I’m pleased to announce that on May 18, 2006 Cyrus successfully completed his first level draft title under the Bernese Mountain Dog Club of America rules and regulations. The Northern California Berner Club held the draft test in conjunction with their regional specialty in Vallejo, CA. Despite it being a really long day, me being in a cast up to my shoulder and the warm temperatures Cyrus and I managed to hold it together to obtain his title. Equipment check in was at 7:30 AM and when I got the catalog I saw that Cyrus and I were the last team of the day, which for those not familiar with a draft test makes for a very, very, long day. 13 Bernese Mountain Dogs, a Rottweiler and Cyrus were to be tested.
They walked us through the pattern of the basic obedience and then the maneuvering course which included one visual distraction (someone shaking a sheet ring side) and an auditory distraction (bottles being clanked together). We than walked the half mile freight haul, which started with a hill through thick grass, contained many turns and maneuvering through natural obstacles and ended with a lap around a duck pound. I started to really worry about the duck pond as the path was close to the shore and it had floating buoy's that I knew my water dog would want to retrieve, even if he did have a cart attached to him. I asked the chief steward after the walk through if we were allowed to bring our dog around the duck pound again and thankfully he said yes. So shortly after Cy and I walked down to the duck pond planned our strategy along the way, his eyes lit up when he say the water and I had to have a serious talk with him about not going in the water and threatened him by saying he would have no more girlfriends come over if he went in, that seemed to do the trick :)
After a few hours of sitting around my boy started to get restless again so we took about another half mile walk. Cyrus is a very fast worker which for me makes this test harder than the Newf. draft test because this test is all on leash and at ALL times you must have a "J" in your leash and if the leash goes taunt at anytime you automatically disqualify. So I have a fine line of burning off his restless energy but leaving enough energy for the test. Finally, sometime before 3PM and with temperatures now around 80 degrees it was our turn in the ring. Twenty minutes prior to going in the ring I left Cy with another handler so he could see me but not get to me so when it was our turn my momma's boy was all eyes for me and sharp and ready to go. His obedience was excellent, recall record speed, harness and hitching no problem. I felt like we flew through the maneuvering course, he listened well and took each turn slow and very controlled, I held my breath through the narrows (which DQ'd us last time) and had the strategy of only letting him take on step at a time through it which worked very well. Poor boy only had a few minutes to rest in the shade before loading the freight and heading out for the freight haul.
Originally my strategy was to ask permission to pass all the dogs up and position ourselves first since Cyrus is so fast but as we headed out I could tell the boy was getting tired and despite still having to use our SLOW command a lot we were able to hold our position. We had a slight problem starting out as we gained momentum to take the hill the dog in front of us stopped mid hill which caused us to have to stop at the bottom of the hill. Once Cy feels a heavy resistance he does not want to pull, I waited for the dog ahead to get to the top and took the hill parallel started a slight jog with him and made a hard right up the hill, I yelled and cheered him on and the boy dug in with all his Leo might and made it. Once on top all the dogs were bunched together waiting to go through some trees, Cyrus laid down and I was afraid would not get up after that. Once it was our turn it (you can only use voice commands and no leash tugs) it took a couple of tries but he decided to get up and continue on and work for mom.

                        The rest of the course he did me proud and listened very well even around the duck pound. At the end of the day three Berners, the Rottweiler and Cyrus past the test and earned their Novice Draft title. On a side note a family came out because they heard there was going to be a Leo testing, I spoke to them The family with two little girls absolutely fell in love with Cyrus, they even sat around for a while just to watch him test. I'm so proud of my boy no just for obtaining his title but once again for being a great representative of the breed by being sweet and gentle with the kids, so well behaved as well as making lots of new Berner doggie friends. The Northern California Bernese Mountain Dog Club was great, I thank them for allowing us to test with them they were very nice and supportive and very helpful to Cyrus and I, after yesterday I think a lot of them turned into Leo fans :)