Year in Review: 2012

Work-A-Bull has been quiet for a long time. I'm just not much of a blogger, but that's going to change. We have a lot of plans for 2013. But first, let me summarize what's happened around here in 2012.

We lost Howie. He was my heart, my love. He was the dog that started it all. He's been gone for six months, and the days don't get any easier. The house is too quiet, it's not the same. He was 4 years old, and he wasn't around nearly long enough. I don't think I will ever stop missing him.

As big as that dark cloud has been, 2012 has been full of plenty of ups. Jax really stepped up to the plate and not only was he a fabulous Nanny Dog for my daughter, he been an even better companion. He is the model of what an American Pit Bull Terrier should be.

We earned our Grand Champion show title early in 2012, and from there, it was nothing but good things. He went on to earn his AKC CGC title, his Coursing Aptitude title, his United Rally 1 title. In June, just after Howie's passing, we started our journey to be ranked in the UKC Rally All-Stars. As of the date of this posting, we are raked as #12 in the URO1 All-Stars and plan to compete in the invitational at Premier in June of 2013.

We tried our hearts out for our UCD obedience title, but it wasn't in the cards this year. Next year we will train hard, with some good support who has our backs, and we will move on.

While that in itself is an achievement for me, Jax's shining moment came the past November at the National American Pit Bull Terrier Club's National breed show. On the day of our National show, he racked up a list of achievements that made me bursting with so much pride for my little awkward dog:
- Jax and junior handler Megan earned the title of National Junior Handler
- Jax earned an Award of Merit, this combined with his qualifying scores in Rally earned him his 5th Total Dog award (his 3rd of the year).
- Jax's breeder drove up from GA with his mom and littermate brother, and together, his mom earned National Brood Bitch.
- Together, we had three qualifying scores in Rally that weekend, and a qualifying run in lure coursing to earn his CA title.

After Nationals, we took it easy. We kicked back and relaxed. I am using the next few days to map out our road map for early 2013 - at least the events that get us up to Premier in June. I will write a separate post soon once certain announcements have been made and plans have been finalized.

2012 has been a rollercoaster year for me. I hope 2013 brings more joy and goal achievement for us.

In which, I am a horrible blogger.

My last post here was in August of 2010. That was a long time ago.

Since then, Howie has gone on to earning a couple legs to his first C-WAGS rally title, the first two legs of his AKC Rally Novice title, and the first leg to... some other title. And then he became a couch holder-downer. Howie loves training and learning things, but when it comes to competing, he'd rather cheer from the sidelines.

Also, since then, we added a new member to the family (actually, two new members, but that's another story!). His name is Jax, and as of last month, he's been a member of our family for a year now. And, in that year, he and I have earned his UKC weight pull title and his first UKC rally title, and also his show champion title. This past weekend, with a little help from our friends, he finished his grand champion title. He's also finished 30/100 points to his weight pull champion title. So, he is officially:

UWP URO1 Intl/Natl CH UKC GRCH'PR'Cross's Home Run Hitter

He is a great little dog, from a wonderful line of wonderful and accomplished dogs. And now, he and I are on our way to accomplishing the Super Dog title together. To do this, we need to earn a show champion title (check!), a weight pull title (check!), a rally title (check!), an agility title, and his United Companion Dog title. I suppose this blog will turn its focus to our adventures down this road together.

And I will do my best to keeping up with the blog!

Playing catch-up

I haven't updated in awhile, and for that I apologize! We've been busy, and lazy. Summer is now in full-swing, and in between real life stuff we were busy gearing up for UKC Premier...But more on that later!

After our hard-hitting blow at the obedience trial in May, it took me a bit to bounce back and get comfortable again. I got sick, both physically and with an eye infection, so major training was postponed until I could see right again and feel well. We focused mostly on weight pulling and earning the last few points for his weight pull champion title, which seemed to take forever to complete.

Because of being sick, I slacked on record keeping, too. Which means I don't have all the weights and locations we pulled at. But I'm going to do my best to update anyway.

"Old Premier Weekend" June 18th-20th (after UKC's fateful move to Richmond, IN) still saw a show/pull in Kalamazoo, MI. The All American Bulldog Club hosted a weight pull, K9 Fanciers hosted a show, Grand Rapids Area K9's hosted obedience and rally trials, and the United Greyhound Club hosted one of the first all-breed lure coursing trials. It was a fun weekend, even if Howie only pulled one day for me and poo-poo'd on the rest. We got 2 qualifying scores in both of the rally classes we entered, placing 3rd on Friday and 2nd on Saturday; our Saturday score was a 96, and we were beaten by a very beautiful run done by a Border Collie and her handler who scored a 97.

Howie also thoroughly enjoyed lure coursing, and thinks this new sport is the best thing ever. That weekend, he became the first (LP-registered) American Pit Bull Terrier to earn UKC's CA (coursing aptitude) title.

After the Kalamazoo weekend, we took time off to train and get ready for Premier. My "ultimate plan" was to finish both his weight pull champion title and his URO1 (rally 1) titles at Premier. This show is UKC's biggest of the year, so if we were going to finish titles, we were gonna do it in style! At least, that was the plan...

It was a busy weekend. We didn't get down to the show grounds until 2am Thursday morning, and we all had to be up early for weigh-ins and check-ins. After weigh-ins for weight pull, Howie broke out in hives, and I had originally told the Pride & Prejudice American Pit Bull Terrier Association (the club hosting the pull) that I was withdrawing his entry. We went back to our camper, where I loaded him with the prednisone and benadryl, and we took a nap. A few hours later he seemed fine, his hives were going down, and he seemed more perky; P&P was nice enough to let me re-enter him, and he pulled a 10-point pull (approximately 995 pounds, 15x his body weight) for me that day. I withdrew him after that pull, and hoped he would give me one more 10-point pull over the weekend.

Howie has been kind of blah about pulling, and I wasn't sure if he would pull or tell me he just wasn't feeling it and would refuse.

Friday was Top Ten/Premier day, so many of the activities were reserved for Top Ten and All-Star dogs - these are dogs and junior handlers who showed excellent performance last year and were invited to compete. This is an invitation-only show. But after all of those shows were done, we had a rally class. We qualified with a score of 81 and placed 5th in our class of about 20 dogs, but it wasn't pretty. But this qualifying score earned us our 3rd leg and our URO1 title!

Saturday was another weight pull day, and he did good by me and pulled another 10-point pull. Sunday he was tired, and told me no. But his pull on Saturday earned his UWPCH title, and made me happy.

He also lure coursed all weekend, which he found enjoyable. And we did what we went there to do.

We're now taking a break from showing and pulling. On August 7th there is a weight pull with another club, but it is right in our back yard, so we plan on going - which means no hotel or expensive traveling costs. We're also looking at another weight pull near Ann Arbor, MI...but I haven't decided on this yet. Most everything is up in the air.

On a totally different note, we're in talks with the Ferndale Public Library to start a "Reading to Dogs" program. I am most excited about this, and can't wait to get it in full swing. Keep watching for more information on these developments as Howie, Therepy Dog Extraordinaire!