Paige came home with me in December of 2003 after a two year wait to get the right field spaniel. I had high hopes
of having not only a show dog, but one that was also capable of earning performance titles. Little did I know that little
brown ball of perpetual sunshine would grow up to be everything I hoped for!
Her show career started off with a bang by earning reserve winners bitch (5 pt major) at
the FSSA national specialty
trailer show. Being the youngest girl in the ring at only 6 months 2 days old, this was a huge win against some very tough
competition. Paige earned her championship easily at just over 1 1/2 years old, with 2 BOB wins over specials, garnering
3 majors along the way. Her next time out as a special Paige went BOS at Waukesha 2005 supported entry.
During her time in the show ring, Paige was also busy working on her performance skills. She had been in training for
tracking and obedience since 8 weeks old. On October 17, 2004 the hard work began to pay off when Paige earned
her TD on her first attempt. Six months later to the day, at 1 1/2 years old, Paige made history by becoming
the first field spaniel bitch (and youngest field ever) to earn the TDX.
This was just the start
of an exciting performance career. Paige went on to earn the Rally Novice, Rally Advanced and Companion dog title earning
multiple placements. In the fall of 2006 Paige and I made our official debut in the field. Paige qualified in 4/5 hunting
events and earned her Junior Hunt title in 4 weeks. I was extremely proud of her as she is my first dog I have
ever trained in hunting and she made it so much fun!
In the fall of 2010 Paige and I made our first
attempts at the Master Hunt level, and I was not
disappointed. She earned 3 MH legs at 2 separate
hunt tests. I was very proud of her ability to take
direction at a distance and the judges were very
impressed by her marking and retrieving abilities.
As we had a litter of puppies in the spring of 2011
we were unable to prepare for the spring hunt
season. However, we plan on finishing up the
Master Hunt title this fall. I am beyond proud of
Paige. There were many mistakes made by me in her
early training that we had to over-come. Through
diligent training we were able to over-come those
issues and now we are working at the Master Level.
Paige's agility career was very slow to start. Paige
started agility training at age 4 however after a
year of training, I was put off by her extremely
slow pace. I was ready to throw in the towel on her
agility career when my husband Jay stepped forward
and asked if he could run Paige. I figured we had
nothing to lose and a new team was formed. In May of 2009 Jay and Paige made their debut in the
agility ring and they earned a leg in both the Novice
Standard Preferred and Jumpers Preferred classes.
Paige earned a 1st place in both classes. Since then
Paige has continued to move forward in her agility
career and in the first part of 2010 Paige and Jay
moved into the excellent preferred class! Not bad
for a novice team.
Although Paige has accomplished
many things so far and we aren't done yet. Her incredible performance drive and willingness to please is every
trainer's dream, and makes training her a pleasure.
Paige is always trained and handled by me for all
her titles with the exception of agility- where she
happily works with her daddy Jay.
Watch
for Paige in 2011 in both the field and performance
ring.
