April 17th & 18th

Earthdog done right! This was the word we got from one of our judges for the week-end. High praise indeed. It was a wonderfully orchestrated week-end. The weather was absolutely beautiful, and Owl Hollow Farm was in tip top shape thanks to Gary Howlet and his crew. Pat Matsuo did a wonderful job for us as our test secretary.Check ins,and "day of" entries all went smoothly.It was our first shot at doing two tests on Saturday and as usual we found a few things that will make it go better next time. We had a good qualifying rate with only a few creative performances.True to form, it was my Rita who was the most creative. Who knew there's a rule against running Senior and Master at the same time? As a most pleasant addition to the week-end, three of our kids showed up and spent Saturday evening and part of the day on Sunday with us. They're a fun bunch. People I truly enjoy spending time with.

Did I mention a party? Our traditional threebie ( Beer, Blues, and Barbecue )party just keeps getting bigger and better. The FOG ( four old guys ) blues band provided the entertainment for the evening once again, and it seems the older they get, the better they sound. There was domestic beer and wine as well as some great microbrews from The Carolina Brewery. Rumor has it that there was a bottle of Johnny Walker red label circulating among the VIP's.

Our AKC rep Barbara Tiegen was with us this week-end. It's been a year now since she came down and did a judges seminar for us. There are a number of us now who have completed all or part of our required apprenticeships to get our judging license. Some of our friends from Rivana River, Gail Warnick, and Paul Emanuelson, were with us this week-end doing IQ and apprenticing. They have given me my first assignment, judging IQ and JE on May 1st and 2nd in Palmyra.

Barbara did a write up on our event for the AKC web-site. It is very well written and has over 30 pictures! I don't know how in the world she kept up with everything, but all of the pictures have captions with names of people,and dogs, and in some cases which leg of which title! Great job Barbara. Thank you. You can find that write-up at

http://www.akc.org/events/earthdog/carolina_terrier/2010/ .

There will be some pictures coming soon. Stay tuned. We'll be making a few improvements to our site, and as always looking for ways to make this better and more fun.