Oh Yeah, You Blend

Mother of my sweet Rakki, great-grandmother of my beloved, amazing Nina, great-GREAT-grandmother of the loving Tish and wonderful Zhora. Such a wonderful, wonderful dog who only seemed to get better as she got older. I loved that sweet Cranberi, and I know she will leave a huge hole in Ulla’s home and heart. She had such a wonderful and long life, I am sure she is chasing anything and everything up in heaven now, leaping over tractors and running her heart out. Rest easy Cranberi, you live on in so many pedigrees, Nina dedicates her agility runs this weekend to your memory!

Some really tough courses this weekend from judge Carla Boudrot. Not Nina’s best weekend, with just a Time 2 Beat Q (and win), but Zhora was the star of the weekend, earning her first two Open Standard legs AND her first Excellent Jumpers leg! It is tricky running a green dog, since you are still building what I call the “mojo”, which is your communication with each other, where you learn to predict what your dog will do and what your dog will need from you in order to succeed. With an inexperience (“green”) dog, this is challenging, because what the dog will do and what the dog needs from you changes all the time, as they develop more confidence and gain experience. I am trying to be less cautious with Zhora and let her run and trust she is learning her job.

Zhora Saturday Open Standard (Q and OA leg #1):

Zhora Sunday Excellent Jumpers (Q and AXJ leg #1):

Nina Sunday Master Jumpers (NQ because of LAST BAR down, nice run though):

Nina Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q and first place for 10 points):

Zhora Sunday Open Standard (Q and OA leg #2), she actually looks like she would have got her weaves on the first try, but I assumed she was going to pop out when she looked at me, but then she headed back in:

Great time this weekend with great friends and my favorite AKC judge, Mary Mullen.

Zhora continued her Jumpers streak by earning her third OAJ (Open Jumpers) leg yesterday and her OAJ title! I moved her up to Excellent for today and while she didn’t Q (missed two weaves), she ran really, really well.

Nina got FAST and Standard on Friday and Jumpers yesterday and today. A heartbreaker of a spin in front of the table (my fault) cost us a double Q today.

Love my girls!

Nina Master FAST (Q):

Nina Friday Jumpers (Q and 17 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q and 27 points) – close call on the teeter there!:

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q and OAJ title), the best part of the run didn’t get recorded unfortunately:

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q and 15 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (I showed way too much deceleration going to the table, so she spun, bad handler, I was worried about her overshooting it and overhandled it):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (Excellent debut!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (Open, no Q, but a decent run, she is speeding up):