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Monday, October 23, 2017

Autumn weekends are made for fun!

This past weekend was just about perfect.  The sun was shining, the temperature was in the 70s, and the leaves were starting to show their Autumnal colors.  It was one of those rare weekends that beckons you outside, and with Winter just around the corner, we enjoyed every minute.

On Saturday I drove North, to join our local collie club for one of our many fun events.  This time our club held a Farm Dog Certified test.  To earn this title (FDC), a dog has to pass the test twice, so we held a test in the morning with one judge and another in the afternoon with a different judge.  The FDC, or Farm Dog Certified title, is earned by passing a series of test elements.  Per the AKC - "The Farm Dog Certified test is designed to assess the overall conduct of a dog within a typical farm environment. The dog must demonstrate self-control when exposed to livestock and other unique sights, sounds and scents. The dog should exhibit confidence and a willingness to comply with instruction when confronted with a variety of situations. The Farm Dog Certification is not intended to confer herding capability, but rather a foundation of self-control and biddability beneficial to all working dogs."  All 12 of the elements of the test can be found on the AKC website.

After carefully reading through the test, I was pretty confident that Ryder could pass and earn his FDC.  So I signed him up for both the morning and afternoon tests, and of course Ryder did not disappoint me!  He is such a great dog, and he always does whatever I ask of him.  He walked right by the quacking ducks with no reaction when I told him "leave it."  He waited patiently while I fed the chickens.  He hopped up on the hay bales like he had been doing it all his life.  There were many other collies taking the test, and they all passed too, which isn't a surprise, as collies were bred to help with livestock.  But we also had a Great Dane, a sheltie, a Bernese Mountain Dog, a Wheaten Terrier and a Kelpie pass the the test too.  The club had a nice lunch for all the competitors, and the atmosphere was more like a picnic for dog lovers and their best friends.

This was a practice hay bale, not the one used in the test.


Ryder with his winnings!

To learn more about the Farm Dog Certified test, and to find out where it is being held next, you can click HERE.

On Sunday we grabbed a few of the collies, and we headed to our favorite hiking trails.  It was a beautiful day, and the collies were happy to pose for some pictures.







So that is how we spent this beautiful weekend, what did you guys do?

13 comments:

  1. How great! Congrats Ryder. We just recently read about the FDC title. Not sure how pugs would do with that BOL!
    Sounds like we both had a good weekend

    hugs
    Hazel & Mabel

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  2. Congratulations, Ryder! And it sure was a beautiful weekend!
    I love when Mackie comes but I don't like him getting hugs and kisses from MY mom. I like to control him and everything that he does☺
    Mom and I want to thank you over and over again for introducing us to the Dorothy Bodoin books. We are in LOVE with them♥

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  3. Hi there, Congrat's to Ryder and to you for all the training and hard work. The bottom pic is so beautiful and reminds me of what we saw; yes sometime we will definitely have to get back to Conn.
    Love seeing all your dogs-they are so gorgeous(even the males). My hubby gets upset when I say our boy is cute-he says no, he's handsome.
    Hope you have a great Wednesday.
    Hugs, Noreen

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  4. Sounds like a great weekend! So proud about Ryder passing his test. That is awesome!

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  5. congrats Ryder!!! I love such events what are like a family meeting... we had one show by now what gave us this feeling (we failed anyway lol).

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  6. Congratulations, Ryder!! I had not heard of this certification before, but since we have a small farm it's something I'd love to do with a dog someday. I don't think the current crew could pass...but in the future we may have more of a true farm dog (maybe a collie?. :)

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  7. hello ryder its dennis the vizsla dog hay kongratchoolayshuns on yore fdc!!! i did not akomplish ennything neer that last weekend or this weekend i mostly slept it is too bad i kannot git a ribbon for that rite??? ok bye

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  8. Way to go Ryder. All is going well here in Key West.

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  9. I like your blog! I'd never heard of the Farm Dog Certification veggie reading this. Sounds like it would be a lot of fun to do. :)

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