UD or not UD

Years ago, before I really even started competing with my dogs I was at an obedience trial and watched the Utility dogs with a great deal of awe and admiration. I thought how much work that must take and how cool it would be to have a dog actually do that. I still agree with that. I would love to actually have a dog complete a UD title (and gasp, possibly even a UDX). Now then, what dog will that be?

Oreo tried. He tried as hard as he could. He was always stressed in the ring and it took all the right things in place to get him to qualify on any given day. Utility was just too much for him. He got close to a Q but never quite got one. He was older by then (maybe 11?) and burnt out on training. So we called it quits. I never expected to get that far anyway.

Zodiac was supposed to be THE obedience dog. He was smart, unflappable in the ring, and young. He blitzed through his CD and CDX. Then I barely trained for about 5 years. He got a bad back, became rather lazy and disinterested in obedience and I decided we would rather do tracking so he could get a VCD2. It's not totally out of the question that we will go back to utility training, but as I think I've mentioned before, he just doesn't have the zest for training he once did. It's noticeable at home and in the Rally ring-not the flash that he once had.

Lyric is out. I don't have time to train her in more than one sport. She loves agility. I think I'm good to have a pom with enough drive for one sport. Let's not push it and try for two.

So that leaves Legend. She's 4 1/2, has no CDX legs yet and was excused from the novice ring more times than I care to remember. But she's smart, loves to work and is maturing nicely. I got her to be an agility dog and not necessarily anything else but you never know sometimes. Maybe the third time really is the charm! Guess I better start working those utility exercises.