Sunshine Obedience School-Gerianne Darnell

07/29/2025

The next WCRL rally trial at Sunshine will be September 13-14. You can get a premium list athttps://www.sunshineobedience.com/flyers/2025/September2025premium.pdf

07/24/2025

We will miss you, Jose! ❤️

Just heard that Dr. Jose Martinez passed away last night at the age of 99 years old. Here is a picture of him with his dog Tango and his wife Caryl at
Gerrianne Darnell's Sunshine Obedience Training Center. He was a member of the “200” club, judge, teacher, and owned Golden Retrievers for a number of years. Ours thoughts go out to his family right now.

06/04/2025

Don't forget the WCRL rally trials here at Sunshine June 21-22! These two hooligans are always ready for rally. You can get a premium list athttps://www.sunshineobedience.com/flyers/2025/June2025PremiumList.pdf

05/05/2025

There are a couple working spots available at the Patrick Shannahan Herding Clinic May 30, 31, June 1 here at Sunshine Farm. Border Collies, Kelpies, or Australian Shepherds. You can email me at [email protected] if you're interested.

04/23/2025

The next WCRL rally trials at Sunshine will be June 21-22. You can get a premium list athttps://www.sunshineobedience.com/flyers/2025/June2025PremiumList.pdf

04/13/2025

Another good day for Rita, two more HC points, a HIT, five more Q's, and her Intermediate B sheep title. It was very exciting today that Rita's mom Viv was Reserve High in Trial to Rita's High in Trial, with Rita winning the tie-breaker with their identical scores of 93 1/2 (the only tie breaker we won all weekend, ha!). The tally for the weekend for Rita for her 12 runs was 8 Firsts, 4 Seconds, Three HIT's, One Reserve HIT, two Intermediate titles, and her first three HC points. Thank you judges Kelly Fonkalsrud and Dan DeLegge and the incredible volunteers for all of your hard work and to Dee Nelson for the beautiful picture of Rita. And now, on to the Masters watching :-)

04/13/2025

Rita had another stellar day at the herding trial, going five for five with a First and Second in Advanced A sheep, two Firsts in Advanced A ducks, and a Second in Intermediate B sheep. She also picked up her first Herding Championship point and a Reserve High in Trial. She was too tired to get her picture taken! Me too. Erin and I spent the evening snoozing in front of the Masters replay (Go Rory!). The wind was brutal, thanks to all of the volunteers who made the trial go!

04/12/2025

Rita was an awesome girl today! She was High in Trial in both ranch trials at the BDOC herding trials from the Intermediate class, finishing her Intermediate Ranch title. Her scores were 91 and 88. The judge said she likes to give preference to the advanced ranch dogs for High in Trial because the course is harder, but when a lower level dog is almost perfect there is nothing she can do about it lol. Her first run was particularly nice, sheep, dog and person were all on the same page, that doesn't happen that often! And did we get this run on tape, of course we didn't. Good Girl Rita Margarita!

03/30/2025

We had a great time at the BDOC Obedience Trials this past weekend! Since finishing her OTCH at these trials a year ago today, Rayna finished her VER, her RACH, and this weekend, her Preferred Utility title with a First Place! This weekend was also Rayna's retirement from obedience; we still have a little rally to do as she also added legs four, five and six for her Rally Choice title with three First Places. Here are a couple pictures of GA with judge Chuck Kline, who has been a friend for 40 years (and who was the judge for Rayna's CDX in 2021!), and a fun picture of Rayna passing her articles and gloves on to little sister Rita. I purchased these articles in 2000 for Riva, and they have since also been used by Rick and Rayna, so they have three OTCH's on them :-), can they go for a fourth?! I must admit there were some tears when I walked out of the obedience ring for the last time with Rayna; she definitely over-achieved during her obedience career! Thanks, girlfriend, I'm looking forward to more nosework and tracking.

03/19/2025

I will be holding a fun match this coming Saturday. Rally will be first with a nested course of Novice/Advanced/Master, walkthroughs can begin whenever you get here after 8:30, with the first dog on the line at 9 AM. After rally (around 10 AM? hard to say exactly), we will start with Beginner Novice, followed by Novice, Grad Novice, Open, Grad Open, and Utility. All runs are $10 apiece, second run same dog/same venue is $5. So if you are doing both obedience and detective it would be $20. Detective will be up in the agility building, you will be given a map at check-in with the hides marked. If you ever wanted to see how your dog would do at Detective, here is your chance! Drive slowly up the driveway, exercise your dog on the south side of the driveway (to your left as you drive in), and please pick up after your dog. The address is 11092 240th St., Council Bluffs, email me at [email protected] if you have any questions.

03/10/2025

What a fantastic three-day herding clinic we just had with Patrick Shannahan! Patrick is kind and patient and never tells us we're idiots, even though we sometimes are lol. We are all so very lucky that he comes to Iowa three times a year. The improvement in all of the dogs each time is so fun to see. Here are two short videos of Rita, the first is a drive to two chairs on the ground, the second is a cross drive. I'm very excited about her progress and I have much to work on before Patrick comes back in June!
https://youtu.be/j5wNAqmkuVk
https://youtu.be/WrVTp_yn0DM

03/06/2025

Save the date! Sunshine Obedience School will offer a Detective nosework/Obedience/rally match on Saturday, March 22, starting at 9 AM. Details later!