The National Amateur Retriever Championship concluded Saturday, and the winner is FC/AFC Cody Curt a Lean Grade (Grady). This is especially poignant, as Grady was ill for quite a while as the result of a grass awn. Diagrams and photographs of the tests, plus a runnign blog of the competition are available at:

http://2011narcreport.theretrievernews.com/

Congrats on a wonderful accomplishment! Peggy....what is "grass awn"? TIA

It is the seed of a grass. Some have very sharp appendages that get stuck in dogs' ears, nose , or body. They can keep working their way inward and cause great problems, even death.

Tks Peggy. It's a term I haven't heard before but agree...they can be ugly! Glad he's recovered & kicked butt at this trial!!

In California we called them foxtails. Horrendous if a dog took a long sniff in the wrong place.

So they are what I was thinking! We call them foxtails here too! I know there's something called "cheat grass" that can cause problems as well.

Foxtails are a particular species of grass. We don't have that species here in Wisconsin, THANK GOD! And Grady was on Mike Lardy's truck, so I suspect his awn was from another species of grass. But I would love to live the rest of my life without ever having to deal with foxtails!

Peggy.....I hope that your wish comes true!