Trip went for a big, glorious swim over the weekend. It was the kind of swim that makes you puff out your chest and hope the person standing next to you sees the same thing you're seeing. More on Trip's swim later. First, let us explain why we were so pleased with her recent jaunt into the water.

Some of you may know we ran our Vizsla puppy Trip in a North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association (NAVHDA) Natural Ability test back in mid-May. We were going for a Prize I, Perfect Score (go BIG or go HOME is our motto!). The final score of Trip's test is further evidence that whatever Mother Nature decides will be, will be. Not quite 4 weeks before her test date, Mother Nature decided to bless our sweet puppy with her first heat cycle. Now, before you roll your eyes and think "Oh brother, here we go with the excuses", read on. Prior to this 'experience' with Trip, we likely would have rolled our eyes and said "Oh brother, here we go with the excuses" in response to a similar story.

So, back in February we entered Trip in the May NAVHDA Natural Ability test. We felt confident she had all of the pieces in place to test at that 'perfect' end of the score sheet. Because of her exceptional natural abilities and consistency in the field, we knew all she would need was a little brushing up in her field/bird work. We knew we also needed to do some light tracking with her since the pheasant track was the one part of the test that would be new to her. As we expected, she ROCKED in her field work and she (pleasantly) surprised us with how well she did in the tracking. We weren't worried one bit for the test day to arrive (although somewhere in there she did come into heat). Again, this wasn't a big deal as far as we were concerned. She seemed to be handling her heat cycle well with the most noticeable side-effect being a touch lower in energy than normal. Then, a week before her test date, Trip's Breeder/Co-owner Judy Hetkowski of Boulder Vizslas asked if any of us had seen Trip swim lately. Hmm. We all thought and agreed that, with the recent weather changes, she hadn't really had the opportunity to swim yet this year. Given how much she loved the water last summer and the little swimming fool she was a young pup, we weren't worried. Judy agreed to make a point of taking Trip to the reservoir to verify she remembered how to swim. Yep--you guessed it. Trip, for some reason we couldn't figure out, decided she prefered to enter the water and stand neck or chest-deep. No swimming for this girl, thank you very much. Ruh-roh. What to do!? She was now just out of heat and the 14 day window to scratch her from the test had closed. We decided this little blip could be fixed and with exposure, we could help Trip remember not only how to swim but that she really did love to swim. With each attempt our sweet Vizsla puppy dug her heels in (hm-mm, evidence she's still a true bitch to the core of her sweet little self). For whatever reason, she was NOT going to swim. The majority of the "Trip Guardians Team" voted to pull Trip from the test. There was one ever-hopeful guardian, who wouldn't be swayed though. He looked at pictures of his puppy swimming the summer before and was convinced she'd pull it together on game day and swim like a champ. No worries that she refused to swim out on her own on every attempt (and there were several) the week leading up to the test. Aaron was convinced some miracle would occur and Trip would enter the water, swim enough to prove she knew how and the judges would bestow that 'Perfect Score' upon her. Most of us though, as we become jaded adults, know life rarely works out this way. I suppose we could all use a heavy dose of Aaron's optimism! :-)

To make a long story longer, test day arrived and Aaron hit the road at 5:30 a.m with his puppy in tow. They were heading north to the test site while Mel headed south to handle Kosmo and Suede in Master level American Kennel Club (AKC) hunting tests. Through the various broken phone calls (poor signals) and text messages we received updates on Trip. NAVHDA testing was going well...judges really seemed to like her...she had the most difficult track but stayed with it and succeeded...her field work was exceptional as she hunted with independence and intelligence finding and pointing more than her share of birds. Then testing for the swimming begin and, surprise, Trip maintained her position that she needn't swim. Nope. Not gonna do it. Aaron's dreams of a Prize I Perfect Score went down the tubes. Later, the judges talked with Aaron. They told him how impressed they were with Trip and had she just gone for a little swim they would have given her a 'Perfect Score'. Salt to the wound. On his way home Aaron stated he didn't care if Trip ever went swimming again in her whole life. In fact, he hoped she never would!

Almost exactly a month after Trip's NAVHDA Natural Ability Test, we joined our good friend Ken to help train his magnificent boy Renne for NAVHDA's Utility Test. This test is way intense. Dogs with NAVDHA Utility titles are to be admired. The amount of training that must go into preparing for this test is pretty amazing. One of the portions of the Utility Test is a 'duck search' in which the dog must go out across a body of water and search independently, without direction from his handler, for a solid 10 minutes. Because we enjoy working with dogs so much, we were looking forward to learning something new and watching Ken train Renne. Another bonus was since the training must be done in water, we knew our crew would enjoy a day off to just swim and have fun. They had a BLAST! See the attached photo gallery of their 'big-fun time' (a Janice-ism) playing in the water. And, oh yeah, Trip went swimming. Not only did she go swimming (several times) but she stayed out for a solid 5+ minutes searching for a dead duck Ken had tossed out for her. The duck sank but Trip was so determined to fetch it she stayed out treading water, whirling around, bobbing her head under water searching. It was INCREDIBLE! When Trip came out, proudly carrying her hard-earned prize, Aaron beamed and told her, "I thought I told you I didn't care if you ever went for another swim again in your whole life."

This story serves as a reminder to those of you who have intact females (eh-hem, the 4-legged kind!). Remember, hormones can play a powerful influence in a female's response to life. You should be aware of the differently a female dog may perceive the world while UIH, 'under the influence of hormones. Watch for her to be a little or a lot off when trying to teach her something new or even just reinforce training she already has a handle on. We learned this be true with Trip, who we believe has the steadiest of temperaments. We assumed because she was so steady, her heat cycle/false preganancy wouldn't be a big deal and she would just plug along like the awesome little soldier she's always been. Lesson learned. We made note of how her hormones affected her and that she experienced a false preganancy. We'll also keep this lesson in the forefront of our minds when we make decisions about competing or training with her around her future heat cycles. Who knows why she picked swimming as the thing she would get flakey about. Likely, it will be something entirely different the next time around. You can bet we'll be ready the next time though! :-)