My girls did it again! They are such amazing dogs and they run their hearts out for me every time, and they LOVE the agility game so, so much!
Zhora qualified in first place again, Nina in fourth. This will be Nina’s fourth year in a row being invited, and Zhora’s third in a row (she’s only been in Masters for three years).
SO proud of my girls! And huge congratulations to my BFF and training/traveling partner Sue Verbocy, who also qualified with her two Vizslas! Orlando here we come! Look out!
Zhora’s progesterone was at 0.6 yesterday (day 5). She ovulated on day 9 last time, but it’s important to remember that ovulation can change from cycle to cycle in the same bitch. Average is about day 14, but that can change.
Zhora was on mibolerone (formerly Cheque drops) for 6 months at Dr Hutchison’s suggestion (he’s the repro vet who did the frozen semen surgical artificial insemination that resulted in the B litter, of which Zhora is one!). He thought one of the reasons she reabsorbed last time could have been that her uterine lining was too thick, and the mibolerone will help thin things out (every unbred heat is damaging to a dog’s uterus). Average time to come into season after stopping this medication is 70 days, Zhora went 77.
Further bulletins as events warrant! Please keep fingers and paws crossed that things will work out this time!
Again, I have a waiting list but I do not do “first come first served”, I match puppies to homes. These puppies SHOULD be very nice performance prospects, as both parents are high drive dogs with lovely work ethic (and lovely off switches). I will be giving priority to performance homes, mainly because if the puppies take after their parents (as I hope they will), they will really thrive in homes where they have a job to do. Both parents are very nice dogs to live with, but they do need an outlet for their working drive.
Nina was on 19 1/2 QQ”s today, but I overhandled a tunnel entrance in Standard and cost us the MACH. Oh well, it could be next weekend, it could be next year, but I am so happy to be here with her and running with her. Michele Fletcher’s courses were very technical and challenging but fun, you really felt like you’d accomplished something if you qualified on them! And Bert made his agility debut and did AMAZINGLY well! For a dog with just a few weeks of training (and not daily training either), he was wonderful, brave, focused, willing. What a good boy! He wore Tish’s pink Brilliant K9 harness all weekend and didn’t seem to mind, too!
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ because she slipped in the weaves, tried to keep going but had already slipped out. I had no idea how I was going to handle the opening, and then I did a blind cross which was not ANY of the different ways I walked it, worked nicely though!):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ thanks to handler error that sent her to an off course):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, second place, 29 points, really tough weave entry and she drove ahead and nailed it!):
Bert Saturday Novice Standard (NQ, but what a great very first run, I was telling him all the way around what a good boy he was and what a great job he was doing, you can see on the table when I tell him how awesome he is and his tail starts wagging faster, what a sweetie):
Bert Saturday Novice Jumpers (NQ, but very nearly a Q! And he’s so focused on getting going at the start that he doesn’t want to sit):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, fourth place, 20 points, the first four dogs were within a second of each other, the handling error that caused the near-refusal cost us time, this was a tough course!):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQ # 54, 18 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (not MACH….you can hear me call to videographer Zap “Did we Q?” at the end, after we destroy the course, the line after the non-wing jump after the aframe ate a number of teams alive, that…wasn’t where we had a problem, I called her even though she was headed to the right end of the tunnel after the dogwalk and earned a refusal):
Zhora Sunday Standard (QQ #54, third place, 29 points):
Our dear friend Sherry Jefferson was the judge this weekend and her courses were awesome. Zhora earned QQ #52 and Nina! Nina earned QQ #19!!! Video camera issues mean I missed some runs :(.We had 19 1/2 today but the deceptively tricky standard course got us (especially since I didn’t handle it the way I’d planned to). Nina was 3/3 in Time 2 Beat AND 3/3 in Jumpers, PLUS she earned another Master FAST Q. Nina’s best qualifying weekend to date! Zhora was awesome but caffeinated! Overall a very, very fun trial. Oddly, I am much more sanguine about sitting on 19 QQ’s than I was on 18. Now I believe that MACH will actually happen. Maybe next trial, maybe next year. It IS Nina after all, and no matter what, it’s amazing to be here with her! I am SO happy with how they are both running, they are both so eager and joyful about playing this game with me, that’s worth 20 MACHs to me.
Nina Friday FAST (76 points):
Zhora Friday Standard (QQ 53, second place to world team Keebler, 4.101 YPS, 32 points):
Nina Friday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (QQ 53, 4th place, 5.085 YPS, 20 points, one of her best runs to date):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, 4.943 YPS, 20 points, LOVE her drive!!!):
Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points, her happy bouncing around at the start line is the best thing):
Nina Saturday Standard (QQ #19, second place to world team Keebler, 4.17 YPS, 32 points, good good girlie, this course was so fun):
Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ, should have led out further so I could get the front cross in and keep her out of the tunnel!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, fourth place thanks to wrong turn, 4.789 YPS, 18 points):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q, third place, 4.805 YPS, 18 points):
Nina Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ, not-MACH (love my awesome friends all groaning when we NQ), intended to front cross after a-frame, should have…that set her up for the bar down on the awkward rear cross and off course tunnel):
Zhora Sunday Standard (NQ, fixed the near off-course at a-frame with Nina with a front cross before the table, remembered to cross after a-frame but stupidly did a BLIND cross, showing extension and forward direction, thus sending her towards the OFF COURSE TUNNEL again…also she ran right by the final tunnel because she was in a hurry to get cookies. And I LOVE that you can see her interrupt her regularly scheduled barking on the table when she recognizes Sherry’s voice and turns to look at her):
Some really fun and challenging courses from judge Laura English. A great weekend! Nina’s birthday was Sunday, and she celebrated early with QQ #18 on Friday, and went 3/3 in Time 2 Beat. Zhora was back on form, earning QQ’s #50 and 51 and going 5/6.
Nina Friday Standard (QQ #18, first place, 33 points, 4.265 YPS):
Our regular judge (Lisa Rieves) was unable to come so Kimberly Ingraham covered for her. Nina…was Nina. A FAST Q and a Premier Standard Q were it for her for the weekend. Zhora was a Jumpers specialist, earning QQ #49 on Friday and qualifying in JWW on Saturday and Sunday too, all first places! She was running really fast and happy.
Nina Friday FAST (Q):
Zhora Friday Standard (QQ#49, second place, 30 points, 3.954 YPS):
Nina Friday Premier Standard (Q):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (QQ#49, first place, 17 points, 4.896 YPS):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 19 points, 5.028 YPS):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Q, first place, 15 points, 4.531 YPS):
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!)
We ran under Oksana Syrkin this weekend and actually ran on her courses (Zhora earned her MACH under her when she filled in for Michelle Fletcher last May). Fun, flowy, fast but deceptively technical courses again this weekend. Zhora set consecutive personal best Standard points totals Saturday (32) and then Sunday (33), and a personal best Jumpers total today of 21. Nina ran really well, she didn’t trust that she was right on a tricky weave pole entry in Standard today that cost us a QQ, I think if I’d verbally supported it more she might have stayed in.
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (NQ due to handler error at the end):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ, but those bars were down because of tricky angles, not plowing through):
Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, second place, 32 points, 4.076 YPS):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Open FAST (Q, first place, OF title finally):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 48, first place (beating Nina!), 21 points, 5.068 YPS):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, second place, 21 points, she didn’t get a refusal for the spin since she didn’t go past the plane of the jump and was quite lateral to it, hard to see on the video):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 48, second place, 33 points, 4.119 YPS):
Nina Sunday Standard (lovely run, should have told her she was right about the weaves):
Nina had her best weekend in I don’t know how long. One stupid handler error today kept her from a perfect weekend. She earned QQ # 17 (JUST THREE MORE TO GO!), and didn’t knock ONE bar all weekend! Zhora had a perfect weekend, earning QQ’s 46 & 47. Judge Lisa Rieves designed some fun RLH (that’s “run like hell) courses, which are our favorite kind. Quite technical, deceptively trappy, lots of fun. A double double Q weekend that was almost a double double double Q weekend!
Nina Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 17, first place, 17 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 46, second place, 15 points):
Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (first place, 10 points):
Nina Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 17, first place, 26 points):
Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 46, third place, 25 points):
