FC/AFC OTCH Smitty’s Winchester Rival UDX2, MH, RE, NAJ
Rival. Photo by Callea Photo.
On June 16, 2006 Rival won the Open B class with a 198 which was also High In Trial. This win became the completion of that wild ride we were on in pursuit of the OTCH!
Rival is an awesome field trial dog and finished her AKC Field Championship as well as her Amateur Field Championship at the very young age of two. She finished her Master Hunter title a short time later with a score of perfect 10’s in all six categories.
She did very well in the Novice B ring earning many placements. I showed her in the Open A ring for the two months that we were eligible and then moved to the Open B ring while we were getting ready for the Utility ring. Rival was so successful in Open A that Front and Finish recognized her as the number one dog of all breeds in their First and Foremost system for Open A that year. When I told Dee Dee about this accomplishment she said that was great but now I needed to beat them (meaning the awesome dogs in the Open B classes)! The great trainer that Dee Dee is, this was her way of setting the bar higher for us. Rival did win some Open B classes for which I am very proud of. Rival finished her Utility title with a 197.5 and three first placements. The journey to the UDX was quite long but by the time we had earned that tenth leg Rival had accumulated 42 OTCH points as well as her first placements in Utility B and Open B. With Dee Dee’s and several of her other students’ encouragement I decided to go for the gold with my little English Setter and try to earn those final 58 points.
It was amazing how many different things Rival could come up with in the obedience ring therefore I always would have a new challenge for Dee Dee when we would have a lesson. Since Rival is a very different dog we had to be quite creative at times to work through her idiosyncrasies. Rival is a fun dog to train, show, and to live with. She is always exciting and entertaining to watch in whatever arena she is participating in. Rival is my third UDX English Setter but my first OTCH! Besides my three English Setter UDX’s there has only been one other. The first English Setter OTCH was in 1980 so it has been twenty six years between our breed’s first OTCH and my Rival’s OTCH! Thank you to Dee Dee Anderson for her expert guidance and support through the years.
– Terry Barnes