Oh Yeah, You Blend

She earned her first MACH at the HABOC trial, and she earned her third there too!

Judge Laura English designed some tough courses, the Q rates on some were very low, but they were challenging in a good way and as I remind myself – it’s MASTERS, it’s SUPPOSED to be tough!

Jumpers today was quite demotivating at the start, and Zhora was extremely poky. She liked Standard much better and was happy to take a quick victory lap too! She got SPOILED afterwards, and her Aunt Sherry even shared her lunch with her.

She came into the weekend needing two, Friday I messed her up by talking while she jumped and cost us a double. But she was perfect after that. Our friend Zap (Saturday/Sunday videographer) multitasked and brought the ribbon to us while videoing, which looks like a “To Catch A Predator” sting on reality TV, which is hilarious.

Nina was wonderful, earning two very nice Standard Q’s. She will be 11 in May…I can’t believe it. And she still as fast as ever and loves agility more than anything.

There were very few 8″ dogs there this weekend and I only had about four dogs between them, which is quite unfair to the dogs, since you barely have time to stuff a few treats in their faces before you have to put them away and get the next one out, and the second dog doesn’t get anything like their usual warmup. I try to warm them up somewhat before we start running, but still…they cope very well with this stuff.

I am very very fortunate.

Zhora Friday Standard (NQ thanks to my big mouth):

Nina Friday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q, second place, 15 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #59, second place, 15 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #59, third place, 27 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of MACH3!! She hated this course’s opening, super poky, third place, 11 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, the bar down came down so late she was almost over the following jump!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH3!!!! Third place, 27 points, the top three dogs were within like a second and a half of each other!):

Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 28 points):

This puppy….holy moly. The last time we practiced (three days ago), Alice still didn’t quite “get” tunnels, she’d go in with encouragement but she was still climbing on top and not quite seeing the point of them. And then yesterday (her next training session) she became a tunnel suck! In fact, she was SO enthusiastic about tunnels I had to do a quick couple of sessions of rewarding NOT going into the tunnel. I cannot believe how quickly she learns, how few repetitions it takes of most things before she really seems to understand them, and how much focus and working drive and enthusiasm she has at just five months of age.

She is jumping 4″ bars. She steps on bumps so I elected to stop using them, 4″ is well below her hocks, and we actually do jumping very rarely. The OneMind Dogs “offering the jump” exercise is extremely effective. And Puppy Culture is amazing.

To say I am pleased would be an immense understatement. I am absolutely thrilled. She is amazing. I feel very lucky. So far she is EXACTLY what I was hoping to get out of this breeding.

Some really challenging and trappy courses from Candy Nettles! I accelerated in the wrong spot and caused a bar down for Nina, costing her a Jumpers Q. She had a lovely Standard Q though. Zhora doubled for QQ # 58 (2 more to MACH3!!).

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ #58):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q):

Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ #58):

Judge Michele Fletcher designed some fun, fast and subtly technical courses.

The dogs and I are out of shape thanks to the weather we’ve had lately, we will all be hitting the treadmill.

Poor Nina had a pancreatitis flare on Friday night, and she was still feeling a bit icky on Saturday morning. I was ready to scratch her, she didn’t even want to do the practice jump, but then her meds and her love for agility kicked in, she dragged me to the ring, and off we went for a nice Jumpers Q. A bit slower than her usual, and I was more than ready to just stop and go off if she seemed off, but other than being a bit slow, she was fine. By the time Standard came up, she was back to normal, broke her startline stay, argued with me on the table, sassy. Love that dog so much.

Zhora was slow and clingy (hormonal methinks) and pulled off the LAST jump in Jumpers Saturday. Qualified in Standard. And then earned QQ # 57 today! 3 more to MACH3! Love her!

Nina Saturday Jumpers (third place, 15 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (second place, 25 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (fourth place, 16 points, QQ #57):

Nina Sunday Standard (second place, 30 points, had to jam some front crosses in, ugly but a Q’s a Q):

Zhora Sunday Standard (fifth place, 24 points, QQ #57):

Holy crap. I can’t believe how well this little 4 month old is doing! Huge thanks to Sue! We were using bumps but she was stepping on them. Per the OneMind Dogs folks, you’re OK to use jumps below hock level, so that’s what I’m doing. She’s doing very little jumping anyway but I needed something for her to go over rather than step on.

Today we went to a Barn Hunt workshop and found some rats! Very fun to get out of my comfort zone and learn about a dog sport I know nothing about! She did great. Awesome focus and working drive on this puppy.

This is the slide they put up at the banquet where the Top Dog awards were given. Zhora was the 2016 Top MACH Vallhund. Love this girl. Fabulous picture from the old Countryside in Edinboro by Cindy Noland.

…The Return Of Zhora.

She made the most of it! Turning in a perfect weekend in her first trial since early last July (other than the Invitational, of course). She was amazing, even accounting for my stupid handler tricks that nearly cost her a Jumpers Q today. She picked up QQ’s # 55 and 56, only 4 to go for MACH3!

Nina had a lovely JWW Q yesterday but Nina’d the rest.

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #55, 18 points, third place, 4.75 YPS):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 22 points, 5.36 YPS):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #55, 26 points, third place):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #56. 13 points thanks to my random misplaced front cross that nearly sent her to the wrong jump, I praised her for calling off it, which nearly caused a refusal…then she slowed right down because my GPS was clearly malfunctioning):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, rough angle on that first bar down, then after the third bar I say “HEY!” at which point she shouts back at me, judge Laura English said it was like she was saying “HEY YOURSELF!”, she didn’t knock any more bars though!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #56, 26 points again, third place again, at least she’s consistent!):

Nina Sunday Standard (NQ, allergic to yellow, I caused the weave issue by praising her for making th entry):

Look who’s the cover girl on the AKC Dog Agility Community Facebook page today!

Zhora still off due to needing several sports bras. I cost Nina a double Q today but she is SO HAPPY to be back running. We got a Jumpers Q. Always love judge Candy Nettles! Thanks to Zap as always for videoing!

Jumpers (first place, 18 points):

Standard (NQ, nice run):

Nina and I have been off since the end of September (basically she got her MACH on a Saturday, another double Q on that Sunday, and then we were off for puppies). But since we’re going to the Invitational in December, which is getting extremely close, we really need to start getting back into practice. Since the puppies are still nursing a lot, I scratched Zhora, but still ran Nina. I crated out of my car and only took her into the building to warm up and run, to hopefully minimize exposure to other dogs as much as possible.

Nina was AMAZING! Over the course of her career, she’s had some periods where she hasn’t had three double Q’s in a YEAR, and she came back after 12 weeks of and DOUBLE Q’D! That’s three IN A ROW, she’s never done that. 10 year old Nina was so excited to be back she couldn’t stop bouncing up and down and barking. When we went to Sue’s on Wednesday just to at least try and remind ourselves how to play agility, she was so happy she zoomed!

This was our first time showing under judge Bob Jeffers, and I hope it won’t be our last. His courses were challenging but very fun, they ran better than they walked, and Nina double Q’d! So NO complaints!

Jumpers With Weaves (Q, third place, 4.9 YPS, 20 points, the top 3 dogs were all within half a second of each other):

Standard (Q, second place, 4.06 YPS, less than 1/10th of a second behind the first place dog):