This past weekend the Rocky Mountain Vizsla club held our second Scent Work trial and we had such great feedback all weekend! What takes a trial from good to great is the people, and we had the best team. To our judges, secretary, photographer, committee, and all day workers, thank you for making this such a great weekend! The facility is the other big part of a great trial and our sincere gratitude is extended to Milan Hess and the Colorado Veterinary Specialty Group team for sharing your beautiful facility with us.
Speaking of our photographer, Lisa Tapia, was AMAZING. She was there bright and early, had a smile on her face the whole time and gave us positive feedback! Lisa said she loved seeing how positive all the teams were, even if a search didn’t go their way. We take that as very high praise. Lisa captured some fantastic photos; please check them out the previews on her Facebook page, Lisa Tapia Photography, and when full edits are done, you’ll find them here: https://lisatapiaphotography.shootproof.com
Our judges were new to judging in the Colorado area, and from the feedback we received, we know they will be back! First, we had Cathy Hyatt from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Cathy was actually asked to join us last year, but AKC takes a bit of time to process new judges, and it prevented the assignment. We were so happy she could join us this year! Cathy’s searches were fun, challenging, and made you trust your dog and get out of your head. Our second judge was also asked to join us last year, but her schedule was already booked for out of state assignments! Tracy Patton, from Tomball, Texas, was able to join us this year and we were ecstatic to have her. Tracy trains detection dogs and was so thoughtful in her challenges and the dog’s scent behavior. We had so much fun on her searches! Our competitors had so many compliments for the judges; “you can tell both judges really love judging and watching the dogs work,” “thank you so much for introducing us to these awesome judges,” “these searches were so fun!” It went on and on. The judges were also so efficient that a full, two trial judge, was finished by 2:00pm each day. We highly recommend both judges to any club looking for a judge with great vision, efficiency, and who is just plain fun to be around.
And before we get to the awards, we must thank the incredible committee for their execution of such a high caliber event. Becky Clippinger, Neeta Cope, Megan Harper, Ginger Sammonds, Catherine Sayers, Lindsay Tita, and Trial Chair Jenny Fleischer — Thank you for all your hard work and organization. The committee was joined for the weekend by several incredible all day worker bees: Austin Adams, Ginger Brayman, Dylan Fleischer, Eydie Hoeppner, Heather Jackson, Carol Ann McConville, Caitlin Noblin, Byron Sayers, Sam Vangi, Chelsea Verduin, and Lindsey Walker — thank you for always being willing to jump in and help; keeping the trial moving so smoothly! The RMVC puts on several events a year, and it would not be possible without our incredible volunteers. To all who helped this weekend, thank you!
For the fun stuff! High in Trials are often few and far between with the challenge of 4 for 4, but, we had a High in Trial Advanced team on Saturday, Megan Harper and Penny! We also awarded our High Scoring Vizsla team, and Manny & Becky Clippinger narrowly edged out Boujee/Jenny and Penny/Megan. It seemed the competition was really heating up for the weekend!
Sunday, is when the competition really heated up! We had three Vizsla teams take High in Trial! In Novice we had new comer, Collins, go 4 for 4 with her Aunt Becky Clippinger (Manny & Collins are littermates!) Collins’ owner, Lindsay Tita, was handling Collins’ daughter (also her first trial!) so Becky took the long line. And an honorable mention to Carol Napier with her 14.5 year old Border Terrier, Mungo, for also going 4 for 4! So cute to see the old man out there!
Next up in advanced, Megan Harper and Penny turned in ANOTHER perfect day, making it 8 for 8 for the weekend. Absolutely incredible! Megan was a new comer to the committee this year, so managing a perfect trial weekend while also being there ALL day to volunteer, is quite the accomplishment. Congratulations on a perfect weekend!
In Excellent, Manny and Becky edged out Holly and Kathy Bourland for HIT. Holly is the cutest little beagle and we congratulate them on a job very well done; 4 for 4 in Excellent is NO JOKE!!! With a perfect Excellent day, Manny & Becky again took home the High Scoring Vizsla award. What a fantastic weekend for this team!
By now you’ve seen several pictures with our awesome photobooth. Thank you to Lindsay Tita for the vision and the decorations! Lindsay also had an idea to give out bandanas along with everyone’s first Q of the weekend. We have to say, seeing all the dogs proudly sporting their bandanas was a fun extra touch! Along with those many Qs came many, many element titles! Congratulations to all those teams for a great performance! We also want to highlight the teams that earned their overall titles at our trial. Congratulations!
- Teeter (Doberman) and Mona Fasth earned their Master title – SWM
- Dazz (Rottweiler) and Ginger Brayman earned their Excellent title – SWE
- Archer (Vizsla) and Lindsay Tita earned their Advanced title – SWA
- Cerby (Rottweiler) and Caitlin Noblin earned their Advanced title – SWA
- Chord (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) and Carolyn earned their Novice title – SWN
Thank you to all who joined us to make this such a fun weekend! A special shout out to our out-of-state competitors; the distances you traveled from Texas, Iowa, and New Mexico to join us really means so much! We hope you all had a great weekend and can’t wait to do it all again next year!