Reflections on the old year, Looking forward.

2009 was a bittersweet year for Windsong.

In January, we lost our beloved Deacon. He was just shy of his 14th birthday when he began to fade. Finally, he told me he was ready and we made that last trip to the Vet together. I would never leave him 'to go' alone. Saying goodbye is part of being a good dog owner, but it stinks.

In February, the long awaited Riley made a surprise appearance on Friday the 13th. She wasn't planned for a couple of weeks. She is a real beauty. Her older brothers and sister enjoy wagging her around so she should never lack for playmates.

In April, our dear, sweet Star went home. We enjoyed her while she was here and missed her terribly when she left us. We had hoped that a local friend was going to adopt her, but when we made the home visit, the friend had an allergy attack that lasted for days. She was allergic to the mold in her garden that Star played in. She was so upset, she had already told all her friends that she was getting Star. She wanted her so badly, but it just wasn't to be.

April was also specialty month and Destiny and I loaded everybody up and made the trip to St. Louis. We had a wonderful time and were thrilled when Taiko garnered a placement (4th) in the very competitive Bred-By-Exhibitor class. That was Sweet.

Spring and summer weekends were filled with field training, but the group we joined was so far ahead of us that often the terrain and tests they set up were too advanced for our level. With great frustration, we left the group and plan to start over in the spring. Hopefully, we can find some folks training new pups and start in with them, advancing as they do, laying the proper foundation. Better trainers may be able to train their pups on Master level training scenarios, but I need to start at a beginner level and grow the dog to more difficult levels as he learns.

We ended the show year in the fall with both Ziva and Taiko earning their first majors. We'll keep our eyes out for a show where other Curlies are going in 2010.

Throughout the year everyone took either obedience or rally classes and they all took agility classes. We wound those down in November due to my cough/cold. December is typically our month off because of erratic holiday scheduling.

We ended the year quietly, with everyone canine in great health.

The new year holds lots of training classes in obedience, rally and agility. And we hope to start tracking classes too. We'll worry about showing if the economy improves for us. We'll be very busy, and that is very good for us!