Chica is out of Ariba and Surf.  This was the first litter that I have bred.  Ariba had 4 pups.  2 boys and 2 girls.  We had  theme of The Royal Family since Ariba has always thought she was Princess Diana.  The pups were named King Arthur, Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot and Lady Godiva.   I have a tendency to go with the girls.  Well it did not take me long to decide who it would be.  So much for scientific puppy testing.  Queen Guinevere was 3.5 weeks old when she followed me for about 100 ft. one way as I went to pick up something and then followed me back the same route  while all the other pups sat amid 3 other people who were lavishing attention on them.  She busted out of the puppy pen to find me busy in the kitchen making the puppy breakfast a few days after that.  She picked me out.  You are my person and that is how it went.  She is my dog.  As for the name..............my youngest agility student Aschley Jurgella gave me the nickname of Chica Brickster.  Well if you look at all the dog's previous names...........Mara, Jetta, Misha, Ariba......it seemed quite natural that this dog should be named Chica.  As always my dog's have nicknames.  Her is Cheeker Bees.  Often times just called Bees.  Recently we added another nickname - Chiquita.  She seems like this one as well. 

Tracking is one of my first loves.  It is so easy to teach a young dog to track. 
We were very lucky to get into our first test  for her TD (Tracking Dog)
and pass on 10-10-06!!!

Chica just like her mother Ariba loves to track FAST!!!!!!!!!
She completed her track in 4 minutes.
It is amazing that they can hit all the corners at this speed and do it well.

Chica completed her TDX on 10-21-07.  This was her third test entered in.
She drew the third track.  Our tracklayer happened to have a dog
named Chica.  How unusual.  We passed easily on this day.
The usual pass rate for the TDX is 17%.  So it is a very
difficult title to obtain. 

                     Chica's Sheep Herding Progress

                         Click on the herding picture to view.

Chica knows more about sheep than I do.

She is quite the natural.

AKC Herding

Herding Started

Chica has 2 legs towards her Herding Started title on sheep on 5-10 & 5-11-08.  You need a score of at least 60 out of 100 pts. to qualify.  Her first leg was a score of 80, since Cindy was unclear about the rules of this game despite reading the Herding manual.  The judge for the next day gave us more precise information and we improved our score to 97 which was good for a First Place and also went HIGH IN TRIAL!!!! _________________________________________________________________________

AKC Obedience Titles
 

Companion Dog (C.D.)

The winter of 2007 was long and very snowy.  It was decided that Chica and I would begin training for Novice Obedience and put in 2 months worth of training before showing.  What a smart little girl.   

2-2-08  TRDTC  198 and First Place  Judge – Sharon Hodgen - Wood
2-3-08  198 and First Place  Judge – Lynn Tamms
4-12-08  WRKC– 195.5  and First Place and Judge – Joanna Yund

Video of Obedience Novice Performance

Chica Videos In Agility

9-07 Novice JWW - Watch the ending!  Pretty impressive for a green pup!

11-07 Exc. JWW - First time in Exc. JWW and had the fastest time of all dogs in that class.

Other videos can be viewed on youtube.com   The "tag" words are Chica and Cindy Brick.

Click on The Snow Queen Picture

to View Chica - A Year in Review.