It's time! Time to set those goals for 2026 and beyond! I decided to do away with the short term and long term goals. I'm just going to list GOALS and go from there - no timeline, no deciding what happens this year and what happens beyond. They happen when they happen, or dont. Here we go!!!

2026 GOALS

   ★  Earn Noodle's PACH (Preferred Agility Championship)
   ★  Earn Dolphin's MACH (Master Agility Championship)
   ★  Get 20 Preferred double QQ's in agility with Noodle to earn her PAX title
   ★  Earn Dolphin's TQX (triple QQQ) agility title
   ★  Earn Noodle's TQX (triple QQQ) agility title
   ★  Earn Dolphin's Rally Intermediate title
   ★  Earn Noodle's RACH (Rally Championship)
   ★  Earn Noodle's MJPB title (Master Jumpers Preferred Bronze)
   ★  Earn Bacon's show championship
   ★  Successfully compete with Pizza in agility with no visiting
   ★  Earn Bacon's Rally Novice (RN) title
   ★  Earn Bacon's Junior Hunter (JH) title
   ★  Get a good cardiologist report about Bacon when she turns 1 year old
   ★  Earn Pizza's Master Hunter lifetime achievement award
   ★  Earn Noodle's MH40 (Master Hunter 40)

I am keeping my goals a bit more organized this year, and in steps. For instance, my long term goal might be to get a Master Hunter title on Bacon, but I have to do it sequentially, so the first goal to hit will be getting her Junior Hunter, and we will adjust the goals next year. And, of course, my goals always include spending the best time in the field with my friends and dogs, and traveling to the most fun agility trials with my best friend and dogs. True friendship is so hard to find, I am thankful I found 'my people'. 2026, here we come. Let's gooooooooo!

I started the new year by doing something fun - Bacon had her Canine Good Citizen test today! She's pretty young, and by far the youngest dog there, but she did great. Her walking on leash was a little wonky, but she did a perfect sit stay, and nothing bothered her, she loved all of it. This is her first official title, "CGC" at the end of her name. Hopefully just the first of many, but we shall see.

I am so crushed. AKC just announced that they are AGAIN delaying the MACH to PACH transfer as they don't have their cpmputers ready to handle it. I am furious...I had contacted them just 2 weeks ago asking about it and I was told it was still happening in January. I entered Noodle in a local trial tomorrow (January 2nd), got my PACH bar and ribbon made, and all my friends were going to be there to celebrate after her run. Now I have to wait until AKC gets their crap together and gets the program up and running. Who knows how long that will be? I just pray that Noodle will still be healthy enough to run agility when this finally happens. We have worked so damn hard for this award. I can't believe AKC waited until January 1st, the start date of the program, to announce it's delay.

I am also irritated that now I have to wake up early tomorrow morning because I entered Noodle and Dolphin (who absolutely HATES trialing at this place!). I would have never entered this trial if it wasn't for Noodle's PACH. I could pull, but I hate wasting money like that.

On a side note, I entered Bacon in her first 4-6 month puppy show! It will be in late January. Who knows how competitive she will be, but we will have fun regardless.

I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't in the best mood coming to this trial, with Noodle's PACH celebration cancelled. I was determined to make the best of the day, but unfortunately Dolphin and Noodle had other plans.

The day started off with Jumpers. Noodle was very distracted in the ring, and bypassed a jump to wander towards the judge. I picked her up and walked her out. We cannot have that! Dolphin ran like poop. He knocked a bar from sheer laziness. Probably one of our worst runs in a long time. I KNEW he would run bad here because he hates this place, but I didn't expect it to be that bad! Time 2 Beat was next and Dolphin was even worse - he completely went around the A-Frame, cut behind me just because of lack of momentum, and then knocked a bar. It was frustrating.

FAST was better, as both dogs Q-ed. Noodle actually got the send pretty well, which was tunnel-jump-tunnel. Dolphin was uber slow, but got it. He was so slow, he matched Noodle's time on the same course, which is crazy! Standard was better with both dogs Q'ing. It felt slow, but in watching the video both dogs were better than I thought they felt. Still nothing like they were last weekend. This is just a terrible place for them to trial, it's really crowded with very little room to warm up, and we can't sit by our crates (which I do think affects Dolphin a bit). Oh well, lesson learned, we won't enter here again any time soon.

Noodle and I headed to Dayton at the crack of dawn for a rally trial. She did really well, we ended up scoring a 99 on all three classes (Master, Excellent, and Advanced. I was really happy that she was extra good on some of the elements we have been working hard at - straight fronts, moving down, and our sidestep (this one was better but still needs work).

This makes Rally Triple QQQ #19 towards her RACH! I had miscounted before, I thought she was at #17 but I was wrong (in a good way!). She only needs one more triple QQQ and 34 Master points towards her RACH. That is huge, especially since I just started doing Master a year and a half ago on a whim, with no expectations to earn the big title. It just snowballed, Noodle started doing great, and we started chipping away at the title. God willing, we should earn this title this year, fingers crossed.