An Excellent Newf

On Saturday, Louie went back into the Rally Obedience ring after a five month break. Before the show started he spent about an hour relaxing in his crate. Even though it's wall-to-wall Newf in there he really does like it.


Louie competed in Rally Excellent which, unlike the novice and advanced levels, requires the dog to "Honor" the dog that runs the course after they do. During the Honor the dog must stay in the position specified by the judge for the entire time that it takes the next dog to run the course. This judge made it tricky by putting an exercise for the rally dog right behind the honor dog. Thankfully Louie did not give in to the temptation to stand up to see who was behind him. He held his stay and successfully completed the Honor portion of the requirements.

Louie cooling down after his performance.

During his trip around the ring, Louie got distracted a few times, but I was able to get him to refocus on me. He did both of the jumps beautifully and did most of the stations well.


Hooray! Louie qualified and got 2nd place! Of course, Mr. Curious had to check out the judge.


We are so proud of our sweet boy :-)


At most of these dog shows people tend to only halfway pay attention when a dog enters the ring. There is just so much going on at once and other people are usually getting their own dogs ready for competition. So I was surprised when a big round of applause broke out when Louie and I completed the course on both Saturday and Sunday. Louie, it seems, is quite the crowd pleaser which is perfect since he loves to be the center of attention.


Louie just melts my heart. Gary, Katie and I love this boy so much. Win or lose he is a very special and quite Excellent Newf.

Stay tuned to find out how Louie did in Sunday's competition...