2016 AKC Agility Invitational
Well the 2016 Invitational is in the books, and an awesome time was had. My girls did the best they have done to date, Nina was awarded the 2015 Top MACH Dog award at the banquet on Friday night, what a great experience with great friends and a really wonderful and positive crowd in Orlando Florida.
Checking out a tree on the way to Orlando!
We rented an agility field on Thursday for practice.
Arrival at the Orange Country Convention Center!
Sue and I all set up in our shared crating space early Friday morning.
Catching some rays out front of the West building at the OCCC
Nina’s slide at the banquet for 2015 Top Agility Vallhund, so proud of her! Picture courtesy of Wendi Pencille
Here it her certificate!
The Royal Canin fairies came in the night bearing gifts!
Zhora and Nina both qualified in Time 2 Beat on the Friday (Nina coming in 9th, Zhora 19th), and Zhora went on to run clean through three rounds, holding on to 19th place out of 139 dogs before I made a stupid mistake in an otherwise perfect Round 4, which I elected not to go back and fix, thus earning us a zero (we needed to go clean to win the breed medallion or be in contention for the finals). Since 11 8″ dogs go to the finals, we were genuinely in contention for the finals, and it was just amazing to have people come up and comment on how well she was running and ask if we’d made the finals after round 4.
One of the talking points read over the loudspeaker for another dog really touched me, the handler said that every time she and her dog ran they won, they either qualified, or they learned something. I am trying to take that to heart going forward.
“Official” videos to follow, Zhora’s Round 1 didn’t get taped on my camera.
Nina Friday Time 2 Beat (Q and 8 points):
Zhora Friday Time 2 Beat (Q and 7 points):
Nina Saturday Round 1 Jumpers With Weaves (NQ, I turned my back on her at the start which caused the bar down, and pulled away in the weaves which caused the pop):
Zhora Saturday Round 2 Standard (Q, 24th place):
Nina Saturday Round 2 Standard (NQ, I pulled her off the panel jump by over-rotating and she didn’t send out when I tried to layer the jump at the end):
Nina Round 3 Hybrid (Q, 16th place):
Zhora Round 3 Hybrid (Q):
Nina Round 4 Jumpers With Weaves (NQ, crowded her in the serpentine and mishandled the jump after the broad jump so she read it as a rear cross):
Zhora Round 4 Jumpers With Weaves (NQ, heartbreaker, I rushed my front cross in the weaves and made her pop the last pole, I didn’t fix it because it wasn’t her fault and she had run so beautifully all weekend, I decided to take the zero score):
On our way home, we took a detour to American Beach on Amelia Island like I did last year – so worth it to walk on the sand, put our feet in the ocean, ground ourselves again, and let the dogs just run around and be dogs for a while….
On to Nationals in March, and the 2017 Invitational next December!!!
