Well, our first NAC is in the books and I couldn’t be happier! I wanted to run well and qualify and instead Zhora qualified in all four runs (Premier Standard on Friday, and all three NAC rounds), and she finished in 21st place out of 135 dogs. She didn’t run her fastest (it was a very overwhelming environment), but she ran her heart out, I am so proud of her!
Zhora HATES having her picture taken!
Nina came along for moral support. Here we are outside ring 6.
Thank you so much Zhora for this awesome ride!
Rings 1 and 2
Rings 1 and 2
Our stall with Flat Sue (Sue couldn’t come because of injury, so we brought Flat Sue instead!)
Another “not our best weekend” (although Nina was a Time 2 Beat specialist, going 3/3 in T2B and knocking almost no bars!), and our last trial before the AKC National Agility Championship. The judge, Christine Bishop, is one of the judges at this year’s Nationals, so…it was interesting. Her courses were really fun, an interesting mix of fast and running and flowing with very technical sections. She’s in NAC mode, so we saw backsides and wraps and some interesting elements. Very fun. VERY glad Zhora finished on a nice Q today…
Nina Friday Standard (a nice start to the weekend anyway! Q, first place, 31 points):
Zhora Friday Standard (Q, second place, 29 points):
Nina Friday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (she crept up so far on her stay like a creeper that she knocked the first bar!):
Nina Friday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ, she didn’t believe me about the second time into the tunnel, this was a fun course!):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, 19 points):
Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place):
Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ, uncharacteristic knocked bar, I think I showed too much deceleration for a wrap as only the second obstacle so she didn’t have much forward momentum):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (NQ, the rear cross after the weaves set her up for me having to send her out to a jump which put her on the trajectory to the wrong end of the tunnel, also I didn’t indicate the correct end strongly enough. Actually, as my friend Sue pointed out, the real problem was that I was in her line to the correct end, I didn’t give her enough room and actually pushed her off the correct line to the wrong end!):
Nina Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, second place for 8 points behind Zhora, there were only three 8″ dogs and I had two of them, so I ran them with just one dog between them, thanks to Suzanne Holancin for holding the dog I wasn’t running! Both girls qualified too!):
Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ, we did the EXACT SAME sequence in Time 2 Beat, and did it flawlessly, but I didn’t reconnect properly after the blind cross at the aframe):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 27 points, last run before Nationals!):
Some really nice moments (including crazy fast Zhora) but not our best weekend. Zhora earned two JWW Q’s, and a really nice Premier JWW Q (on a course where she and Denise’s Zealous were the only dogs to qualify, perhaps you needed to have a Z name to qualify?). Nina had some gorgeous runs (including a 5.5 YPS JWW run with one lousy bar down) but between us we couldn’t manage a Q. Judge Laura English gave us some fun but very tricky courses. I feel so lucky that Nina is running the fastest she has ever run at nearly 10!
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 17 points):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (argh):
Zhora Saturday Standard (that jump to teeter section tripped up a lot of teams, we were no exception):
Nina Saturday Standard (some really nice bits):
Zhora Sunday Premier Jumpers (Q, first place, she really understands collection vs extension):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q, first place, 20 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (one lousy bar, such a nice run, 5.5 YPS):
Zhora Sunday Standard (I didn’t connect with her after the jump after the first tunnel, which is what sent her off course):
Nina Sunday Standard (I didn’t front cross after the weaves, which is what sent HER off course):
