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!

Here are Colby and Riley’s runs from APOTC. Riley is Alkemi Aston Martin LS and Colby is Alkemi Batman LS.

Colby Saturday Open Jumpers (OAJ title!):

Riley Saturday Open Jumpers (Q, leg #2):

Colby Sunday Excellent Jumpers (NQ but really nice for his first Excellent run!):

Colby Sunday Time 2 Beat:

Riley Sunday Time 2 Beat:

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!):

The decision has been made! Zhora (Alkemi Blade Runner LS MX MXB MXJ MJB NF T2B) will be bred this summer to Bert (GCH CH Pepperthyme Tapani). Imported from England, Bert is a Grand Champion and is showing some real drive and talent for working stock. He has a lovely, sweet, outgoing temperament, sound structure and great working drive, and has produced some lovely puppies already, with nice physical awareness, sound structure and wonderful working drive. Both parents have long tails, so all puppies should have long tails. Bert is red, so we could have some reds in the litter! This litter has a very low coefficient of inbreeding. Bert is OFA Fair, normal elbows and eyes. Zhora is OFA Good, normal elbows, patellas and eyes and has full dentition.

As always, I match puppies to homes, rather than doing “first come first served”, I am hoping to get some really nice drivey puppies out of this litter. Zhora is a sweet, smart, sound-tempered, very nice working dog with an “off switch”, as is Bert, so we hope the puppies will inherit that! If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me, please include information about yourself, why you want a Vallhund, and what your plans for the dog are. Priority will likely be given to performance homes, although no good home will be overlooked, we want the right puppy in the right home.

Here are some pictures of Bert (loads of Zhora videos here already), and here is his page: