Oh Yeah, You Blend

Judge Janet Budzynski is always one of our favorites. Her courses are quite technical (and we often get far fewer points than usual), but my dogs seem to do well on them, plus Janet is always delightful to show to, fun, energetic and very positive.

We had a double double Q Sunday, the last one of those was a double double Q Friday just two weeks ago! The girls ran so, so well, Zhora would have had two double Q’s if I hadn’t pulled her off a jump in Jumpers yesterday. Bad handler! But I didn’t fix it because she did exactly what I told her to do. Good handler!

In case you are wondering why I ask my dogs to lie down at the startline instead of sit (as many handlers prefer), it’s because some dogs end up leaning so far forward in a sit (because they want to get going), that they are “downhill” (to use an equestrian term, meaning that the center of gravity is shifted forward and more of their weight is on the front legs than normal) and this can make lifting off to get over the first jump difficult and more likely to result in a knocked bar. Theoretically, popping up from a down should allow the dog to keep their center of gravity in a more normal position, and make jumping that first jump easier. That’s the theory anyway! It also seems to be a more “grounding” position for my dogs, which seems to make the stay a bit easier to hold. I also like to set my dogs back at least a couple of strides from the first jump, to let them start running before they have to jump. I find they seem to get faster times if they have room to get some momentum going before they start the timer, and more importantly I think it’s easier on them physically.

Zhora Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 26 points):

Zhora Sunday Premier Jumpers (Q, second place):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #43, fifth place, 14 points):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #16, second place, 16 points):

Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):

Nina Sunday Time 2 Beat (NQ but some nice stuff there, she sometimes doesn’t want to lie down at the start, and then she thinks about biting my shoes!):

Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #43, second place, 26 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ # 16, first place, 27 points):

Super fun weekend under one of our favorite judges, Laura Kuterbach! Zhora had a perfect weekend, earning QQ’s # 41 and 42 towards MACH3, plus her Time 2 Beat 2 (T2B2) title. Nina continued to run really, really well, I cost us a double Q both days with handler errors, and she put up two beautiful Standard Q’s, including saving our butts by managing to get over a jump from a crazy bad angle, and a lovely Premier Jumpers Q.

Nina Saturday Jumpers (NQ, nice run, every time I walked it I told myself to go deeper past the weaves before I made my front cross, but did I? No, and it cost us a double Q):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ # 41, first place, 15 points):

Nina Saturday Standard (Q, first place, 30 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (part 2 of QQ #41, second place, 29 points):

Nina Saturday Time 2 Beat (NQ, nice run):

Zhora Saturday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points, Time 2 Beat 2 title):

Nina Sunday Premier Jumpers (Q!):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (NQ, nice run):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of QQ #42, third place, 16 points):

Zhora Sunday Time 2 Beat (Q, first place, 10 points):

Nina Sunday Standard (Q, second place, 29 points, she saved the Q by somehow getting over that jump near the end from a TERRIBLE angle):

Zhora Sunday Standard (part 2 of QQ #42, third place, 26 points):

MACH2 Alkemi Blade Runner LS MXS MJS NF T2B (Zhora)

Me and MACH2 Zhora saying thanks judge Jeff Ipser!

What a weekend! Zhora earned her MACH 2 (Master Agility Champion 2 – that’s 40 double Q’s and 1500 speed points), Nina FINALLY earned another double Q (#15, first since last April), and had her best weekend overall in a very, very long time, the weather was terrible, the judge got sick and we had to get a replacement judge (just like when Zhora earned her MACH, actually!), the judge’s ring measurements were incorrect so we had to change the courses (an AKC rep came to the trial Saturday and Sunday)…excitement, adventure and really wild things.

The lake hasn’t frozen yet, so we are still getting lake effect snow. With lots of warnings in the forecast for this weekend, Sue and I decided to caravan and drive up Thursday afternoon in the hopes of having to drive through a north-moving lake effect snow band as it passed over us, thus minimizing our exposure to it. Well…the band didn’t move as expected, which meant we, and a ton of other people, were trapped in our cars at the Lackawanna toll booths for nearly two hours after a truck jack knifed at the Blasdell exit on I-90. It was frightening, the snow was coming down very heavily (almost 5″ per hour at some points), building up around the car tires, and it was so cold that the wipers kept icing up, so we had to keep getting out to clear snow off our cars and deice our wipers. We eventually got moving and got off the Thruway, had dinner, and then Jim navigated from home to help us find a way out of Hamburg. There were driving bans all over the place, accidents everywhere, you couldn’t tell where the road was, it was very, very scary. We left my house at 3 PM and I eventually made it back home just before 10 PM. Friday morning we decided to try again once the plows had been out, and other than a very nasty few miles with whiteout conditions, the drive was uneventful.

We arrived at Countryside just as the last few dogs were running Standard. The judge (Kelli Verrelli) kindly agreed to let Sue and I run, and we walked the course a few times still wearing our winter boots. Well, lo and behold, BOTH my girls qualified on a very tricky standard course with a very low Q rate. And then they went on to BOTH qualify in Jumpers – a double double Q Friday, WELL worth the drive!

Nina ran just beautifully all weekend, really paying attention to her jumping and knocking very few bars, and qualifying in all three Jumpers runs plus standard on Friday for QQ # 15.

Not only did Zhora earn her MACH 2 just 8 months after her MACH, she ran fast and happy and very attentively. In our standard run today (for her MACH2), we were on the startline when they noticed a timer problem, so we left the ring while they fixed it. Zhora has shown herself to be very level-headed about things like that, I just knelt down on the ground with her and played with her and she was unflappable. She came out just as ready to run as she’d been the first time. And she was the ONLY 8″ dog to qualify on that course. The Q rates were quite low overall, especially for the big dogs.

So thankful to judge Jeff Ipser for making the drive to come and fill in Saturday and Sunday for Kelli after she got sick! We trial with Jeff all the time and it was very nice to earn a MACH under him!

Zhora Friday Jumpers (part 2 of QQ #39, second place, 14 points):

Nina Friday Jumpers (part 2 of QQ # 15, first place, 17 points):

Zhora Saturday Jumpers (Q, second place, 12 points):

Nina Saturday Jumpers (Q, first place, 15 points):

Zhora Saturday Standard (NQ but nice run):

Nina Saturday Standard (NQ but nice run, naughty table!):

Zhora Sunday Jumpers (part 1 of MACH2, second place, 12 points, just ONE SECOND behind Nina!):

Nina Sunday Jumpers (Q, first place, 13 points):

Zhora Sunday Standard (MACH2!!! First place, 27 points, the ONLY 8″ dog to qualify):

Nina Sunday Standard (NQ but really, really nice run, I needed to show more movement towards the table, I asked her to lie down at the start, she said “I don’t think I will”):

MACH2 Zhora – there was hugging!: