Wildrose Teagan II

If Truman Had a Daughter

I was looking for another dog. Why? Because I love playing with horses and dogs!

Truman, at nine years old, is still incredibly healthy, but he is becoming more of a homebody in his senior years. Maybe he’s just more mischievous. He loves to do tricks for treats, run around the property sniffing, and generally being a carefree dog. He isn’t as much into therapy visits or performing under pressure. I will honor that. He worked hard in his younger years.

Bear is a phenomenal therapy dog but working a sensitive dog more than one time a week can result in burnout. Therapy work is emotionally draining for the dog (and sometimes the handler). I wanted to do more therapy work, so I HAD to get another dog.

Enter Wildrose Teagan II, a British field stock Labrador Retriever, conceived in Ireland and born in the USA. (Kelmarsky Crow x Forestview Vesta). She’s super chill (most of the time), very willing, very loveable, sometimes princess, and sometimes heathen leprechaun.

She was 14 months old when I got her. Her intelligence, reliability and desire to please was immediately evident. I knew she would be my go-to dog for performance events. I only had her a short time before she earned her CGC, TKN, passed her therapy dog evaluation, and starred in an article in the Wildrose Kennel newsletter (click here to see the newsletter.)

My Helper Pup

All on her own, Teagan put herself to work as my little helper collecting the dog dishes after everyone had finished eating. Check out what I recorded less than three weeks after I got Teagan. She is much more efficient now. She does this twice a day.

Therapy Dog

Teagan passed her AKC Canine Good Citizen, Trick Dog Novice, and therapy dog control evaluation by the time I had had her three months. I didn’t push her, she asked for work.

Scent Work

Delayed: Teagan was ready to enter AKC scent work trials within two months of coming to our home. I entered her but had to withdraw her because she came into heat. The AKC powers that be don’t want females in season at scent trials, go figure. That won’t happen again, she is scheduled to be spayed. I highly recommend leaving breeding to the professionals.

Finally, her First Scent Trial: Each day Teagan was entered into four classes at two trials, a total of 16 classes at four trials, in two days. (All at the same location)

Day 1 – Teagan alerted differently that when at home. At home when she finds the correct scent, she sits. At the trial, she kind of just looked at me when she found it. A fellow handler said that wasn’t unusual and expressed the possibility that our dogs are more secretive at trials, so that they don’t alert the many stranger-dogs to the secret place they get treats. Who knows?

I misread Teagan in the first couple of classes, but when I got the hang of it, we flew. She q’d (qualified) five of eight which is great for a dog at her first trial day.

She ended up getting High in Trial for the first novice trial.

Day 2

Teagan isn’t the fasted scent dog, but she is very thorough. She qualified eight for eight and took Novice High in Trial at both trials on day 2. Way to go, my cuddly pupper.

A Day at a Scent Trial

If you want to see one person’s experience at a scent trial, my brave friend Tori vlogged her day with her uber-excited, inexperienced dog Maverick and her experienced dog Juneau. This is the raw experience of a handler. Maverick’s first day was very creative on his part and the exception to “first time out,” not the norm. BTW: he did great the second class.