Legato Australian Shepherds

Riot and Shay .shepherd.girls are absolutely on fire! They came home from this long weekend of shows with 4 new titles! They achieved their rally advanced title with 3 perfect scores of 100 and first places. Then, after completing their open fast, jumpers, and standard agility titles, they knocked it out of the park with a lovely excellent standard run for their first excellent Q!

Riot and Shay started the year with a bang going 3 for 3 Q’s and first places!

Riot and Shay both earned their first ever Open Q’s in Fast and Jumpers! They also earned a second Q for Novice standard.

This team is phenomenal 🤩

Being ready to trial does not mean being error-free. It means believing that your dog can handle foreseen pressures and believing in the plan you have on how you will support them through it.

It’s about believing in your teamwork. It is about believing in everything that came before it. The early mornings. The late nights. The quiet reps. The sessions no one saw. The sessions of successes. The sessions of frustrations. The private grapplings, the public struggles. It is in these moments, when there are no cheers, no applause, no ribbons, that you learn to believe in your dog, yourself , and the process.

Some days, you were on top of the world. Some days, the world was on top of you. Some days you lift heavy. Some days you just show up. Both build strength.

Not to mention the countless moments of doubt. The whisperings of your own mind and the mumbles others don’t want you to hear, but you hear them. You hear them in the silent glances and the criticism spoken out loud veiled as advice.

Yet in the static, louder still, are the steady voices and living examples of patience and belief. These words of encouragement came before results ever showed up, cutting through the noise to pave a way for your own belief.

Belief in yourself is like a muscle: stress it, rest it, nourish it, and it grows stronger.
You believed in the dog. You believed in the process. You believed the work you put in when no one was watching and when everyone was scrutinizing. Belief grows where effort goes.

And now, when you and the best dog in the world trial together for the first time, and every time thereafter, you not only believe you’re ready, you’ve trained to be ready.

Photo credit to !