Walking through crowd:  Vegas ignored crowd, totally relaxed.

Handler greeted by stranger that ignores dog:  Vegas showed interest but did not approach.  Totally relaxed.

Dog greeted by friendly stranger:  Vegas showed interest, did not solicit petting or "suck up," tolerated petting in totally relaxed manner.

Walking over obstacle:  Vegas walked over a section of chain-link fencing on ground, totally ignored the item.

Response to gunshot, hidden source:  Starter pistol fired by a person behind a van as we were walking by.  Vegas alerted to source of noise, attempted to go investigate, remained alert as we were walking by and craned his neck to try to find source of noise.  As I continued to walk, relaxed and came with.

Sudden umbrella opening:  Walking toward a woman in a lawn chair who was looking directly at us, she popped an umbrella open about 10 feet away.  Vegas had a giant startle, to the side on the leash, then without hesitation walked directly toward the umbrella, on alert and careful, sniffed it and immediately relaxed, walked around it to sniff the woman.  Instant recovery from a huge startle, and tendency to go toward rather than back away when frightened.

The next part of the test was about how the dog would react to a threat. 

We approached a van from 40 metres, behind which was a big man dressed in a trenchcoat and carrying a horsewhip.  Vegas could not see him.  Person came out from behind van and slowly began walking toward us, weaving and swaying.  Vegas immediately went to the end of the leash in front of me and was on alert. Man made direct eye contact with Vegas.  Vegas belly-growled.  Man began saying in a loud voice, while still weaving and swaying, "I'm drunk, can you call me a taxi?  Hey, you!"  Vegas pulled on the leash, on alert, and belly growled some more, stood up on his tiptoes, hair began to go up.  Man smacked the ground with horsewhip, direct eye contact and now yelling out threateningly, "HEY YOU, I'M DRUNK, CALL ME A TAXI!"  Vegas went mental, hit the end of the leash, growling, barking, trying to get at the man, and as the man approached closer Vegas got bigger and badder and more mad.  The man by this time was raising his whip directly over his head, only 5 feet away from the end of the leash, slapping the whip on the ground, growling and yelling at us, and Vegas was ready to kill him. 

Then, just like that, the man dropped his arms and ran behind the van.  We were instructed to proceed to the front of the van.  Vegas peed on a weed, gave a big shake, looked up at me and walked along.  When we got to the front of the van, the man met us still with his trenchcoat and horsewhip and approached me in a friendly way.  Vegas was on alert and wary but not threatening, just watching intensely.  As we approached, he looked at me and totally relaxed, and I was able to go directly to the man and shake his hand, and the man squatted down and Vegas approached for a sniff (no sucking up, but just friendly hello) and tolerated petting in a totally relaxed manner.

The evaluator that day, a Schutzhund judge, told me that Vegas was by far the best she scored that day.  She evaluated approximately 50 dogs including German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Vizsla, and some other Aussies.  Approximately half of the dogs did not pass the TT.

She described him as a dog that showed outstanding nerve, superb recovery from a startle, independent thinking and confidence combined with enough handler-awareness to make him trainable.  I told her I already knew all that, but thanks!

It was a cool day for us...and I was proud of Vegas, because I thought that the results of the TT were exactly what any good Aussie should show.  Of all our titles, excepting the stockdog ones, the TT is the one for which I am most proud.