Never Again!

There are so many unsung heroes out there. This week I learned about Arie Van  Mansum. Born in Holland, he emigrated to Canada after the war. During the war he helped hundreds of Jews escape the Nazis. He himself was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned. He didn't talk much about his experiences in the war until he realized that people either had forgotten about what happened or didn't believe in the Holocaust.

How did I learn about him? Through an award that is given educators who have significantly helped their students understand the history of the Holocaust and the dangers of hatred, discrimination and anti-semitism.

The 2025 recipient is my nephew. He's a local high school teacher who has always had an interest in history especially World War I and World War II. He had been to Vimy twice, once while in high school and once while in university.  This year he has also been selected to lead a group of students on a battlefield tour.

All his interest in history is not to say that he glorifies war but that he understands the sacrifice and the loss that is involved to maintain our freedoms. 

"The evil forces of racism can emerge in the world at anytime and it is possible for the individual to make a choice to resist them." 

Arie Van Mansum

Hopefully in these days where discrimination is all around us, each one of us can do a little to make this world a better place.

Never again should apply to all peoples!

One Lovely Blog Award

The rules of the “One Lovely Blog Award”:

1. You must thank the person who nominated you and include a link to their blog.

2. You must list the rules and display the award.

3. You must add 7 facts about yourself.

4. You must nominate 15 other bloggers and comment on one of their posts to let them know they have been nominated.

5. You must display the award logo and follow the blogger who nominated you.

I would like to thank Chase for nominating us; we're so excited, it's our first award.

I'll add facts about me, Beckett and Keltic since the blog is about all of us.

1) I'm (Helen) the oldest of six children, five girls and one boy.

2) Beckett has one dew claw; the breeder missed removing it, he was such a wiggly puppy.

3) Keltic likes to have his tummy rubbed.

4) Keltic goes absolutely crazy mad when he sees squirrels.

5) I've been told that Beckett's tail looks like it has a white hair extension; it kinda does as the white is only to one side.

6) Both Beckett and Keltic love sweet potato chips.

7) Keltic doesn't like to ride in the car and I have to trick him to get him on leash when he knows we're going in the car.

My nominations but I don't have 15 so I'll just nominate those I enjoy and follow (you do not have to reciprocate):

4 Dog Craziness

Cowspotdog

Lassiter Chase and Benjamin the Shelties

Mitch and Molly

Pippa Sheltie

Sara's Blog

Seaside Shelties

Susie and Sidebite

Yvonne's Shelties

Beckett - Award of Merit!!!!

This past weekend Beckett got his Bronze Award of Merit at a Morning Star Dog Academy trial. The title is granted to a dog that has earned ten qualifying scores in the Master Standard event and twenty-five qualifying scores in the Masters Games events. That might not sound like a lot but first you have to get into Masters and then you have to earn your Agility Trial Champion (ATChC) title as the Award of Merit is a post-ATChC award. Some people earn it faster than we did that's for sure but most of them trial a lot more than us and their Q rate is probably better than ours. After being injured this past spring I didn't think we would see this goal being reached this year but Beckett got three Master Standard Q's out of  four Standard events. That's much better than our average Q rate which I would estimate is about 20% to 30% even less for Master Gamblers.

This was the course that gave Beckett his 10th Master Std Q, he already had the 25 Games Q's. It wasn't the prettiest of runs, I wasn't sure we had even Q'd as out of the chute Beckett headed to the tire (obstacle 10) and I had to call him back for the teeter. I wasn't sure if we had been called either for a refusal or for not having a good line to the teeter. The rest of the course ran quite well. I worried about the tunnel (obstacle 14) after the dog walk, I thought Beckett might spin too much and get a refusal, but he was good. He did one spin off the dog walk and then scooted right into the tunnel. Unfortunately, you'll have to trust me on how it went as only half of the run is on the video; the person who was videoing the run tried to zoom and accidentally shut off the video. The next Standard run was a train wreck, one refusal, one knocked bar and an off course so thankfully we already had the Q for the title. I should say the two titles as with this one Q, he also earned his Expert Bronze Standard title for the 10 Std Q's.

Beckett - Master Std 3 (the first half)

We also did two Master Snooker runs. The first one I thought was our best chance for getting a Q but Beckett knocked a bar in the closing and so we were out before we had enough points. Snooker is so unforgiving that way; as soon as you fault in the close you're done and there are many ways to be whistled off in the opening too.

The next Snooker was quite a difficult course. When I walked the course, I decided we were just going in to have fun so I didn't focus on my plan as much as I normally would have. I didn't think that I could get to the end of the straight tunnel in time to get him to the tire without having him start to spin on me. Just before I went in to run, I changed my plan and decided I would just run to the tire and cross behind him on the landing side of the tire. So with that I got him through obstacle 4 then in the few seconds until the first jump of obstacle 5, I had to recall what direction to take 5a. Luckily my memory didn't fail me; it was a lucky thing that while walking the course another competitor thought the jump was numbered incorrectly so we had taken a last look at the course map. I also wasn't sure about which way to take obstacle 7, the combination obstacles are usually multi-directional in the opening but as numbered in the close but I just did what seemed right and waited for the whistle which didn't come. We had enough points after 6 to Q so it wasn`t a big risk. Another Q for Beckett, he now needs only two more Master Snooker Q's for his Bronze Expert in that event.

Beckett - Master Snooker Q

The day before Keltic also had a good day at a More Dogz Starter and Advanced trial. While he didn`t get a Starter Standard Q, he did get an Advanced Snooker Q in his first time out in that event at the Advanced level.  

I did, red jump, frame, red jump, obstacle 6 (jump, tunnel, jump), red jump and obstacle 6 again before starting the close. Keltic missed his weave entry so we were whistled out then but we already had enough points to Q. 

Overall another awesome agility weekend and the weather was beautiful too. The only down side was that it was my last weekend before going back to work after 5 weeks off. 

Bronze Award of Merit

At our last trial at Dream Fields on 18 April, Tucker got the last qualifying score he needed for his Bronze Award of Merit. That award is given for 10 Standard qualifying scores and a total of 25 qualifying scores in the Games events. Tucker already had his Games qualifying scores and needed just one Standard for the award. He also was awarded his Bronze Expert Standard, a new award just implemented by the AAC this year. Ten qualifying scores in any event gives you the Bronze expert award in that event. Three Bronze expert awards gives you a Bronze Versatility award. I'm hoping we can get the Versatility award this year. I'll upload a video of Tucker's Standard run soon.