ADIRONDAC BELLE TESS  MH
Qualifies for Master National

Tess was easy to recognize as a golden with lots of drive and smarts, even as a very young puppy. She kept me on my novice toes from day one. She breezed through JH inside her first year in the spring of 2003. The following fall she earned the WCX at the GRCA in Ohio. I rushed right on into Senior tests without realizing how much more difficult they were and how limited my experience was as a trainer and handler After a couple of very suspect performances, I understood that I needed more experience and a better foundation for Tess.

Connie Cleveland provided the needed expertise for both Tess and me. We trained regularly and let the hunt tests go until I felt more confident. Just before her third birthday, she passed her final leg for SH and exactly one year later she qualified for Master Hunter. During the fall of 2006 and the winter of 2007 she ran the board with five straight wins to qualify for Master National.

She is a very confident worker in the field with loads of style and speed. At a recent hunt test she completed her eleventh Master qualification. The judge was complimentary in his remarks including an offer to buy her should I ever decide to let her go. Fat chance!

ADIRONDAC BLUE RIDGE BARTY  MH Qualifies for Master National

I have a picture in my study of Barty when he was a four month old pup in a frame which is labeled "Pick of the Litter." As he approached his first birthday I was not so sure. As he approached his second birthday, I was beginning to think that he might qualify as pick of anybody's litter. His half sister, Adirondac Belle Tess, blazed from the start, but Barty took his own good time. Fortunately, I followed the advise of Carol Lantiegne, his breeder, and let him develop at his own pace. Always a fast learner, he just seemed to do everything in slow motion compared to Tess. Then the drive so present in his breeding started to kick in. I watched in amazement as he blew through Senior and Master titles and qualified for Master National by the time he was little more than two and a half years old. As one of the judges watched him finish off one of his last Master legs, he said "My, it must have been a pleasure to train that dog." Amen!