The Story of
Aust. Ch. Roskyle Pinnochio CDX ET
By Fiona Gilbert

Aust. Ch. Roskyle Pinnochio CDX ET

Amico as he is known to his friends, is a very active and happy dog and It was he who chose me when he was only six weeks old. Since then a great bond has grown between us.
Amico started his obedience training from the time I got him at 10 weeks old and we began our journey in encouragement when we started trialing when he was 15 months old,
The first trial was somewhat of a test, Amico was sitting on a pass until the stays
(These are done as a group with the other dogs that have competed in that class)
We had two dogs break from their position and start to run around, meanwhile other dogs were also breaking from their position while Amico was the only dog left still sitting,
( The required One minute sure took a long time!!) I returned to amico he had stayed !!!
there was clapping and cheering going on around the ring, this event had stopped the whole trial.
I was amazed that Amico had stayed as he is a sighthound after all!!
But there was still work to be done on the down and stay.
I left him and got to the other side of the ring, the dog next to Amico started to bark and the others further down the line broke position, Amico had had enough by now and decided to sit instead of staying on the drop so I decided to leave him there and return when the three minutes was up. Again Amico was the only dog left!
The very next day Amico was in the ring again and this time he passed and also won the ring.
We didn't take long and we were into Novice.This was not such a drama,
Amico's first time in the Novice ring he got his first pass, and gained his second pass at his second trial;
He was sitting on the third and final pass at his third try when he broke position in the stays.
but by the fourth time in the ring he gained his third pass and at the age of 20 months he was now a CD dog

...

The Sit Stay ...........................................................Over the triple

. During the next few months Amico also became an Australian Champion.
We started to trial in open the next level in obedience in June 2003
and that month Amico and I also competed in an Endurance test which he passed easily.
We had been training for this event since the previous April.
In Endurance it is a requirement that the dog pass an obedience test at the start and end of the test and complete a run of 20 kilometers distance
Amico was now Two years old and had his CD, ET, and Australian Championship

Open has not been a straight forward event for us, But we have managed to gain our CDX
It was not as easy or as quick as his CD and ET titles but we did finally get there.
Our next venture is UD,
Amico is one of the very few Italian Greyhounds to achieve these titles and the breed is not known for excelling in this area.
Amico has already shown promise with his UD training and we hope to be back trialing in the near future

Look out for more tales and photo's of Amico soon