So, it starts simply enough.  I wanted Poppy to behave better; so I signed her up for a basic obedience class.  I also decided that if I was encouraging people to take their new pups to school, I'd best take my own dog.  None of this sounds like major commitment.  But, before I knew it basic obedience wasn't enough for us.  We tried agility on for size.  And I'm driving an hour each way for a one hour class at a great facility.  We use Ellis Dog Training in Dover, NH.  Yes, we live in Maine.

But, agility just wasn't Poppy's thing.  She hates the teeter, but other than that she can do all the obstacles, but she's not going to a competitive course for me.  Once I realized that Poppy had no desire to light up the agility world, I arranged to buy a girl from a litter likely to succeed in AKC competition.  Enter Iris.  After all corgis are like Lay's potato chips, who can have just one.  Iris slept through most of basic obedience, but learned the basics.  By now, there's basic agility obstacles in the yard courtesy of Todd.  Iris took one look at the teeter and said "I can do that"  But, in the meantime she's a little bit young for lots of jumping. 

We took Diane's advice and I started in Rally class with Poppy.  Then I took Iris as well.  We didn't even finish our first Rally class before I took Iris to my first ever dog show; where she earned a qualifying score.  Iris then marched her way around North Conway to earn her Rally Novice title the day before her first birthday.

Then came Thanksgiving and I decided that Fitchburg was close enough to being on the way home to enter the girls.  And all of this is how I came to find myself driving almost three hours each way on a nasty, snowy Sunday at the beginning of March with two dogs in the quest for qualifying scores.  The facility in Franklin was lovely and the Labrador Retriever Club of Greater Boston put on an awesome Rally trial.  Despite some rough moments the girls and I came home with two legs.  Iris now has two out of three needed scores towards her Rally Advanced title and Poppy has two out of three scores towards her Rally Novice.