Old dogs, not such new tricks
George Richards & Hummel at Dachshund Speciality 2009 from John Richards on Vimeo.
The handler here is 97 and a half years old. The dog is in the Utility B class and won it. For those not familiar with AKC obedience trials, a dog has to earn three qualifying scores in the Novice class and earn a Companion Dog (CD) title before it can compete in Open obedience classes. It then must earn three qualifying scores in the Open to earn the Companion Dog Excellent (CDX) title to make it eligible to compete in the Utility classes. Once the dog earns three qualifying scores it earns the Utility dog title and can continue to compete in Open B and Utility B classes. This little dog learned off-lead obedience, broad, high and bar jumps, dumbbell retrieves, directed retrieves, hand signals (no voice commands), and scent discrimination, to name some of the many things that this team had to master to earn qualifying scores.
Where will you be when you are 97? Sitting home and watching TV or out pursuing your dreams? I hope you get as much joy from watching this team as I did.
