06/01/2026
Congratulations 🎊 to Team Talvi 🎊🎁🌟🐾🍀🥳🥰🤩🎉🍾
"Exactly one year ago, it became painfully obvious (literally and figuratively) that Talvi’s agility career needed to come to an end much sooner than I had hoped. Last year at this time we attended the CPE Agility National as our last hurrah after Tavi had been diagnosed with lumbar sacral disease in March of 2025. Despite intensive therapy and rehab, it became clear that long drives to competitions and the subsequent athleticism required to do agility was causing my girl unnecessary pain. I had been planning for a gradual retirement so a sudden end was hard emotionally, but it was the right thing to do.
Last summer I signed Talvi up for nose work classes hoping she would enjoy it as a retirement activity. We all know a dog, a Belgian in particular, needs to have a job and be active well into her senior years, so I was thrilled when Talvi got excited about nose work. Originally my plan was to just take classes and enjoy taking our relationship in a new direction, but as we progressed I started to wonder if Talvi might like to compete. Two weeks ago we attended our first AKC scent work trial and Talvi let me know that yeah, she could possibly play sniff sniff in other situations. 🤷🏻♀️
Today, Talvi said, “BRING IT ON!” and kicked butt. Okay, maybe what she said was, “You didn’t feed me breakfast and I KNOW you have steak in the pouch, so FEED ME!” 😆🤣🥰
Anyway, I’m really proud of my girl and I’m enjoying taking our connection to a different level. After the abrupt end to our agility journey, I feel so blessed to have found something that my girl and I can still do together that she truly enjoys. I am also blessed to have the very knowledgeable and experienced Anke King helping us on this journey. But the ultimate blessing is everyday that my 11 year old bestest girl is happy and active. ❤️❤️❤️"