Just. Not. Right.

Posted on Monday

Snowmageddon, New Mexico style!  I guess I’d better get used to it:

Although to judge by the reaction of folks who have lived here for a while, the weekly and bi-weekly succession of storms this winter is hardly standard operating procedure. It’s just the area’s way of greeting us in our new home, and giving us a really steep learning curve…

(Those are both cholla cactus, by the way. The yellow bits on the end are the fruit.)

Back to Miss Belle
Thanks to comments from Belle’s previous piccie, I am inspired to explain what all that alphabet soup after her name really means.  Details aside, it means this:  A little girl who tries so very hard! All she really cares about is to know she’s a good girl–she always is!–and to be with me.

Here’s the soup!  (Or, you know, just scroll down for the latest piccie)

Cheysuli’s Silver Belle, CD RE PAX MXP4 MJP3 OFP EAC EJC CGC

CD: Companion Dog.  The AKC novice obedience title, first of three levels.  Belle melted anxiously for her first stand-for-exam, then blew through her next three legs  in the ribbons.

RE: Rally Obedience Excellent.  The AKC Rally Excellent title, the highest of the three levels.  Belle went straight through, mostly with reds and blues.

PAX: Belle’s crowning achievement, AKC Preferred Agility Excellent.  This takes extended, consistent excellence at the highest level of agility performance, with twenty double-qualifying runs (Qs in both standard and jumpers agility for that day).  Belle competes in the Preferred classes because her legs are so short and her body so long, and I refuse to jump her any higher for her own safety; I think AKC fails the long-bodied dogs in this way.  Belle is a blue-ribbon double-Q girl, very consistent, and earned this title in spite of many months of repeated down time due to health issues and limited runs per weekend for the same reason.

MXP4: AKC  Masters Excellent Preferred is for the standard agility class.  It takes ten qualifying runs (Qs) to earn one MXP.  Belle is on her way to #5.

MJP3: AKC Masters Jumpers Preferred is as above, only for the jumpers class.  Belle is close to #4.

OFP: AKC Open FAST.  FAST is a fairly recent class offering not held at every trial; we only started running it last fall, at the trade-off of not entering in the regular classes (I don’t push her on entries).  It involves strategy and distance work.  Belle went straight through her runs from Novice to Open titles, blue ribbon girl.  We haven’t had an opportunity to work toward Excellent yet.

EAC: NADAC Excellent Agility Certificate.  NADAC is an alternative agility venue for us, and one in which we don’t currently compete.

EAJ: NADAC Excellent Jumpers Certificate.  Same as above…

CGC: AKC Canine Good Citizen certified.  This isn’t a title, per se; it’s a certification.  It means Belle has demonstrated to a tester that she has the social and obedience skills to be considered a canine good citizen.

And here she is again!  If you look closely, you can see her grinning…