I Titled!

Hi, it’s me, Xena! I know y’all were waiting to hear, so here I am, letting you know I got my Level 3 Canine Freestyle title. Here’s a picture of me with my ribbons. I can’t eat them, but I’ve been promised some steak for lunch. There’s also a bottle of Prosecca Champagne in the picture. Obviously, I’m not allowed to drink that, either. More about that in a bit.

Can you tell I’m still at the hotel? It’s much nicer than last time, when we went away for me to earn my Level 2B title and Mommy got mad and we changed hotels late at night. This is what happened. Now, before I go on, I want to tell you about my new friend.

On Saturday I met a nice Standard Poodle named Malachi. His Mommy is a dog groomer, just like my Mommy. He has sort of an Asian blend groom, which she did just for our get together in Ohio. He told me when he gets home that he’s getting his legs and body shaved so that he doesn’t have to get brushed all the time. Sounds like a plan.

Malachi was a Level 2. It was his and his Mommy’s first time to try to title. Level 1 is “on-leash” and we’re allowed to skip that level if we (we=the dog and the Mom or Dad) agree that the Mom or Dad can behave off-leash and stay with their dog. Even though Malachi’s Mommy was really nervous, he performed outstandingly with her and they got the equivalent of best in show on Saturday.

On Saturday, Mommy was really nervous and I picked up on that (of course) and I lagged behind and didn’t do everything we had rehearsed. Mommy was really surprised when we titled. We had to get at least 65 points to title, and we got 68.5 points. That is the first ribbon in the picture The second ribbon is for us coming in first in our class (Level 3). It didn’t matter that I was the only dog performing in Level 3. I was still #1! And everyone kept saying how cute I am. That should count for something, too, right? Especially since I had to put up with another bath that morning to be so cute.

Even though we got enough points to win the title, Mommy didn’t think we deserved it. We had a chance to perform again on Sunday to try to get a better score and a performance that didn’t embarrass us both. We knocked it out of the park on Sunday. (I heard Mommy say that, and I could tell it was a good thing.) I couldn’t get titled again, but I did get a score of 70.5 – two points higher – and another first place ribbon. All the other peeps were telling Mommy how great we looked out on the floor, what a great team we were, how we flowed together and gooey stuff like that. I even made up a new Freestyle figure toward the end. Mommy did real good following me, too! Now that’s teamwork.

Did you see that bottle of champagne in the first picture? My new friend Malachi won a bottle and wine glass just like that on Saturday. Mommy kept looking over at the one still there on Sunday, thinking, I sure would like to win that.

At the very end of every Freestyle event, one or two dogs and their people get called up to the front. Mommy was thinking Let is be us, let it be us. And it was!! It was us and Malachi!

I tied with Malachi for the award for High Artistic Achievement and the Joan Tennille award. (Joan Tennille and her husband Carl were the founders of the Canine Freestyle Federation.) I won that bottle of champagne and the glass for my Mommy! And Malachi’s name and my name will be engraved on the Joan Tennille plaque. I’m famous!

I am Xena the Title 3 Schnauzer Warrior with two titles, three new ribbons, and a half empty bottle of champagne.

Pee Ess: We’ll post my video as soon as my Daddy – who was the official videographer – gets it ready.