BRACE YOURSELF! We did a thing yesterday and got outside our comfort zone in Conformation Brace! It was a first for all three of us and I am super proud of these two red dynamos for rising to the occasion since we just started training a month ago.
There are many reasons why you don’t see many Conformation Brace entries across all dog breeds. Firstly, it’s hard! Secondly, it’s dangerous having two dogs tied together, never mind two spicy red-headed ACDs where one is a 12½-month-old adolescent!!
For us, Best in Show was not even on our radar but I think we were definitely contenders! Brace is not usually a class with a lot of entries since it is so challenging. I was happy with our success of completing the task without a Cattle Dog Throw Down in the ring… that coulda been between mother & son since Shazam likes to nibble on Peaches’ ear or jump on her back while tied to her… Or it could have been the decision to fun-police the Havenese or Cocker teams. Either way we did not have “an incident” and they showed great restraint and talent, frankly!
Thank you to our coach Jennifer Council (Canine Development and Testing) for her encouragement in the early days that kept us trying (“I’ve seen worse!”) and to Kathy Hamula for encouraging us ringside and videoing us to document our historic event.
This was a really fun challenge for us and I can see doing it again!
