We're still on CLOUD 9 from our successful weekend. Suede, Remus, and Kosmo were entered in the Senior and Master Hunter tests at the Spring Skyline Brittany AKC Hunting Tests. Because Suede qualified for her Senior Hunter title on Saturday we scratched her from the Sunday tests. This means we qualified in 4 of the 5 tests we ran over the weekend!!!

The BEST news is that Mama Suede can now add SH to her registered name, CH Power of Persuasion CD RE SH. Even MORE impressive is she picked up her Senior Hunter title in 4 straight passes with the last leg coming after being on maternity leave for several months! Suede worked three birds (the first was a very exciting 'stop to flush') and ran her brace with big enthusiasm. She was so enthusiastic, Mel had to keep a tighter handle on her than ever before. Running birds=TROUBLE. She ran true and qualified easily for her final Senior Hunter leg. Suede's SH title came by way of teamwork. Suede's breeder/owner Judy Hetkowski of Boulder Vizslas took care of the yard work and most importantly taught Suede 'whoa'. Of course, training to the SH and MH requires birds to be shot and for that we are lucky to have 'dead-eyes' Aaron and Jason on-board. Those two rarely miss a bird! Mel had the joy of training and handling Suede in the field. But believe us, she taught us more than we taught her. :-)

Kosmo picked up his first Master Hunter qualify (after standing through a more than 4 minute honor in which his bracemate was relocated TWICE, a running bird, and 3 shots). Kos' MH ribbon is a most special one given this was Mel's FIRST time handling in Master! Only two MH dogs qualified on Saturday and none qualified on Sunday. Kosmo is an uncle to the 'Sueppies' (Cassidy is his sire just as Cassidy is Cappy's sire).

And our sweet boy Remus was a star, picking up two more Senior Hunter legs this weekend. This is an incredible feat considering Remus is always on the edge and would rather run for Aaron than Mel. He decided to handle for Mel though and worked nicely. Mel admitted it is even more exciting handling Remus than it is watching him from the gallery. :-)

The conditions were particularly tough for the Junior dogs. The club used chukar which, normally would be great since they are much more difficult for a dog to catch. But, the problem with the birds used over the weekend was they wouldn't fly. They wanted to run, run, run. We heard a lot of the Junior dogs went birdless. Peak, Monty and their owner/handlers learned a lot this weekend and will do even better in their future tests.

Photos from our awesome weekend coming soon!