September 27, Lobo (Alkemi Beowulf del Roble LS) earned his first (of two) pre-trial tested (PT) herding leg! This was only the fourth time he had ever been on sheep, and he passed! Pretty great! Congratulations to Lobo and his mom Jan!
Some AWESOME courses from judge Laura Kuterbach (whom we trial with regularly too). Flowy, fast, fun. Loved the courses! I hurt my knee during the previous week and I could really feel I wasn’t running like myself, but my awesome pups worked beautifully anyway! Zhora earned a Standard Q both days, I stupidly pulled up before the last jump (the triple) in Jumpers today and made her knock the bar. She ran her fastest times to date again today (she is speeding up every weekend just now!), in Jumpers running 4.88 yards per second, and in Standard today she earned a fourth place and ran 3.85 yards per second for 23 points, her highest yet! Nina laid down her fastest JWW time yet (5.26 yards per second) in a beautiful one-bar-wonder run today, and qualified in Standard for a second place and 31 points, her other runs were gorgeous JOLT (Just One Little Thing) runs. We have two weekends off now, well earned!
Zhora Saturday Jumpers:
Nina Saturday Jumpers:
Nina Saturday Standard (yes, THAT tunnel! JOLT):
Zhora Saturday Standard (22 points, 5th place, 3.67 YPS):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (JOLT, one bar wonder, SUCH a nice run, 5.26 YPS):
Zhora Sunday Jumpers (JOLT, MY FAULT! RUN PAST THE LAST OBSTACLE YOU NINNY! Another nice run, 4.88 YPS, just over two seconds slower than Nina, pretty good!):
Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 31 points, 4.08 YPS):
Zhora Sunday Standard (Q, fourth place against the fast dogs, 23 points, 3.85 YPS):
Some tough, deceptively trappy courses from judge Linda Syner. I was thrilled with how my girls ran, even though the Q’s were few. Zhora earned her highest point total and fastest yards per second in standard to date, including a THIRD PLACE, which is tough to do around here since we trial with some of the fastest 12″ dogs in the country, she is running really well, she has really sped up a lot and is starting to run like she really gets the game. Nina had a 50% Q rate on the weekend, unfortunately not on the same day. As is her usual pattern, the more we trial, the better she gets, the mojo was really working for us.
Nina Saturday Jumpers (first place and 19 points):
Zhora Saturday Jumpers (not a Q but really happy with how she ran, that first bar down seemed to take FOREVER to fall):
Zhora Saturday Standard (third place and 23 points! Best yet!):
Nina Sunday Jumpers (not a Q but I worked distance on the weaves and was very pleased! That off-course yellow tunnel sucked in MANY MANY dogs):
Nina Sunday Standard (first place and 31 points):
Zhora Sunday Standard (not a Q but nice run):
So thanks to a camera glitch, none of my runs ended up being recorded. Which is a real shame, since Zhora went three for four again, ran her fastest Jumpers run to date, and Nina broke her NQ streak with a gorgeous Standard Q and first place today. Oh well…
Zhora earned double Q #8 with a 13 point Jumpers run and a 19 point Standard run on Saturday, and qualified in Jumpers on Sunday with 12 points.
Nina qualified in Standard in Sunday with 27 points and first place.
PLUS! Yesterday Colby (Alkemi Batman LS) and his mom Nichole Buryta earned their very first title with his Novice Jumpers (NAJ) title. Riley (Alkemi Aston Martin LS) and his dad Chris Buryta had beautiful runs and one lousy bar kept them from a q in an otherwise perfect jumpers run. And today Colby and Nichole earned his SECOND AKC title with his Novice Standard (NA) title AND Riley and Chris qualified in Novice Jumpers!