Fun weekend with friends and playing with the dogs! Judge Christie Bowers designed some deceptively easy-looking but secretly tricky courses. Zhora earned double Q #12 today to tie her with Nina in the MACH hunt!
Zhora Friday Jumpers (first place and 19 points):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #12, second place and 19 points):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ, I got in her way after the aframe):
Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #12, first place of only three qualifying dogs, and 30 points):
Friday was a great day! Not only did Zhora earn double Q #11, also got her second challenge measurement and became an 8″ regular dog! I HIGHLY recommend considering a challenge measurement if your dog is close to the cutoff, and choose the VMO’s carefully. Remember that the dog’s official agility jump height is NOT supposed to be the height of the dog when it is standing super erect on its toes, it’s supposed to be taken when the dog is relaxed, and per AKC, the correct height is the lowest legal height the VMO is able to get on the dog. Zhora had no trouble jumping 12″, she is well put together and athletic, but why on earth would I jump her higher than she had to, plus at 8″ she gets the lower a-frame. (For the non agility folks out there: an AKC agility dog gets an official measurement of its height at the withers at age 2, you are allowed to request a challenge measurement once in the dog’s lifetime, and two different official measurers must measure the dog into the lower height for the challenge to be successful). Nina knocked a bar on Friday, but didn’t knock any bars yesterday or today, an EGREGIOUS teeter bail cost her a double Q today…we will be working on that in our two weeks off…she is just amazing though, she will be 9 years old (NO!!!) in May, and has never run faster. Now 9 is not that old for a Vallhund, but… And Zhora seems to LOVE jumping 8″, she was faster and took more distance. Can’t wait to see how that develops as she gets more accustomed to it!
Zhora Friday Standard (21 points, part 1 of double Q #11, saying goodbye to 12″ in style!):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (14 points, part 2 of double Q #11):
Great weekend! One of our favorite judges (and dear friend!) Sherry Jefferson designed some super fun, fast and flowy courses for us. They were deceptively tricky but wow were they fun! The girls ran fast and had a great time. So close to a double Q but no joy again. Picked up some nice points though, and I was super happy with how they did when I went into training mode, Nina’s distance work is getting really solid!
Nina Friday Standard (NQ, nice run):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (NQ but she handled the backside really well):
Nina Friday Jumpers (NQ, worked weave pole distance):
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ at the first jump so I decided to work our weave pole distance, really happy with it!):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and 14 points, 4.65 YPS):
Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):
Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ, nice run):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, first place and 22 points, 5.25 YPS):
Nina Sunday Standard (NQ for one bar but what a great run, 4 YPS):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, fourth place and 21 points, 3.61 YPS, we are playing tug at the start):
Judge Candy Nettles designed some wicked courses this weekend! Super fun to run but not very high Q rates. Zhora was a rock star, missing a double Q by one bar each day. Nina was a wild thing (she is getting faster as she gets older!), ran very well but I managed to cause an NQ two of four times, and she took credit for the other two. Always fun with my dogs no matter what our Q rate is! And Nina’s jumpers run today, in a time of 27.27, was the fastest time of ALL jump heights aside from 20″, pretty darned impressive!
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and 12 points):
Zhora Saturday Standard (so close! That particular bar came down a lot):
Nina Saturday Standard:
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (that bar ALSO came down a lot!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (so fast! Occasionally I try and see if we can get a start line stay or even a PAUSE….nope!):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q and 19 points, I was VERY conservative!):
Nina Sunday Standard (my fault, mishandled the teeter, LOOK AT THAT DOGWALK!):
We headed down to Erie for just one day, as it turns out, because of pretty dire weather warnings. Glad we went! Tish came out of semi-retirement for a birthday run and did MUCH better than expected. Zhora was one wrong tunnel entrance from a beautiful standard Q, and Nina got a standard Q. Judge Michele Fletcher’s courses were deceptively trappy and very fast.
Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ, but look at the distance she let me take in the weaves!):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (need to work those tunnel discriminations! Love the sass and that she let me peel off a bit in the weaves, training mode!):
Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place and 33 points, you can see me whispering to her at the start as I always do that I love her and that she needs to please be careful on the bloody dogwalk!):
Tish Saturday Standard (not a Q, obviously, but she ran SO MUCH BETTER than I expected! And no ring stress):
Zhora Saturday Standard (not a Q, nice run though):
Well the first trial of 2016 is in the books. Judge Janet Budzynski set some really tricky courses with low Q rates. They were really fun to run but certainly not “vanilla”! Nina broke her longish NQ streak in STYLE with double Q #12 on Friday right out of the gate. At 8 1/2 she is running faster than ever. I am posting her Standard NQ from Saturday (in which I gave her the walk of shame for an egregious teeter bail), because she was in complete rabies mode and still was accurate (other than skidding off the table because who needs brakes?). This run ended up costing us a Q in today’s Standard run, in which I overhandled the table and made her spin in front of it for a refusal call. Zhora had a nice jumpers Q yesterday on a tricky course where the only way to Q seemed to be to jam a bunch of front crosses in (not how I normally run my dogs), so it was ugly, but a Q. And today she qualified on a tricky standard course for a SECOND PLACE! Running against some of the top 12″ dogs in the country here, even a placement is a big deal in 12″, but she has never taken a second place before, and she actually beat some of the dogs who usually beat her, so that was awesome. I couldn’t be happier with how my girls are running just now, although Zhora and I need to come to an agreement about her start line stay, since she seems to think it’s merely a suggestion…
Zhora Friday Standard (NQ but a nice run):
Nina Friday Standard (part one of QQ #12, first place and 29 points):
Zhora Friday Jumpers (NQ):
Nina Friday Jumpers (part two pf QQ #12, first place and 15 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and 8 points):
Nina Saturday Standard (holy CRAP she is running fast, skidding off the table because I was so far behind):
Zhora Saturday Standard (HEARTBREAKER, wrong end of the tunnel, the LAST OBSTACLE, costing us a double Q):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (really nice run):
Nina Sunday Standard (stupid handler trick at the table, what a gorgeous run):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, SECOND PLACE! And 19 points):
Bow Wow Video sent my “official” videos last week. They look great! My favorite part of the videos is I can see how much fun we’re all having, the dogs and I are loving every minute (except in Nina’s standard run where she knocked like four bars in a row, and even THAT was funny, even though I made some handling errors that I wish I hadn’t with both dogs):
What an AMAZING Invitational we had this year! To start things off, Zhora was invited as the #6 Vallhund after only being all the way into Masters since MARCH (the Invitational qualifying period was July 1 2014 to June 30 2015)! And THEN she qualified 4 out of 5 times running in a very overwhelming, loud, echoing environment on a portable turf surface like nothing she has ever run on before. And she knocked it out of the park. Nina ran fast and had a great time, if she could have left the bars up she would have been a serious contender for the breed medallion and maybe even the finals.
The girls all packed up and ready to go! Orlando or bust!
The courtyard at our La Quinta hotel, super nice!
Sherry and the Vallhunds on Thursday, heading in to check things out!
Sherry fulfilling her Sherpa duties on our way in to set up on Friday!
All set up!
Officially official!
Super nice leash tags this year!
Numbers!
Zhora’s Time 2 Beat ribbon!
The Eukanuba fairies came overnight!
Zhora and her loot!
Sherry Sherpa-ing our stuff back out.
The superstars played on the beach at Amelia Island for a well-earned break!
Zhora’s stats:
finished second in Swedish Vallhund breed rankings
Friday: qualified in Time 2 Beat, earning 7 points, placing her well into the top third of dogs
Saturday: qualified in both runs, placing 60th out of 123 dogs in Jumpers and moving up to 48th out of 123 after Standard
Sunday: a bobble at the weave poles cost us a Q in Hybrid for 95 points, dropping us down to 68th out of 123, but she pulled back to qualify on a very tricky Jumpers course (after us going out to the start line, and then having to go back off the course when there was a problem with the timer for the dog ahead of us (our friends Roger and Keebler, who placed second in the finals), pulling back up to finish 54th out of 123 12″ dogs overall, not too shabby at all
finished 20th out of 60 in the Bred-By Exhibitor standings
Nina’s stats:
finished 99th out of 157 8″ dogs overall, not bad at all considering she didn’t actually qualify once, that just shows you how speedy she is!
Saturday: Jumpers finished 113th out of 139 dogs with a score of 85 (three faults, five points off for each), Standard, a score of 70 after a disastrous run in which she knocked 5 bars kept her in 113th spot
Sunday: Hybrid with a score of 90 moved us up to 108th out of 139 dogs, and then a very fast run for a score of 90 on a tricky Jumpers course pulled us up to 99th out of 139 dogs
Jim was unable to come with me because of teaching, so my dear friend Sherry very kindly offered to come with me instead. As it turned out, I was SO glad Sherry was there, aside from being fabulous company on the long trip, fulfilling Sherpa duties, and videoing, Sherry is a physical therapist and the day before I left I had a really bad attack of plantar fasciitis and achilles tendonopathy which made even walking horribly painful, without Sherry’s knowledge and skills, I likely would not have been able to run. My awesome friend Zap, who usually videos at trials, packed us awesome care packages for the trip (for the dogs too!). Having good friends is the best thing.
So overall, it was an awesome Invitational. I was very aware every time I stepped to the line with my amazing dogs what an honor it is to run with them each and every time, whether it’s at a prestigious national event, or a local trial. The privilege of their efforts and the sheer joy of that incredible connection with another species is what makes it an addiction. A wonderful addiction through which I have learned so much about myself, met so many amazing people, and become so much more deeply connected to my wonderful dogs. We dedicated Zhora’s runs to our friend Hattie, who lost her awesome dog Vaasa (who was the #1 dog in Invitationals rankings this ear) last month, and at the trial we learned that Lisa Glick had lost her dog Scout after being entered at the Invitational. It’s a cliche to say we should cherish every run, but it’s so very true.
Congratulations to Chris Buryta and Riley (Alkemi Aston Martin LS) on finishing Riley’s Novice Jumpers title (in under 19 seconds) at Countryside Agility! This is Riley’s first title and he and Chris have had many JOLT (just one little thing) runs but when it comes together for them, they are amazing!
