{"id":3392,"date":"2018-12-19T18:04:17","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/?p=3392"},"modified":"2018-12-19T18:05:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:05:57","slug":"2018-akc-agility-invitational","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/?p=3392","title":{"rendered":"2018 AKC Agility Invitational"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Invitational is a strange beast. Exciting, disappointing, emotional, fun, exhausting, thrilling. It&#8217;s an experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This year was extra emotional, because Nina&#8217;s pancreatitis flare-up in November was just improving and then flared again the day before I left. So I left her home with Jim rather than subject her to all that driving, crate time, strange places, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She qualified this year for the fifth year in a row, and I know that, at 11 1\/2, this could easily have been her last year to go (plus the official color this year was purple, Nina&#8217;s color!), but leaving her behind was the right choice for her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had high hopes for Zhora this year (last year, the Invitational was her first trial back after the puppies, so I knew we wouldn&#8217;t be competitive). She&#8217;s been within shouting distance of the finals twice now and I thought this year (her fourth consecutive) could be her year. She&#8217;s been fast and accurate and laying down perfect weekend after perfect weekend. She came out on Friday and dropped a 7 point Time 2 Beat run, which is excellent when running with some of the fastest dogs in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HIprmAqH9nQ\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Then Saturday was hot and muggy, I think Nina&#8217;s absence really started to get to her, and in our Round 1 Jumpers she bobbled in the weaves, looking at me while I was looking ahead, and that moment of disconnect caused her to pop. Right off the bat we were out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/PBRu-7MDaZw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Round 2 Standard was a Q. Slow, but a Q.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Hf5ukZTOPog\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>On Sunday, Round 3 Hybrid started to feel more like running with Zhora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qYmnnMlel8E\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>And then Round 4 Jumpers was my favorite &#8211; three blind crosses, two misread turns but no big deal, she ran fast and happy and I cried at the end, so thankful to this awesome little teammate for coming through for me once again.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/i4A1w1_QUz0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>HUGE crowd pressure this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_20181216_122800-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_20181216_122800-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_20181216_122800-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/IMG_20181216_122800-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So Zhora finished 3\/4 plus Time 2 Beat, not bad at all!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20181216162112239_COVER-1-e1545260549104-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20181216162112239_COVER-1-e1545260549104-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/00100lPORTRAIT_00100_BURST20181216162112239_COVER-1-e1545260549104-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Then we made the traditional stop at American Beach on Amelia Island for some much-needed R&amp;R:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"731\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_105420_2-1024x731.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_105420_2-1024x731.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_105420_2-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_105420_2-768x548.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Alice on American Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/o60MUzXqGUA\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"http:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_104528-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3395\" srcset=\"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_104528-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_104528-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/MVIMG_20181217_104528-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Thank you Zhora!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Invitational is a strange beast. Exciting, disappointing, emotional, fun, exhausting, thrilling. It&#8217;s an experience. This year was extra emotional, because Nina&#8217;s pancreatitis flare-up in November was just improving and then flared again the day before I left. So I left her home with Jim rather than subject her to all that driving, crate time, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,43,53,54,62,63,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2012-litter","category-agility","category-awesome","category-dog-training","category-dogs","category-vallhunds","category-zhora"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3392"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3401,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3392\/revisions\/3401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alkemi.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}