I will let her happy owner Diane Webb tell the story:  "I'm very proud to report that Olive earned her Rally Excellent (RE) and Novice Obedience (CD) titles today at the Shoreline Dog Fanciers Association trial in Costa Mesa CA.  I can't get the smile off my face.

The conditions were not wonderful (loud, crowded and smelly building, with clumps of dog hair wafting through) and Olive was not very sharp. But she persevered and earned an 81 and second place in Rally Excellent A.  We got off to a very rocky start but Olive settled down and finished the course with a nice backup at heel and a good Honor down.  That was Olive's third qualifying score in Rally Excellent and her RE title!

Then we waited a few hours for Novice B obedience.  I wasn't feeling very optimistic, particularly when I learned we would be between a
rather nervous Terv and a Newfoundland for group stays.  We had some problems with the individual exercises (no sit on the first halt, off to sniff a spot that nailed almost every dog on the Heel Free "Slow", and an auto finish on the recall) but also some very nice moments.  The judge told us that we were qualifying but I knew those groups were coming up.

We did some warmup long sits since Olive has a tendency to lie down on sit stays.  Those went well, but when we were lining up for the Group Stays I could tell that Olive was not happy.  The Terv was absent for stays, so we were between two Newfies.  Olive wouldn't look at me and when we got into position for the sit, Olive once again refused to sit. The judge told me to "physically sit the dachshund" and I did.  And the rest is history!  The two dogs that got up during the Long Sit were at the other end of the line and the Newfies, while gigantic, were good. Olive held her Sit, went into a Down with no problem, and held the Down. I was ecstatic when the judge called "87, the dachshund" as a qualifier!

We got our trademark 3rd place with a 176.  There were 4 qualifiers out of 14 entries with 11 dogs actually competing.  Best of all, that was Olive's third Novice obedience leg and her CD title!

We are done, done, done with all-breed group stays.  I am very grateful to Olive for doing the two all-breed stays and I'm not going to push our luck any further.  I've got a few dachshund specialty trials on my list for 2011 and we'll start working hard on Open and Utility skills.  We will also be honing Olive's rally skills for RAE.

Given that we got Olive in January, I am very pleased with what we've been able to accomplish.  Olive is 6.5 and I'm really looking forward to continuing to work with her.  Thank you, Patt -- both for suggesting that we take Olive and for giving her such good foundation skills.

Our judges today were James Ham (rally) and Sharon Ann Redmer (obedience).  I thought both were excellent, very pleasant judges.  I
also learned that you can physically put a dog into a sit or down for the stays, with a deduction.  I had seen in the rules that you could do
this for the Down but I wasn't sure about the Sit.

I'll be floating on Cloud Nine the rest of the weekend.

-- Diane and FC Autumn Olive von Dorndorf TD CD RE OA NAJ Wa-T BHP-G"

What John and Diane "have been able to accomplish" since first meeting Olive in January is CD in Obedience; RN, RA, and RE in Rally; and NA, OA, NAJ, one OAJ leg so far in Agility!

That's some kind of Awesome! Congratulations to all of you!

FC Autumn Olive von Dorndorf TD RA OA NAJ Wa-T BHP-G was handled by her owner Diane Webb to First Place in the Rally Excellent A class for her 2nd Rally Excellent leg! This was at the Los Encinos Kennel Club event in Long Beach, California. Hey Olive, you are doing some super stuff out there in southern California! Congratulations to you, Diane, and John!