Well, today was one of the best agility days I have ever had, at the Admiral Perry Obedience Training Club AKC Agility trial, under judge Windle Ewing, BOTH Nina AND Zhora double Q’d! Nina for #11 and Zhora for #10 (halfway to her MACH already, in less than 8 months!). The courses were tough and technical, and the Q rates were low, but my girls really liked them and ran them beautifully. I am so very, very proud of my girls, they gave their all today, they listened beautifully, and they did their jobs with style and joy.
We joke in agility if you’re having a bad weekend in terms of Q’s, that maybe it’s “double Q Sunday”, well today was DOUBLE double Q Sunday! I am on cloud 9.
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and 10 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, third place and 16 points, part 1 of QQ #11):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q and 11 points, part 1 of QQ #10):
Nina Sunday Standard (Q, third place and 26 points, part 2 of QQ#11):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, fourth place and 18 points, part 2 of QQ#10):
Here is a very lovely note from Jan Robles, who owns Lobo (Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS CDX CGC RATM):
“Lobo, Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS (Mystarz Baileys Blazer X Vastogota Nina Ricci), was first introduced to the sport of Barn Hunt on July 13, 2013 in Pendleton,OR just shy of his first birthday. On August 24, 2014 Lobo was entered in his fist Barn Hunt trial. On November 1, 2015 Lobo earned his Master’s title. From day one Lobo exhibited the drive and passion that one hopes to see in a working dog. After the initial workshop, we did not compete in Instinct and went straight to Novice. We went months between trials and never had practices or workshops in between. Lobo clearly showed the drive and desire to work despite the lack of practice.
In this day and age when stock is not readily available to many Vallhund owners I think Barn Hunt is a reasonable option to verify working ability. Our breed was supposed to herd cattle, control rats and be a general purpose farm dog. The sport of Barn Hunt gives us an option to cultivate our breed’s working ability, drive and desire. If we don’t use it, we lose it.
To date, there are 19 Vallhunds with Barn Hunt titles. 6 have Novice and 2 have Open. There is 1 Master.
For almost 25 years I raised, titled and bred Belgian Malinois. I always bred Champion/performance titled dogs. I did not produce litters that were all working dog capable even though that was my goal. We need to pay special attention to the qualities that define our breed or we will end up with dogs that can not or will not work.
In the sport of Barn Hunt, I have seen way too many Rat Terriers with absolutely no desire to hunt. That is appalling and I don’t want to see us go down that path with our incredible Vallhunds.”
Such a fun trial with judge Christy Bowers! Zhora went 3/4 and continued to increase her speed yet again, breaking 5 yards per second in jumpers, placing two out of three times (and in the run she didn’t place in, she came 8th and the top 8 dogs were within 2 seconds of each other), and earning double Q #9. Nina was one stupid handler trick away from double Q #11 today. I was hoping it would be double double Q Sunday today, especially since Christy was playing Neil Diamond this morning while we walked, and since he was mum’s favorite, I was hoping it was an omen! And then both girls got jumpers but…so close!
Zhora Saturday jumpers (NQ but nice run):
Zhora Saturday standard (Q, fourth place, 23 points):
The score sheets from 12″ Standard on Saturday
Nina Saturday standard (NQ but nice run):
Zhora Sunday jumpers (Q, no placement but over 5 yards per second, 17 points):
Nina Sunday jumpers (Q, second place, 21 points):
Zhora Sunday standard (QQ #9, third place, within a second of first place! 24 points):
The score sheet from Sunday 12″ standard
Nina Sunday standard (NQ, all I needed to do was tell her “come table” after the jump after the dogwalk, lovely run anyway, AND she came to the table so fast her front feet came off, which isn’t a fault, just restarts the countdown, and she pulled them back up to save us a table fault, what a great girlie!):
HUGE congratulations to Jan Robles and Lobo (Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS) on becoming the first Swedish Vallhund to earn the Master Barn Hunt title (RATM)!!!
This is a tough title to earn. Lobo had to earn five qualifying legs at the Master level, with a RANDOM number of rats to find (there are eight tubes on the course and anywhere between one and five can contain rats, it’s decided by the judge and is different for each dog). He also had to negotiate tunnels with up to five turns.
And all in under 4 1/2 minutes!
Jan and Lobo (who is just three years old) are an incredible team!
Only one single Q on the whole weekend on Carla Boudrot’s fun courses, but wow…I am grinning from ear to ear anyway! Zhora seems to have found another gear, she is running just incredibly well: her confidence, speed (we used to be in the bottom couple of times, now we are pretty consistently in or near the placements) and ownership of her part of the team have all just exploded over the last couple of trial weekends. She is getting sassier and sassier, too! Nina ran well but she and I couldn’t get it together for a Q, one of us messed up every chance, but wow, I smile every time I run my Ninabean, she is so much fun and so so fast!
This was also our first try at the new Premier class (it just started at the beginning of October), it was really fun to see threadles and backsides and skipped obstacles. Zhora’s run yesterday was gorgeous, a handler error kept us from a Q but she ran really, really well.
As an added bonus, Riley, Colby and Austin were all there, so we had a mini Alkemi family reunion!
L-R Colby (Alkemi Batman LS), Riley (Alkemi Aston Martin LS), Zhora (Alkemi Blade Runner LS), Austin (Alkemi Austin Healey ST) and mum to all Nina (Vastgota Nina Ricci)
Nina Saturday Jumpers:
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (I cost us a Q! She missed a weave pole but the judge didn’t see it, so I went into training mode and tried to pitch and run at the double and it didn’t work…we would have qualified if I hadn’t!):
Nina Saturday Premier Jumpers:
Zhora Saturday Premier Jumpers (soooo close to a Q, very very few people are qualifying in this class so far so listen to the crowd when we NQ):
Nina Saturday Standard:
Zhora Saturday Standard:
Nina Sunday Jumpers (such a nice run, one stinking bar):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q and 11 points, fifth place, less than a second out of the placements):
Nina Sunday Premier Standard:
Zhora Sunday Premier Standard:
Nina Sunday Standard:
Zhora Sunday Standard (I cost us the double Q by not front crossing before the teeter, asking her to stay on the teeter, WHICH SHE DID LIKE A GOOD GIRL, and then not actually capitalizing on that and getting into position properly! BAD HANDLER!):
Some tough, deceptively trappy courses from judge Linda Syner. I was thrilled with how my girls ran, even though the Q’s were few. Zhora earned her highest point total and fastest yards per second in standard to date, including a THIRD PLACE, which is tough to do around here since we trial with some of the fastest 12″ dogs in the country, she is running really well, she has really sped up a lot and is starting to run like she really gets the game. Nina had a 50% Q rate on the weekend, unfortunately not on the same day. As is her usual pattern, the more we trial, the better she gets, the mojo was really working for us.
Nina Saturday Jumpers (first place and 19 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (not a Q but really happy with how she ran, that first bar down seemed to take FOREVER to fall):
Zhora Saturday Standard (third place and 23 points! Best yet!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (not a Q but I worked distance on the weaves and was very pleased! That off-course yellow tunnel sucked in MANY MANY dogs):
So thanks to a camera glitch, none of my runs ended up being recorded. Which is a real shame, since Zhora went three for four again, ran her fastest Jumpers run to date, and Nina broke her NQ streak with a gorgeous Standard Q and first place today. Oh well…
Zhora earned double Q #8 with a 13 point Jumpers run and a 19 point Standard run on Saturday, and qualified in Jumpers on Sunday with 12 points.
Nina qualified in Standard in Sunday with 27 points and first place.
PLUS! Yesterday Colby (Alkemi Batman LS) and his mom Nichole Buryta earned their very first title with his Novice Jumpers (NAJ) title. Riley (Alkemi Aston Martin LS) and his dad Chris Buryta had beautiful runs and one lousy bar kept them from a q in an otherwise perfect jumpers run. And today Colby and Nichole earned his SECOND AKC title with his Novice Standard (NA) title AND Riley and Chris qualified in Novice Jumpers!
Zhora seems to LOVE this trial site in Niles, Ohio! She went 3 for 4 last time, and 3 for 4 this weekend, including pulling off double Q #7, and working through a reverse sneezing fit at the start of her Jumpers run today! Her work ethic really impressed me, she also worked through a stupid handling mistake I made and saved the Q (I would never have gotten away with the mistake if she’d been running at her normal speed).
Judges Sandra Moody (LOVED her!) and Howard Etzel set some tricky but fun courses with subtle traps.
Nina had three JOLT (Just One Little Thing) runs, including what would have been a Standard Q yesterday that I STOLE FROM US by screwing up a front cross placement and ending up having to jump a jump, Nina was perfect, I was….less so. Her last run today had two bars down so I took her off (an experiment I am trying).
Takeaway pluses from this weekend (other than Zhora’s QQ of course!): Nina had PERFECT contacts, Zhora got 4/4 weaves and didn’t even blink at the teeter after bailing off it at Countryside a few weeks ago, plus really getting a concrete example of her work ethic.
Nina Saturday Standard (in which I entertain the crowd and throw away an all-too-rare Q):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and 11 points):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (JOLT!):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q and 21 points and part 1 of QQ #7):
Nina Sunday Standard (JOLT!):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q and 7 points and part 2 of QQ#7, work ethic to spare, she is slow because she is reverse sneezing, bad handling error that she saves, you can see she starts running more normally once we reach the triple):
Our first trial back at Countryside in two months! Judge Abbie A. Hanson had some interesting, trappy courses, most with “country driving” and “city driving” sections. Zhora earned her Time 2 Beat title, and had some lovely runs, Nina got two standard legs.
This was the last qualifying weekend for the AKC Agility Invitational, so the Gordon Setter Club cleverly invited two judges with wonderful courses and generous wheels to their trial, and ended up with a full trial (Saturday and Sunday anyway), which is unusual these days! We were in North Olmsted, Ohio.
Judges Christie Bowers and Dan Faulkner set some lovely, flowy, fast courses for us, and the dogs had a blast.
Nina got double Q #10 on Friday, Zhora had a beautiful standard Q Saturday but then a HUGE crack of thunder and heavy, loud rain started just as we entered the ring for Jumpers, and that put the kibosh on a double Q. She ran beautifully all weekend, but couldn’t pull off another Q.
Nina Friday Standard (3rd place, 32 points (against some of the fastest 8″ dogs in the country!) and part 1 of QQ#10!):
Nina Friday Jumpers (16 points for part 2 of QQ#10!):
Zhora Saturday Standard (20 points, almost her best points to date, her best ever is 21):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (gorgeous run with a heartbreaker last bar down for an NQ!):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (not a Q but a really nice run):
