Feeling validated

This past week we had our annual validation trial, which certifies that the handlers and dogs are performing at acceptable levels. I was slightly worried that Benny might have trouble with it; when we did a practice run earlier in the month, he missed two of the targets. He is, after all, approaching retirement age. However, Benny breezed through the problems without any hesitation. When I went to get my results from the evaluators (two supervisors and another handler), they gave me a standing ovation and said that our score was a perfect ten, which is virtually unheard of.

Benny was also recognized by CBP for his recent milestone of making 10,000 agriculture seizures.

Other than that, I didn't do much this weekend. It was too chilly and windy to go outside on Friday, so I stayed indoors and worked on the computer most of the day. On Saturday I did get some more weeding done. I also divided some of my perennial flowers and gave a bunch to my neighbor. I finished just in time, right before we got a bit of rain.