Super Maltese - Day 18

 Rugby was great. He made it through both days and although he was noticeably tired at the beginning of the second day, a long nap after Ring 3 and lots of treats pepped him right back up. He missed only one exercise between the two days (signals of all things!) on the first day. The rest of his 16 runs were clean, and he held both of his stays on Saturday. The photo below is a picture of the top four dogs overall, as well as the top four dogs in each group lined up at the beginning of the award ceremony.

The total of all possible points from both Saturday and Sunday was 1420. Of that, Rugby earned 1342. With those 1342 points, he got a giant blue ribbon for #1 dog in the Toy Group, and was also High Scoring Maltese. Overall, he ranked #29. I was thrilled with him.

I never thought my green, three year old Maltese that has only shown in Utility approximately 10 times (including non-qualifying runs) would do so well at the NOI. He managed his energy wonderfully, he was fairly consistent, he tried his hardest and he celebrated every run with a dance. I couldn't ask for anything more from Rugby.

We head back home to Maryland tomorrow, where we can upload all the videos and start to process the whole weekend. We have lots of stories to share! Thursday is another big day for us, but it does not involve Obedience. Stay tuned.