped us in a time of need...Steve Garvin, Elaine Allison and Brenda Arao. Thank you guys...again and again! So now that the blinds were newly stained, the grass needed one more final clipping. Our field is quite large, and not the easiest to groom. But thanks to Arnaud and the rest of the Work Dogs International Staff for taking such good care of it throughout the season and continually clipping and feeding it to make sure it stayed plush and green. It’s nice to have a plush field to work and play on in our sport. And for those of us who have to groom our own fields, it’s rewarding when it turns out so nice in the end for us to share with our fellow Ringers! We’re getting closer to the trial now. What about gifts for the decoys, judges, “supporters”, etc? Yep, more goodies to buy! Back to the store we go! We gathered an array of little grab-goodies for everyone. American flags, gum, candy, magazines, wine, etc. We also customized tote bags with our club logo on the front to stuff all of the goodies into. Oh yeah, we gave everyone their own individual So Cal Mal club t-shirt, too! Thanks to Jose Lopez for wearing his at this year’s PSA Championship in Los Angeles! He told us that a lot of people were asking him about the shirt. Way to promote Ring, Jose! So is that it? Are we ready to start the trial now? Nope. We needed the judge and decoy from France. On to the airport! Arnaud drove out to LAX to pick up Michel Chirat late in the evening. Michel was a blast to have here. He made it very easy for us all to act natural. He was one of the nicest and most down-to-earth persons you could ever imagine having the pleasure to meet. Really, he was. It was so apparent from the get go that he was here, not only to see what NARA was all about up close and personal, but to help and encourage our involvement in the sport here in the United States. If ever there was a man to have on our side in Ring from France, Michel is that man. Are we ready for the trial yet? Nope. We still needed Peter Cointe, the Level II Decoy from France. Most of you had the pleasure of seeing him at last year’s NARA Championship. Peter is truly one of the best! But I can’t go without saying, that having Peter participate in our trial would not have been made possible without the assistance of Bay Area Ring Club members Chester Rivasplata, and Jennifer & Felix Sunga. BARC had flown Peter Cointe over to the United States from France to participate in a decoy seminar with fellow French decoy Christophe Michit, who was already here in the States for some training. By the way, Christophe was one of the best Deputy Judges I have ever seen or had the pleasure to work with at our trial. Thank you Christophe for helping us out in that department. BARC had also provided us with decoy Jose Lopez. So, are we ready yet? With a final check of the Trial Check List (cones, baskets, retrieve articles, food items, paperwork, etc.) we were finally ready! Trial Day was finally here! As we approached the field on the first day, we were very surprised, and even more pleased to see the turnout of spectators already present! It was so nice to see people coming out to show their support for Ring. There were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, as well as fresh faces alike. There were lots of vendors, too! We made it a sure thing to provide a coffee vendor (Latte Dah Coffee) who spent the entire morning and afternoon whipping up lattes and fruit smoothies to kill the caffeine buzzes and sooth the parched throats of everyone in attendance. They sure were busy! Rodney Spicer of Gold Coast K-9 was also there to lend his support and set up a very nice display of his very nice training equipment! He had quite the gathering around his booth. We also want to thank Rodney for his generous equipment donations to our raffle, which was organized by fellow club member Kadi Thingvall. There was also a very popular booth set up for the Animal Naturals’ K9 Go Dog products & K9 Fuel that was an equal hit! Especially for our competitive K9 friends! We have to keep them energized and replenished. Animal Naturals too, donated products to our raffle. They also gave us enough Carnivore Cookies to last us until next year! Nice products. So, on to the trial. First and foremost, the National Anthem. A very big thank you goes out to a very little girl, Catherine Mount, who at nine years of age, belted out one of the best renditions of the National Anthem that any of us had heard in a long time! The crowd was not expecting that one. It was nice to see everyone scramble to get their video cameras when they saw her take the field with the microphone in her hand. Little Catherine is an opera singer (still taking lessons, of course) so she had quite the confidence in singing that song. You should have heard the applause she received! Thank you, Catherine! So how do you follow that awesome performance? I’ll tell you how...with 14 Ring teams ready and waiting to strut their stuff and support their sport! First up, the Brevets. This was a very interesting group of Brevets, too. Three of the entrants were fresh to the sport and had never competed in a Ring trial before. For those of us who have been there, this is the hardest part of breaking the ice into this sport...YOUR FIRST BREVET! But let’s start off with a veteran who we all know and love, Glenn Salamanca and his new Malinois boy, Louie. Glenn is probably NOT the handler to feel good about following in a Brevet performance when you are new to Ring. His classic and charismatic ways of flowing over the field with his dog is enough to make you want to run home sick! He’s intimidating to newcomers! And rightfully so. He set the bar at 91.7 right out of the shoot. Yikes! Next up was probably our most nervous competitor of the day, Feather Cresciman and her female Doberman Cora. This was Feather and Cora’s first time ever competing in Ring. But as nervous as Feather was, she probably had the biggest amount of support behind her! You see, Feather had been working herself halfway to death months and months before this trial. She was so determined to get a Brevet on her beloved little girl, that it was literally going to kill her to do it! And believe me, I saw first hand some of the stress she would put herself through to get as close to perfection as possible in her performance. Feather and Cora had come out to train with our club a few times in preparation for this trial. But I believe the true amount of credit not only goes to Feather herself, but to her fellow club members of the So Cal All Breed Ringers. Leri Hanson provided much of her knowledge and training to Feather, and Scott Williams lended much of his physical prowess as Cora’s training decoy for days and nights on end. Between these three players, Feather and Cora walked off the trial field with a very much earned and respected 89.5 overallscore! Let me tell you this...I swear it almost brought a tear to my eye to see how happy Feather was at the final blow of the judge’s horn at the end of the Face Attack exercise. Feather stayed in her place on the field and praised her dog over and over and over again for a job well done. I didn’t think she was ever going to leave the field! But she deserved to take a few extra moments on the field to bask in her much deserved glory. Nobody was going to take her away from that. Next up in the Brevet category was another newcomer to Ring, Elaine Allison and her Dutch Shepherd boy, Spawn. Elaine was almost as nervous and Feather, and for good reason. This too, was her first time on a Ring field as a competitor. Elaine had also come out to train with our club several times to prepare herself for this trial. We knew Spawn was ready, and so was Elaine. But in the end, her nerves took over and she gave an irregular command to bring Spawn a bit closer to her in the reverse heel position on the Defense of Handler exercise, which ended up costing her dearly. But she finished her routine respectfully and completed her Brevet with a 56.1 overall score and placing 3rd in the line of Brevet competitors. She will definitely do better next time! And let’s not forget...from our mistakes, come our victories. We’ve all been there. Our 4th place competitor in the Brevets was again another newcomer to Ring (this is what we like to see), Joe Bierly and his young male Malinois, Ike. Almost mirroring the same mistake that Elaine made in the Defense of Handler exercise, Joe also gave an irregular command to bring his dog closer to him in the reverse heel portion of the exercise. Another costly mistake. But in the end, a very nice performance from a very promising young dog who is sure to hit the Ring field again in the future. Finally, our 5th place competitor in the Brevet category was Kadi Thingvall and her feisty little female Malinois, Ja Ja. After watching a perfect obedience routine, it was looking pretty good for Kadi and Ja Ja...until the bitework. Let’s just say that Ja Ja was a bit too bite-crazy that day, causing her to lose the Defense of Handler exercise for refusing to out. Unfortunately, Kadi decided to abandon the remainder of the Brevet routine and pull Ja Ja from the trial, resulting in an Abandoned score. But that was okay, because there will always be another trial to try again. So there you have it, the Brevets in order of their performances by score. They all had a great showing and really opened the show nicely for the spectators and the rest of the competitors. Now onto the Ring I competitors. First out of the shoot was Eric Walton and his male Malinois, Meko. Boy was I taken back by speechless surprise when Eric and Meko walked onto the field and literally began to OWN it in front of everyone’s eyes! They were nailing everything with perfect scores. Even the Positions... 20 out of 20! I’d kill for 20 out of 20 in that exercise! When the bitework started, it was a repeat of the obedience...perfect scores. One after the other. With the mild exception of dropping a few points here and there for slow outs, Eric and Meko waltzed off the field with a very comfortable (and very intimidating) score of 193.4 under our very strict judge, Michel Chirat. The show was on! Next up was my fellow club member Ken Coombs and his Malinois boy, Zed. Zed has the reputation of being the class clown in our club. You never know when he is going to act like a clown, or act like a true competitor. Luckily for Ken, Zed was wearing his true competitor hat when they took the field. I was able to watch all of Ken and Zed’s obedience, which was very nice, but unfortunately, I had to miss the bitework because I was the third competitor. Needless to say, I had to prepare my dog (and myself) for our showing. When it was my turn, I had no idea that Ken and Zed had finished their routine right on the heels of Eric and Meko with a 184.7 to round out their performance! Nice! I was up next. Gulp! I’ll be honest, I couldn’t get that damn image of 193.4 out of my head from Eric’s score. It was intimidating me. I had to concentrate. But I was feeling pretty good. After all, I was on my home field, right? And let’s face it, we all like to bask in a little “Home Field Advantage” from time to time. But truthfully, I was freaking out on the inside! I knew where my weak points were...the obedience. My heeling and my positions have always been the devil exercises sitting on my shoulder in every trial. The bitework has always been my angel that saves me in the end (well, mostly anyway). So would that be the case again this time around? Not really. After a 12 point Palisade, the obedience devil was tapping on my shoulder. As I started the first exercise (Heel Off Leash w/ Muzzle) I had to double check my dog a few times to make sure I had the right one with me. She was heeling PERFECT! And the judge did not make the heeling patterns easy, either! Ring I, II and III all had to follow the same long, grueling pattern, trekking all over the field for what seemed like hours in each heeing exercise. At the end of the Muzzle exercise, when I heard Michel yell...”Good! Eight points!”...I was stunned. After that, we were receiving perfect points in ALL of our obedience exercises. I thought I was dreaming. This literally was a first time experience for me. As a matter of fact, after my performance, Eric Walton came up to me and said that most people have to admit that when they step onto a Ring field to compete, they’re sizing up their competition at hand. It’s natural. Many of us look around and wonder if we have a chance at outscoring our fellow competitors. It’s the nature of any competition. It’s what drives our anxieties and pumps our blood. It’s great! And it’s true. Yes, we all want to see each other do well and pass, but in the same token, we also usually want to come out on top. Eric continued to tell me something that really surprised me. He said that he was looking at ME as being “the one he was going to have to watch out for”. Wow! What a compliment! He then went on to tell me that he was really starting to sweat through my obedience routine, because he was pretty sure I was going to have nice bitework, and at the moment he was watching, my obedience scores were perfect. He said he even had a friend come and stand next to him on the fence line who cautiously told him...”This team might be a problem.” Meaning, I stood a good chance of creeping into Eric’s numbers! Wow! Funny though, Eric then said...”Erin, you really had me worried...until I saw your Positions!” Talk about letting the air right out of the tire! But you know what, he was right. There sat the obedience devil on my shoulder again, and he was holding a big sign that said...YOUR POSITIONS SUCK! Yep, they sure did. And those very positions gave Eric his much needed breathing room. Our bitework came together nicely, though. But not nicely enough. We lost some pretty valuable points for slow outs, but other than that, we did pretty well. We left the field with an even 178, and a sigh of relief. Next up was Leri Hanson and her beautiful Pit Bull boy, Pony. Now it was MY turn to sweat! So far Eric was 1st, Ken was 2nd and I was 3rd. I was CERTAIN that Leri was going to knock me off my block with her performance. Leri looks like a 20 year Ring veteran out there on the field. She puts on a poker face like no one I’ve seen yet. Let me tell you...SHE is intimidating! After turning in a stellar obedience performance that would make anyone gasp in awe, the bitework soon followed. I think that my obedience devil jumped onto Leri’s shoulder as we passed each other at the field’s entrance/ exit gate and took over her bitework performances. It was just not the day for Leri and Pony in that category. Pony did every exercise as required, he just didn’t want to out very much, and in the end, it cost Leri some major points. Even with the stress of knowing that her points were dropping away, Leri kept that poker face on throughout her entire routine and NEVER let any of us see her sweat. She marched her dog through every exercise and made it to the end like a true pro. But in the end, the crushing bites of the Pony were not enough to bring a qualifying score to Leri’s book. Instead, they gracefully accepted their final score of 135.1 in the end. But we all know that Pony is capable of qualifying at Ring I...he’s already earned one leg. He’ll earn his second very soon. Next up was Vadim Shekhtman with his powerhouse male Doberman, Kaz. God help the decoys! I’ve seen this monster have his way with more than one decoy, and then some! I heard a couple of people behind me on the fence line taking bets that during the first bitework exercise [Flee Attack] the decoy was going DOWN! I turned around and said that although it was very possible (because I’ve seen it many times before), I thought that Jose would prevail and stay on his feet (but honestly, I wasn’t so sure...sorry, Jose). Vadim and Kaz put on a pretty clean obedience routine. Unfortunately, they had to forfeit their jump, which cost them some points in the beginning, but there was still plenty of time and plenty of points to go. On to the bitework, and onto the Flee! For those of you who don’t know Kaz, or have never seen him, he is HUGE, he is FAST and he bites HIGH! Not very good news for a decoy on a Flee. As Vadim sent Kaz on his way to catch Jose, the anticipation was building like crazy. Would Jose stay on his feet? COULD Jose stay on his feet?...You BETCHA! Go Jose! Actually, I think we were all rooting for Kaz. But it was a close one! Kaz caught Jose right in the sweet spot behind the shoulder and almost brought him down. Better luck next time Kaz! Vadim was cruising nicely through all of his bitework exercises and was looking pretty good. But then came the last exercise (why does it always have to be the LAST exercise), which was the Guard Affirm. Kaz didn’t feel much like guarding that day and returned to Vadim, ending the exercise. That, along with a forfeited jump, some obedience points lost, and some slow outs (Michel was HARD on the slow outs with everyone), Vadim and Kaz came up short of a qualifying score with a 125.1 to round out their routine. Kaz is, without a doubt, the nicest Doberman I’ve seen thus far in ANY sport, and I’m sure he and Vadim will be back at it again to prevail with a passing score. So who was our final competitor in Ring I? Mr. Glenn Salamanca and Louie! Fresh off of their Brevet win earlier in the day, this team was another one that had ALL of us sweating in Ring I. Once again, Glenn was flowing through his routine as if he were walking on a cloud. Let me tell you a little bit about what I saw in Louie...to sum it up...very nice dog. Especially his guards. Wow! Explosive guards! Perfect guards! Intense guards! That’s what I liked about Louie the most. You could see it in his eyes. He was all business. He KNEW every exercise inside and out. I think he was perhaps just showing Glenn the courtesy of listening to his commands, otherwise, I believe this dog could have taken himself through all of the bitework exercises without a handler to guide him. In the end, Glenn and Louie were nipping hard at mine and Brassai’s heels with a closing score of 173.6 to complete the Ring I competition. Well, that was it for day one. Now on to day two...Ring II and Ring III...yeah, baby! The BIG boys (and girls) were coming out! Day two drew the same lively crowd as day one. Thankfully, both days were accompanied by a constant cool breeze to keep everyone (especially the dogs and decoys) cool and comfortable. First up were the Ring II’s. Sure to be a treat with the two competitors we had lined up...Steve Garvin with Roadie, and Chester Rivasplata with Zar. Steve and his male Malinois, Roadie were first to go. Roadie and Steve have been playing at Ring for a long, long time and Roadie is no spring chicken, either. But I’ll say one thing, that dog performed like a two year old! He nailed all of his jumps and easily sailed through the obedience. His retrieves were quick and correct, and overall, his complete respect and attention to Steve was truly amazing. These two are a very tight team. Bitework. Ring II bitweork. Not easy by any means. But Roadie came out of the shoot to play, and play hard. Speaking of hard, Roadie bites VERY hard! I’ve heard many decoys say this is so. I have even had the pleasure of taking a few bites from the Roadster myself, back in the day...and yes, it always hurt very much. But good for Roadie, the old guy still has it! And he proved it out there on the competition field. He took every intimidating bit of pressure and attitude from decoys Jose Lopez and Peter Cointe, both whom did excellents jobs in their work. Roadie was sailing toward a very good score. Then came time for the Search. Sadly, and unfortunately, Roadie was not able to find the decoy [Peter] in the allotted amount of time before the judge was forced to end the exercise. He came so close, too! He searched every blind except the one Peter was in! You could feel the tension in the crowd building as everyone was on edge every time Roadie came within mere feet of Peter’s blind. Isn’t it heartbreaking when you know your dog KNOWS an exercise, yet they sometimes try and outsmart themselves and end up making mistakes? That was the only exercise that Roadie was not able to complete. One exercise, and one mistake, was all it took to bring Steve’s final score down to a 203.8 in the end. Even with a non-qualifying score, Steve and Roadie put on a stellar performance that drew a huge applause for them both. They’ll be back at it again, I’m sure of it! The next (and final) Ring II competitor was Chester Rivasplata and his little male Malinois, Zar. Chester and Zar were coming off of a heartbreaking Ring II defeat in Oregon for the same exact reason Steve and Roadie had just experienced...a missed Search. Chester and Zar were also hoping to obtain their second leg of Ring II this time around. Zar ran the blinds during Open Field like a pro. But Chester was still a wee bit worried that it might not be as pretty, or as easy, under the pressure of doing it in trial. Ain’t that the truth! I think we all know that feeling, too well. So, would Zar complete the Search this time around? You’ll have to read on to find out (not that this article is already long, or anything). Zar started out with some phenomenal jumping, in all phases. No sweat. Onto the obedeince. Again, no sweat. Zar was doing very well, and so was Chester. Michel was watching hard though. Every tiny little mistake wasn’t going to go unnoticed by any means. Michel liked to get right behind the handlers in their heeling patterns and lean down to get a perfect look at EXACTLY where the dog was in relation to the handler. Mind you, he wasn’t directly on your heels, but rather following you, literally, in the same pattern as you were heeling with your dog. He was a toughie, that Michel! As the obedience was nearing the end, those of us who knew about Zar’s much needed Search, were beginning to feel the same anxieties as Chester...especially Christophe Michit, who had been working with Chester and Zar for a long time. Christophe was probably more nervous than Chester was! Keep in mind, Christophe was the Deputy Judge, so he had a front row seat to all of the action, and was also within arms length of Chester, in case he needed to slap him if things didn’t go so well! The Search was not right away, but rather in the middle of the bitework draw. So little Zar was able to have some fun for a while before his big test. Zar was doing very well in his bitework, very well. But could he continue his streak with a find in the Search? As we all began to gnaw our hands off at the beginning of the Search exercise, we were soon pleasantly rewarded with a sigh of utter relief as Zar drew in on the blind which concealed Peter! HE DID IT! And the crowd went wild! Whew! The hard part was now over, or was it? As Chester approached the blind to prepare himself for the escapes, perhaps he was still a bit nervous. Or perhaps he was just absolutely elated that his dog had just successfully completed his biggest hurdle in the competition. Because it was definitely clear that his mind was clouded by something. Here’s why...as Peter escaped the blind, Chester forgot to wait until authorization from the judge before outing his dog. Ooops! Michel didn’t say anything at first. He just stood there and looked at Chester, and Chester looked at him. A true moment of silence. Chester knew something was up, because everything had stopped. He just didn’t know exactly what it was that had caused everything to come to a halt. Then Michel spoke in a soft, but stern tone...”Respect my horn, please.” He said this as he waved his horn in the air at Chester. Chester almost fell back with surprise. He honestly did not realize that he had made that mistake. He quickly and respectfully apologized to Michel. Michel acknowledged Chester’s apology, and then slowly turned to the Trial Secretary, Kadi Thingvall, and said...”Minus five points!” Ouch! We all thought that maybe Chester was going to get away with a warning on that one. Nope. Michel was judging hard. Chester kicked himself mentally for a moment and then gracefully moved on with the exercise. Zar finished the exercise very nicely...too bad they had to lose those golden five points in the beginning, though. But you know what? We’re all human. And no matter how well prepared, or how very experienced we think we may be sometimes, our very own confidence can sometimes be our very worst enemy in a trial. But that minor point loss was okay for Chester and Zar. Even though Chester would have loved to have had those five points back at the end of his routine, he did okay without them...he and Zar finally QUALIFIED for their second leg of Ring II with a score of 273 even! Congratulations Chester and Zar! Finally, the Big Kahuna...Ring III! And what a show it was to be with our only competing team, Art Garcia and his powerhouse, speed demon female Malinois, ZuZu! But before we get to Art and ZuZu’s performance, I need to give recognition to the dog who worked as the Dog in White for Ring III...Glenn Salamanca’s Nikita. Nikita needs no introduction. But I must say, she still has it, that old girl. She put on quite a show. Even Peter Cointe went over to Arnaud after the Dog in White was finished and said...”That’s a very nice dog!” Enough said. Now, onto another very nice dog...ZuZu. The crowd was buzzing with excitement to see this little girl show what she was made of. There were quite a few people in the crowd who had seen Ring before, but not the Ring III level. What better dog to watch for the first time in Ring III than ZuZu? She was everything we were all expecting her to be! Drivey, drivey and more drivey! You could see that she just wanted to burst out of her own skin with excitement to be back on the competition field again. Her jumping was like clockwork...right on time and perfect! Her retrieving was fun to watch! She loves to retrieve! Her obedience was clean and flowing. But we all know that pretty much everyone puts down their hamburgers, turns on their video cameras and sits up to take real notice when the bitework is about to begin. And so be it. Suddenly you could hear the “dinging” of everyone’s video cameras as the decoys made their way to the field. And so the show was on! ZuZu was in for a work out and a true test of courage. After all, her decoys were Peter Cointe and Arnaud Le Maguer, and they were just as anxious as ZuZu was to show the crowd what THEY were made of. Arnaud took the first four exercises...The Search, The Flee, The Stopped Attack and The Defense of Handler. ZuZu did excellent on the Search and even better on the Flee! Just as she was about to enter the bite in the Flee, Arnaud saw her coming to the left and thought he would be able to pull a clean 45 degrees on her. Wrong! At the very last second, ZuZu outsmarted Arnaud and entered into his right leg, literally lifting him off the ground and onto his back! Both dog and decoy fell with grace and neither were hurt. A clean 30 points, and a huge applause from the crowd! The Stopped Attack was good. No bite. A couple of meters out on the call off, but still, a nice score. Next was the Defense. This was a close one. Arnaud did his job and did it well. He almost had little ZuZu second guessing herself at the point of aggression. Arnaud hit Art just as ZuZu allowed Art to get between her and Arnaud, blocking her view of the hit. Arnaud and Art both came to a stop. And ZuZu just stood there next to Art for what seemed like eternity looking at Arnaud with an expression on her face that was clearly saying...”Did you just hit my handler?” The crowd was silent. Art was motionless and so was Arnaud. The judge waited. It was all up to ZuZu at this point. Earlier in this article, I talked about how we sometimes are faced with the fact that our dogs, on occasion, will think too much and make their own decisions, costing themselves precious points sometimes as a result. Well, if there ever was a time where you could hope that your dog had the true capability of thinking for themselves, THIS was the time! “Thank God!”, Art must have been thinking, when ZuZu DID think for herself, and DID make the right decision when she took the chance and dove in for the bite on Arnaud’s right leg. The crowd, once again, went wild! Arnaud’s work was done. Now it was Peter’ turn. First up, the Guard of Object. The duel of all duels between dog and decoy. Peter is a master at this exercise. To watch him get into the dog’s mind and play on their tiniest of doubts, or take advantage of any brief moment of distraction, is simply jaw dropping. I knew it was going to be a close match, because ZuZu is pretty good at this exercise, too. And she proved it. She kept her basket! Even though Peter may have moved it a bit on some of his dashing attempts to steal it...ZuZu still kept the overall control of that wickered jewel. Next up, the Guard Affirm. ZuZu is fast. We saw that on her entry into the Flee Attack with Arnaud. Would we see a repeat with Peter? Well, Peter is also a master at esquiving just about anything that comes his way. So needless to say, even though ZuZu blasted down the field toward him through the gunfire, Peter merely stepped aside at the final second and let little ZuZu fly by. But she came back, and she came back strong! Peter wasn’t able to move far from her on the guards, either. She was right on him. The final exercise was next. And with the final exercise, let me explain that this was Peter Cointe’s final Ring trial as a competition decoy. Although he had officially retired in France, with a party to boot and all, THIS was actually going to be the REAL official last time that he would finish his career as a trial decoy...on American soil. We were quite honored by that, and appreciated the fact that he agreed to daunt his suit one more time for the good of the sport we all love. And what would the final exercise be for Peter as he prepared to leave the competition field forever? How about everyone’s favorite...the Face Attack. Let me just say, simply, both Peter and ZuZu bid one another a very respectful farewell in their performance together in this final exercise. It was the only way to end the show. Speaking of final, I believe it’s time that this article should be winding down to its final word. In closing, I would like to thank everyone who attended this trial and everyone whohelped out in every way. The spectators, the vendors, the competitors, the judge, the decoys, the NARA members near and far (Lisa Geller from Minnesota even showed up just to watch! Go Vikings!), fellow California clubs BARC and So Cal All Breed Ringers, our own club member Kadi Thingvall for acting as Trial Secretary (and a special thanks to Brenda Arao for taking over part of this task as well), club members Scott Williams, Ken Coombs, Mac Rembert and his entire family for working that giant greasy BBQ grill, Eric Walton and Jose Lopez from BARC for acting as our Ring Stewards, and finally Pat Beltz and Work Dogs International for allowing us to call their field our home. There is always someone who is forgotten in appreciation and thank you lists. If you are one of those people...we thank YOU the most! Until next time...

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