AMAZING NEWS!!

Lee Ann and Maggie had one of their BEST weekends yet!

Dear Joy-A-Len Bouvier Owners, Friends and Guests....

Please allow me a chance to brag... "Maggie" is my perfect dog. I know, everyone thinks that their dog is the perfect dog but Maggie has done so much with me and for me. I love her dearly and she continues to amaze me. There is nothing that she can't do! We had an absolutely fabulous weekend at the 2005 UKC Premier in Kalamazoo, Michigan! As you read about our accomplishments at the UKC Premier, keep in mind that Maggie is almost 6 years old, has had 3 litters of puppies and has earned 15 titles. She still has the energy of a puppy, a georgous figure and the dedication to please me no matter what I ask of her... she always gives me her all!

~Lee Ann Layman

On Thursday, June 16th, 2005, Maggie earned the Honor of Top Bouvier for 2004. The Top Ten Dogs for 2004 in each breed were invited to participate and a Best of Breed is choosen! This alone made my weekend wonderful. I would have been content to go home with just this!

On Friday, June 17th, 2005, Maggie was only entered in Agility but it was Level 3 Agility, the toughest level of UKC Agility. A perfect score is 200... Maggie earned a 199 and a 200. She is currently working on her UKC Agility Champion Excellent title. She needs five qualifying scores in AG3... and she earned two in one day. I should mention that this weekend was our very first attempt at AG3! The hardest part of AG3 is that there are several obstacles where the handler can not get closer than 6 feet. I must send Maggie out away from me and get her to perform the obstacle on her own! Again, I would have been thrilled to go home with just the wins from Thursday and Friday!

On Saturday, June 18th, 2005, the UKC was offering TOTAL DOG. Maggie and I have been trying for three years to earn this prestigious award.

On Saturday, there were 874 dogs entered in conformation representing 117 Breeds with a total entry of 1467 including 60 Junior Showmanship entries, 39 Terrier Race entries, 293 Agility entries, 115 Obedience entries and 86 Weight Pull entries. I don't remember the exact number of dogs that were attempting to earn a TOTAL DOG Award but I think it was around 150 dogs. They must be entered in Conformation and a Performance event. To earn a TOTAL DOG Award, the dog must earn Best Male or Best Female or win the Champion or Grand Champion Class or earn Best of Breed, however, they must have competition for their win to count. The dog also must earn a qualifying score in a performance event (i.e. agility, obedience or weight pull).

"Maggie" started off the morning by earning Best of Breed. There were 6 Bouviers entered. By taking Best of Breed, Maggie was halfway to her TOTAL DOG Award. So it was on to the obedience ring. Level 2 obedience is called OPEN. The judge that I had this weekend told me that Open Obedience is the hardest level, if you can get past OPEN, then Utility (Level 3) should be easy. Maggie almost qualified in her Open Obedience class. Her off-lead healing was slow but she stayed with me. Her recall was beautiful and she surprised me with nice retreives, however, she forgot that she was supposed to sit a few times. Then the last exercise got her. She has to sit/stay and when I tell her, she has to run and jump across 4 boards that are laid out on the ground. At her height, she has to jump 48 inches across. She did not qualify in her obedience because she did not clear the boards, you are not allowed to touch them. But I was extremely happy with her because she did everything else and she would have had a nice score if she had only cleared the broad jump! But we still had a chance at the TOTAL DOG Award, we just needed to qualify in Agility!

Maggie is working on a AG3 title but I chickened out and entered Maggie in AG2 for Saturday. The TOTAL DOG Award depended on Maggie earning a qualifying score in Agility. In AG3, you are allowed NO mistakes and must have at least a 195 to qualify! At the time entries were sent in for the show, we had never competed on an AG3 course. Plus, being late in the afternoon on Saturday after three days of showing in several events... we were both tired and I was so nervous! But I have learned to never doubt "Maggie". Her AG2 run was beautiful and I'm sure if I had run in AG3, it would have been just as nice!

She scored a 195... qualified... and earned her TOTAL DOG!

Most dogs completed the course in about 60 seconds, Maggie's time was 80.23 seconds. The Course Time was 83 seconds, she had less than three seconds to spare. She was tired and moving slow but she did it and with a great score! Saturday night was a night of celebration!

On Sunday, June 19th, 2005, I had to practically drag Maggie out of bed for the TOTAL DOG Presentation at 8am. Being beautiful is tiring work! Oh ~ what a thill, to be one of only 38 to earn this award this year! I'm so proud of "My Maggie"!

I let Maggie crawl back into bed as Agility and Obedience were not until the afternoon. The rest did her well... she had another great run in AG3 with a score of 199. This gives her 3 of the 5 qualifying scores she needs for her UKC Agility Champion Excellent title!

Charles & Levon Tomacek of Edgerton, Ohio, own "Roxie" a Maggie & Willem Puppy. They drove up and watched Maggie and I show. It was fun to see a Maggie Baby... and Maggie was excited too. (Thanks for coming to watch... I think it gave Maggie a extra boost of energy at the end of a long weekend). The obedience run was okay, not great but qualifying... however, I lost too many points on Handler Errors. We needed a 170 to qualify and we only got a 165... oh, so close! Maggie qualified but I didn't! It was my fault but after Top Bouvier for 2004, 4 qualifying agility runs, a Best of Breed and TOTAL DOG... all in one weekend.... I didn't care!

I had a fabulous weekend with Maggie and was able to share it with old friends and make new friends ... it just doesn't get any better than that!

Cdn CH, UKC GRCH Joy-A-Len's Jade Gypsy UAGI, UAGII, UACH, UCD, UFO,
NAP, NJP, OAP, OJP, AM CD, CGC, Cdn CD, ASCA CD

Maggie - with her Total Dog Ribbons!

Photo by: The Pooch Photographer

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