Oh Yeah, You Blend

Well this weekend started off a bit slow, but it finished as about the best agility weekend to date! Judges Sherry Jefferson and Janet Budzynski designed some lovely courses for us.

Nina earned TWO double Q’s in one weekend for the first time ever.

Zhora and Nina BOTH double Q’d today for only the second double double Q Sunday they’ve had.

Zhora ran really slowly in Jumpers today, even though she qualified, she was very slow, and I think it was because she’d burned her pads, running on that turf. Nina did that ages ago when we were running NADAC at this site, but she adapts her running style pretty fast to suit the footing, Zhora had a couple of bad slips and I am pretty sure she has sore feet. She worked through it though, good baby! They will be spoiled tonight!

Nina Friday Premier Standard (first place):

Nina Saturday Standard (QQ #13, second place, 29 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (QQ #13, second place, 20 points, I felt so connected with her this run):

Zhora Saturday Standard (third place, 24 points):

Zhora Saturday Premier Standard (NQ because I didn’t reconnect with her after the blind cross, nice run though):

Nina Sunday Standard (QQ #14, first place, 33 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (QQ #18, second place, 27 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (QQ #14, first place, 17 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQ #18, third place, 10 points, slow but brave, definitely looks to me like her feet are tender, poor baby):

Colby Friday Jumpers (what a nice run, he and Nichole are really starting to come together as a team!):

Judge Laura English is one of our favorites, and her courses this weekend were fun and unusual. Unfortunately, we were only there two days and could only pull off a single Q. But the dogs sure had fun!

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, third place, 17 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (once the rabies mode switched off, this turned into a beautiful run):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (so many near NQ’s, she was in rabies mode too! But she listened like a good girl, and then she slipped and just couldn’t get over that one jump):

Zhora Sunday Standard (wrong end of the tunnel for an NQ but a nice run):

Nina Sunday Standard (rabies mode, but man do I love running this dog every single time, made Laura laugh when I suggested to Nina that perhaps she should consider decaffeinated coffee…):

Got word from Lobo’s mom Jan that he earned his second PT (Pre-Trial Tested) herding leg today and is now eligible to be a Level 2 Versatile Swedish Vallhund! Lobo is the first Alkemi puppy to earn this herding title and to gain this recognition from the Swedish Vallhund Club of America!

Lobo is now Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS CDX RATM CGC PT VSVA! Congratulations Lobo and Jan!

Showed under judge Alexandra Davis for the first time (although Sherry had to stand in for her on Friday since she couldn’t get here because of airport issues), loved her courses, and she was a lovely person to show to. Would show to her again any time! No doubles BUT I discovered the secret to Nina’s start line stay at a trial – HANDLE IT LIKE I DO IN TRAINING! So stupid of me not to realize this…she had a start line stay in every run, I started out asking for just a step away and ended up with a two jump leadout today (cost me two bars, but that’s an issue I can work on). Amazing. AND! The One Mind Dogs stuff is really amazing, Nina had a FABULOUS Premier Jumpers Q on a course only she and one other dog qualified on! I had many of their principles in mind when running this weekend and I really do think it helped. Zhora ran so well and earned the last few points she needed to qualify for 2017 AKC Nationals (Georgia here we come!)! AND Ninababies Colby and Riley both qualified in Open Jumpers on Saturday, and that earned Colby his OAJ, which meant he made his Excellent debut this morning and ran wonderfully! His owner Nichole handled him very well and didn’t get stressed about her first time running with the big dogs!

Zhora Friday Jumpers (Q, third place, 19 points):

Nina Friday Premier Jumpers (Q, first place):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points and a STARTLINE STAY!):

Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, third place, 27 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (NQ but gorgeous run!):

Great trial under our favorite judge Mary Mullen. Excellent host club, wonderful courses, deceptively tricky but so fun to challenge yourself on! Some of the nicest Premier courses I have run so far. Nina ran beautifully, and had a killer Premier Standard run with just one bar keeping her from a Q. Zhora picked up QQ #17, the last she needed for 2017 Nationals (down to less than 50 points needed now!), plus a Premier Jumpers leg, and they finished the weekend going one-two in Standard. Zhora is running faster and faster, driving ahead, getting tricky weave entries, I could not be happier with how she is running, and the mojo really feels like it’s working for us. My girls were just wonderful to me this Easter weekend.

Nina Friday Premier Standard (NQ but wow what a nice run, one bar down, only error):

Nina Friday Standard (first place, 33 points):

Zhora Friday Standard (QQ#17, third place, 31 points):

Zhora Friday Jumpers (QQ#17, first place, 21 points):

Zhora Friday Premier Jumpers (second place):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ, nice run):

Zhora Saturday Standard (second place, 30 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (first place, 34 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (second place, 31 points):

Zhora earned double Q #16 on Saturday, that was four in a row! Today was…less good. Nina got the walk of shame for a teeter bail, and Zhora, who doesn’t knock bars, knocked a bar in jumpers and missed her weave entry in both runs (tough courses, low Q rates). Judge Tom O’Brien.

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ #16! Second place, 18 points, 4.826 yards per second):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 33 points, 4.191 yards per second):

Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ #16! Second place, 31 points! 4.05 yards per second, new personal best!):

…in which Zhora had a PERFECT WEEKEND! The first perfect weekend I have ever had with any dog, in any venue, ever! (Now, of course, any weekend I get to spend with my dogs and my wonderful peeps is perfect in its own way, but I digress…). Judge Abbie Hanson designed some tricky courses, some had low Q rates, but they seemed custom made for Zhora, she couldn’t seem to put a foot wrong. Nina had two Jumpers Q’s with gorgeous runs, but I cost us a double on Friday and Saturday…a double just wasn’t happening.

Zhora is now just 5 double q’s from her MACH (Masters Agility Championship)!

Zhora Friday Jumpers (QQ 13! Second place and 16 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (Q, first place and 18 points):

Zhora Friday Standard (QQ 13! First place and 25 points):

Nina Friday Standard (I said “tunnel” while she was jumping and cost us the Q, training mode after that):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (QQ 14! Fourth place and 16 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, second place and 19 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (QQ 14! Third place and 28 points):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (QQ 15! Fourth place and 15 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (QQ 15! First place and 30 points!):

Nina Sunday Standard (naughty dogwalk!):

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):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (first place, 18 points):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (third place, 16 points, hello 8″!):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (first place, 19 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (darned teeter apparently doesn’t go all the way down…):

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):