Hi all, I thought I'd introduce myself . . . I'm Rhonda Landry from Shreveport LA. I don't have a Cavalier yet - I am planning on getting one in the next couple of years and thought I'd keep learning as much as I can about them. I was thrilled to see a performance list (we have a great one for dachshunds, too). I've read some books and had belonged to a Cavalier list a while back (Hoflin I think?), have read much about cardiomyopathies, etc, and am keeping lists of breeders that check for heart, eyes, patellas AND hips. Not sure if I want to do the breed ring thing - I really don't think I could stop my self from trimming the hair on the feet <sorry, no offense!> and conformation is my least favorite doggy activity, although I DO like titles at both ends of a dog's name and I'm personally not up to a MACH or OTCH :-).
Years ago I used to have springers that I did obedience and conformation with, and now I have dachshunds (3 mini wires and 1 standard long) and we do obedience, agility, field trials (rabbit hunting), earthdog (hunting rats below ground), conformation w/2 of them, and some tracking for fun. We also do a lot of therapy dog visits which we really enjoy - enough to try a little, sort-of freestyle routine, LOL! I also would've sworn I'd never put clothes on a dog, but . . . the residents love their outfits, so I'm glad a friend coerced me into trying them on the dogs, LOL! Between the obed/agility/therapy clubs, we do a lot of demos which are also much fun - I love talking with the public about how much fun training is. Dachshunds aren't exactly a traditional obedience breed either, so we have to work on motivation - food, play, food, ok-you-can-do-weavepoles, food, here-go-fetch, food, tug-on-the-rabbit-fur, etc :-) They learn really fast (faster than I do), so if I'm not getting my point across clearly, I grab the clicker and they get really excited (one of my wires will go steal the clicker off the windowsill and bring it to me to PlayClicker) and we're successful pretty quickly. Successful training, that is . . . qualifying in the ring is another story <g>. I've just started to read the old posts, and was tickled to read about the "over-friendly" problem I might have with a cavalier . . . I have that same issue with my dachshunds . . . playing to the crowd, bringing the dumbell to the judge/stewards, having to go say hello to the judge before checking the article pile, sitting up and playing dead for the agility judge who just wouldn't be charmed, etc etc. What can I say? Anyway, I'll keep reading and may chime in with a question now and then :-) Rhonda Landry and the wired-for-fun kids: "Frazier" FC Laci's Alter Ego MW, UD OA NAJ JE TT CGC TDI "Bronson" FC Doxdane Executive Decision MW, CD AX AXJ JE TT CGC (2/3 SE, 2/3 CDX) "Nadine" FC Dynadaux Double Vision MW NA NAJ JE CGC TDI (2/3 SE, breed-pointed) "Charles" Penni's Charles Dickens SL CGC TDI (1/2 JE, breed-pointed) Shreveport, LA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pages.prodigy.net/wiredachs ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:LISTSERV@;APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:LISTSERV@;APPLE.EASE.LSOFT.COM?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
