Oh Yeah, You Blend

No Q’s, but look at this run (Nina’s JWW run today, just a bobble at the weaves but what a nice run!):

Nina qualified in Time 2 Beat on Friday (and comfortably set the time to beat for 10 points), and qualified in BOTH Jumpers and Standard today (not technically a double Q, since she is still in Excellent Standard, but MORALLY a double Q!). Tish didn’t Q but had some really great moments. She would have qualified in Excellent Jumpers today if I’d managed a turn a little better (she is still very green and didn’t have the experience to be confident about a tricky turn, but she weaved on her first try and that one refusal was her ONLY FAULT!). She had 2 refusals in Open Standard today because I didn’t end up where I’d planned for the table approach and she went right past it. I was very pleased with her overall, though, she showed some real flashes of brilliance and seemed to be really having fun.

Tish Excellent Jumpers yesterday (4/13) – included because even though she gets a major green dog brain attack and goes wandering off and then zooms, it’s one of the first times I’ve seen her show what kind of speed she is actually capable of (that’s why I asked for a few obstacles to see if I could get her to actually DO AGILITY at speed, and she DID!) – Tish is capable of running MUCH faster than Nina, but she doesn’t yet have the confidence to do it in agility, since she is a perfectionist and doesn’t want to make a mistake (UNLIKE Nina!). You can hear my friend Linda (who kindly records for me) say “holy cow!” when Tish really turns on the turbocharger:

Nina’s Master Jumpers With Weaves from today (a Q for a first place and 17 MACH points, and would have been even faster if she hadn’t almost taken that off course tunnel, she slammed on the brakes and hit the sandbag, but the judge told me we were still OK as I ran by – she didn’t cross the plane of the obstacle so it wasn’t an off course):

Nina’s Excellent Standard Q from today (leg #2!), a couple of close calls, but we did it:

Tish’s Open Standard run from today, an NQ because of two refusals, but a nice run for her!

Zhora took best of breed today at the Norfolk Kennel Club CKC show for her first Canadian championship point! She showed really well (considering she is 8 months and 1 day old) for her first time out, marched around the group and puppy group rings with the bigger dogs no problem! She was good on the table and made the judge smile when she jumped up on her to say hi after a nice stack at the end of her down and back. Very pleased with my baby pup. Back tomorrow for more.

Zhora’s First CKC Point: 4/7/13

No points today, but she showed well (and the judge gave the BOB a group 4, so she obviously really liked her). You can’t even see her tail in the picture, she was wagging so hard.

Nina saved the day today in Syracuse to pull off a Master JWW Q and 16 more MACH points. What a crazy trial – you sit around for 5 hours and then have to run three times in half an hour! I walked Open Standard for Tish, then walked Excellent JWW for both, then ran Tish in Open Standard, then literally took her out to the car, gave her a cookie, put her away, got Nina out, walked back to the ring, WALKED RIGHT IN AND RAN JWW. NO time to regroup, nothing, and my Ninabear managed to pull off a Q even though I ended up totally out of position and nearly cost us the run, fortunately she was psychic or our mojo was working or the agility gods chose to be kind for once, and she understood what I meant, instead of what I actually asked for. Tish got a FAST Q yesterday but really didn’t like running in that building much, and I pulled her from JWW since there would have been zero time for either of us to regroup. I was SO glad I opted out of showing in breed too…

Thanks to Dawn Rager for taping this! I had planned a post turn at the 180 near the end, and front crossed instead for no reason (it was literally less than 5 minutes since I ran Tish in Standard), so I wasn’t anywhere near where I planned to be, but Nina saved us!

Here is Nina’s JWW Q, that was it for the weekend, other than a FAST Q, also on Friday:

Tish WEAVED in Standard! And we would have qualified if I hadn’t rushed my rear cross at the end. On the plus side, she read my turn cue beautifully, I just did it too early and pulled her off the jump. It takes some getting used to, running a dog where I actually have time to think (and apparently I am not using that time to, you know, THINK) – and the bar down was because it wasn’t set (we were the first dog to go), we didn’t knock it down:

Nina had another double NQ today, but Tish finished her Open Jumpers title today! She is now Alkemi Alpina LS NA OAJ!

Day 1 of DOTCORNY at Boom Towne. Nina a double NQ, Tish a double Q in Open! Tish did her weaves on the first try BOTH times today!

Nina Master Jumpers (NQ):

Nina Excellent Standard (NQ):

Tish Open Standard (Q, with a wrong course and a refusal thanks to her being unable to resist going to say hi to the judge…I love having a friendly dog but…I knew it was coming when she was on the table and fluttering her ears at him):

Tish Open JWW (Q and her second leg in Open JWW – clean run!):

Tish finished her Novice Agility title yesterday. She is now Alkemi Alpina LS NA NAJ. She is out of Novice and into Open!

Nina and I are no closer to qualifying for the AKC Nationals next year after a weekend of NQ’s. Sooooo close, though.

Nina Master Jumpers With Weaves 2/23/13:

Nina Excellent Standard 2/23/13:

Tish Open Jumpers With Weaves 2/23/13:

Lobo and his mom Jan are on the front page of the Sunday Walla Walla Union-Bulletin today!

Here is Ollie (Alkemi Breaking Away LS) demonstrating his new job, thanks to his mom Pat! Wow! This will come in handy for his NADAC Chances runs!

Jim’s first question was “how did she stop him from ripping the paper up”…(obviously Jim has lived with Vallhunds for nearly a decade)