At Platte
Valley's 2007 spring test, I accomplished a goal I've had for
years. At the age of nine, my Grandpa took me to my first hunt test in
Bridgeport. I remember watching these amazing retrievers and their
handlers run a finished test while I thought, someday maybe I could do
that. I was hooked. After running some started tests with a
couple of
the family's retrievers, my dad surprised me by giving me my very own
puppy. This was the beginning of our road to 500 points.
Ranger was the very first dog I ran finished with. We definitely had
some road blocks, but throughout the years of hard work and training, we
became a team. Like it was yesterday, I remember the very
challenging
channel blind we tried to tackle in our first finished test.
Amazingly,
we enjoyed the drive home that weekend with our first finished ribbon.
After a few more passes and some fails, Ranger and I took our HRCH swim
at Panhandle. This was a wonderful dream that I didn't think I
could
top, that was until Ranger became a 500 point dog.
I know I couldn't have made it this far without the help of all the
people in Region 13. I'd especially like to thank my family,
without
them, who would pay for all those entry fees and buy me the training
supplies? I'd also like to thank Bill, Rich, and Pat who got me
started
in HRC and they have given me advice all the way through. And I'd
like
to thank Chris for teaching me more than I could have imagined.
Chelsea gets a Grand Hunting Retriever Champion title on Rigg's River Ranger
