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):
Very fun weekend with judge John Defilippi (who is one of the judges at this year’s National Agility Championship). Roger O’Sullivan and Keebler earned their MACH 13, so nice to be able to be there to cheer them on! Nina ran beautifully, just handler errors Saturday and Sunday kept us from qualifying. Zhora earned double q’s #44 and 45 (she is now 1/4 of the way to MACH 3 already!) Saturday and Sunday. Friday was not my best day with either dog.
Zhora Friday Standard (NQ, I accidentally sent her to the off course tunnel after the double because I didn’t rotate fast enough on my front cross):
Nina Friday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Friday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Zhora Friday Premier Jumpers (NQ because I overhandled the jump before the second white tunnel):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q, first place, 19 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 44, third place, 18 points):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #44, second place, 26 points):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q, 8 points):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #45, first place, 17 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (I said “tunnel” when she was looking at the wrong end of the white tunnel, then training mode):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #45, second place, 28 points):
Nina Sunday Standard:
Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Judge Janet Budzynski is always one of our favorites. Her courses are quite technical (and we often get far fewer points than usual), but my dogs seem to do well on them, plus Janet is always delightful to show to, fun, energetic and very positive.
We had a double double Q Sunday, the last one of those was a double double Q Friday just two weeks ago! The girls ran so, so well, Zhora would have had two double Q’s if I hadn’t pulled her off a jump in Jumpers yesterday. Bad handler! But I didn’t fix it because she did exactly what I told her to do. Good handler!
In case you are wondering why I ask my dogs to lie down at the startline instead of sit (as many handlers prefer), it’s because some dogs end up leaning so far forward in a sit (because they want to get going), that they are “downhill” (to use an equestrian term, meaning that the center of gravity is shifted forward and more of their weight is on the front legs than normal) and this can make lifting off to get over the first jump difficult and more likely to result in a knocked bar. Theoretically, popping up from a down should allow the dog to keep their center of gravity in a more normal position, and make jumping that first jump easier. That’s the theory anyway! It also seems to be a more “grounding” position for my dogs, which seems to make the stay a bit easier to hold. I also like to set my dogs back at least a couple of strides from the first jump, to let them start running before they have to jump. I find they seem to get faster times if they have room to get some momentum going before they start the timer, and more importantly I think it’s easier on them physically.
Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 26 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #16, second place, 16 points):
Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Nina Sunday Time 2 Beat (NQ but some nice stuff there, she sometimes doesn’t want to lie down at the start, and then she thinks about biting my shoes!):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #43, second place, 26 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 16, first place, 27 points):
Super fun weekend under one of our favorite judges, Laura Kuterbach! Zhora had a perfect weekend, earning QQ’s # 41 and 42 towards MACH3, plus her Time 2 Beat 2 (T2B2) title. Nina continued to run really, really well, I cost us a double Q both days with handler errors, and she put up two beautiful Standard Q’s, including saving our butts by managing to get over a jump from a crazy bad angle, and a lovely Premier Jumpers Q.
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ, nice run, every time I walked it I told myself to go deeper past the weaves before I made my front cross, but did I? No, and it cost us a double Q):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 41, first place, 15 points):
Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points):
Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #41, second place, 29 points):
Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (NQ, nice run):
Zhora Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points, Time 2 Beat 2 title):
Nina Sunday Premier Jumpers (Q!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, nice run):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #42, third place, 16 points):
Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 29 points, she saved the Q by somehow getting over that jump near the end from a TERRIBLE angle):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #42, third place, 26 points):
MACH2 Alkemi Blade Runner LS MXS MJS NF T2B (Zhora)
Me and MACH2 Zhora saying thanks judge Jeff Ipser!
What a weekend! Zhora earned her MACH 2 (Master Agility Champion 2 – that’s 40 double Q’s and 1500 speed points), Nina FINALLY earned another double Q (#15, first since last April), and had her best weekend overall in a very, very long time, the weather was terrible, the judge got sick and we had to get a replacement judge (just like when Zhora earned her MACH, actually!), the judge’s ring measurements were incorrect so we had to change the courses (an AKC rep came to the trial Saturday and Sunday)…excitement, adventure and really wild things.
The lake hasn’t frozen yet, so we are still getting lake effect snow. With lots of warnings in the forecast for this weekend, Sue and I decided to caravan and drive up Thursday afternoon in the hopes of having to drive through a north-moving lake effect snow band as it passed over us, thus minimizing our exposure to it. Well…the band didn’t move as expected, which meant we, and a ton of other people, were trapped in our cars at the Lackawanna toll booths for nearly two hours after a truck jack knifed at the Blasdell exit on I-90. It was frightening, the snow was coming down very heavily (almost 5″ per hour at some points), building up around the car tires, and it was so cold that the wipers kept icing up, so we had to keep getting out to clear snow off our cars and deice our wipers. We eventually got moving and got off the Thruway, had dinner, and then Jim navigated from home to help us find a way out of Hamburg. There were driving bans all over the place, accidents everywhere, you couldn’t tell where the road was, it was very, very scary. We left my house at 3 PM and I eventually made it back home just before 10 PM. Friday morning we decided to try again once the plows had been out, and other than a very nasty few miles with whiteout conditions, the drive was uneventful.
We arrived at Countryside just as the last few dogs were running Standard. The judge (Kelli Verrelli) kindly agreed to let Sue and I run, and we walked the course a few times still wearing our winter boots. Well, lo and behold, BOTH my girls qualified on a very tricky standard course with a very low Q rate. And then they went on to BOTH qualify in Jumpers – a double double Q Friday, WELL worth the drive!
Nina ran just beautifully all weekend, really paying attention to her jumping and knocking very few bars, and qualifying in all three Jumpers runs plus standard on Friday for QQ # 15.
Not only did Zhora earn her MACH 2 just 8 months after her MACH, she ran fast and happy and very attentively. In our standard run today (for her MACH2), we were on the startline when they noticed a timer problem, so we left the ring while they fixed it. Zhora has shown herself to be very level-headed about things like that, I just knelt down on the ground with her and played with her and she was unflappable. She came out just as ready to run as she’d been the first time. And she was the ONLY 8″ dog to qualify on that course. The Q rates were quite low overall, especially for the big dogs.
So thankful to judge Jeff Ipser for making the drive to come and fill in Saturday and Sunday for Kelli after she got sick! We trial with Jeff all the time and it was very nice to earn a MACH under him!
Zhora Friday Jumpers (part 2 of QQ #39, second place, 14 points):
Nina Friday Jumpers (part 2 of QQ # 15, first place, 17 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, second place, 12 points):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 15 points):
Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ but nice run):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ but nice run, naughty table!):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of MACH2, second place, 12 points, just ONE SECOND behind Nina!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, first place, 13 points):
Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH2!!! First place, 27 points, the ONLY 8″ dog to qualify):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ but really, really nice run, I needed to show more movement towards the table, I asked her to lie down at the start, she said “I don’t think I will”):
Here are the professional videos by Bow Wow Video from the Invitational, very different angles, and in Zhora’s Round 4 which has haunted me for a week it seems to look like she actually mis-stepped before I pre-cued my front cross, which primed her to pop the poles, so not 100% my fault, which made me feel a bit better (plus she looked a bit distracted in that run, moreso than any of the others). I see some things from this angle about my handling that I need to work on, and I can really see that Zhora was just thriving on that environment and getting higher from it, whereas Nina seemed to be made more Zen and focused by it, which is a very interesting thing to see – my friend Barb commented at the Invitational that Nina seemed very focused and she wondered if Nina was just used to trialing in that kind of environment, but really she’s only been there three times and normally trials in far less chaotic and noisy places.
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 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):
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 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!!!
Here’s an awesome video of Lobo (Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS CDX PT RATM CGC) and his mom Jan trying for his second UD (Utility Dog) obedience leg. He didn’t pass this time (he has one UD leg already, he needs three for his UD title) but I have no doubt he will get it soon. This is a very tough title, the runs are long and involve a lot of different skills (he has to heel, perform skills at a distance, discriminate an article Jan has handled from a bunch of articles, and he has to do this with different materials). Jan is a wonderful (and very experienced!) trainer and she clearly has such an amazing bond with her Lobo, the bit where they look at each other while they wait for the judge to place the discrimination article, and there is so much love and trust obvious between them…that does my heart good both as a breeder and as a dog person, we should all have that kind of bond with our dogs!
