A blog listing trial results and accomplishments of Melanie’s dogs.

I almost forgot about this trial, as I thought I had a break after regionals…  ;)  Also, I entered this so long ago, I didn’t enter Smitty, because she was not yet doing contacts in public, and open jww was well over our heads. 

So I only had goals for Austin and Regan.  For Austin, this was our last weekend to pick up points for the Invitational.  He’s definitely going to make the Top 5 regardless, but it’s never bad to have a buffer!  For Regan, she still needs Double Q’s for AKC Nationals, so I wanted to still keep things fast and fun, but place a tad more importance on staying on course.

Results:

Austin - Saturday’s std course had no straight lines ANYWHERE, just turn, turn, turn, by off course after off course, after off course.  So I kept him on course, but he was by no means speedy (of course the 5+ sec it took to get him down on the table didn’t help his time), but he was clean, picking up 2nd and 24 points.  JWW had lots more flow, but he took down bar #2.  I was kinda upset about this for awhile, but realized later that there was a deep sand pocket right before that jump.  It was possible that no matter how I had handled that spot, he would have struggled to clear the bar.  The rest of the run was fast and flowing though, complete with a rear cross at the weaves.  On Sunday, we again had a bar in JWW, and no deep sand to blame this time.  Just some confusion of go straight vs turn.  But again, a lovely fast, fun run.  And then in standard, we had the trickiest course of the weekend, and he smoked it, winning his class and picking up 36 points.  So he tallied 60 points for his weekend!

Regan - Regan’s first run was tough.  I kinda forgot what a difficult environment this place is for her (hadn’t been there in a long time, and she’s come so freakin’ far…).  But she really struggled on that first course.  She wanted to find a line so bad, and got a little “fuzzy” when I had to keep calling her back.  However, she did stay on course, clean and undertime by I think 15 sec, so it wasn’t too bad.  And in the past, I would have lost her completely.  Each run just got successively better, unbelieveably better, in fact.  Her last run of the weekend was standard, and she ran it in 40.5 sec, I’m certain a personal best!  She Q’d every run, and just got faster and faster.  We are experimenting with a stand at the startline, and she’s really digging it!  :)  GO BABY RAY! 

Yay!

Sorry I didn’t do the day-by-day account…it was too damn hot, and after 14 hrs in the sun, I was too wiped to do much of anything except fall into bed. I really don’t know that I will do this regional again if it’s held at the same location. There’s no unloading area, and the parking lot is as far from the rings as the tenting area is (on opposite sides!). The baby pools were as far away from the tenting area as possible…everything was just so spread out. Add this to extreme heat and humidity.

This was a new test to my mental game…the distraction of heat. I’ve never thought it was that much of an issue for me, but I could tell that I was mentally slow in the ring, my reaction time was bad, and responding to anything that didn’t go as planned didn’t workout too well. Friday was really rough; I decided for Saturday that I would drink twice as much liquids, and eat healthy stuff every two hours, and I seemed to do much better Saturday and Sunday. Thank goodness the events were spread out over the 3 days!

Results:

Austin - my main goal was to get his GP semi bye, and we did it!!! He placed 11th in 26″, and was the fastest non-herding breed there, faster than several nice goldens. I also was hoping to get his TM-Gold with a DAM Q. However, our 3rd skipped out on Sunday without even telling us before relay. To say I was livid is an understatement. We did find out that we could have a substitute handler (taking a 200 point penalty), so we tried to run relay, but even with 2 clean runs, we couldn’t overcome the penalty, and didn’t Q. I will say that I didn’t have any trouble at all staying awake on the way home though.

Regan - she blew me away with how well she did in the heat. again, very easy to rev up, and ran well all weekend. Her very awesome team qualified, and Regan was a strong contributor. (thanks Katie and Jay!) She made it to round 2 of GP again, but felt very strongly about getting on the dogwalk instead of in the tunnel.

Smitty - yep, not only did the little monkey get the std leg and pairs leg (1st time in pairs!) she needed, but she got her 1st adv gamblers leg as well. She again held every startline, even in pairs (going 2nd!), and hit all her dogwalks. Her performance in PSJ (her first time!) was breathtaking up until her 30 sec at the weavepoles (CAN’T SLOW DOWN!), and she really was just all around amazing. She got her 6th 16″ measurement (running out of room on that silly card!).

We did get several runs on video:

Day 1

It didn’t really feel like a long day, but given that it’s after 8:00 and I just made it back to my room, I guess 14 hrs definitely qualifies as a long day!

We started off the day fulfilling the lovely requirement that all dogs with blue temp height cards, no matter how many signatures they may bear, must be measured. So Smitty proceeded to get her 5th *EXACTLY* 16″ measurement by her 2nd CMJ. I guess we’ll get one more next weekend, and another in Scottsdale…gunna run out of room!

I found all of the courses to have at least one challenge to make you think (well, I guess except for gamblers), but mostly nice and flowy.

Snooker: I ran the same plan for Austin and Regan. Could do 3 or 4 reds, and was at first going to just do 3, but saw an easy to insert 4th, and went for it. We did 5, 5, 7, 3 (51 pts) Both dogs ran flawlessly. I saw Regan looking around a bit, but she never stopped, and actually ran quite nicely. Austin came in 7th out of 54 and Regan came in 28th out of 110.

Jumpers: This course had a tough weave entry, and several oddly angled jumps. Bars were flying like pick-up sticks, and several dogs had nasty tumbles at the spread. Since the course started with a straight line of jump, spread, tunnel, I knew this would be a nice motivating course for both dogs, but I wasn’t sure Regan would be able to handle that weave entry. In the end, both dogs were clean, with Austin having a slightly faster time. Austin placed 15th and Regan placed 39th.

Standard: Uggh. The dreaded tunnel-dogwalk discrimination! That was my biggest concern. I vowed to not leave that spot until I saw feet on the contact! Otherwise, the course was a bit twisty, but ended with a super fast outrun, and I think both of my guys liked it. They both nailed the discrimination, and were once again clean! (no placements up yet).

Gamblers: This was just fun at the end…really no pressure. I designed a course that did not include the 5 point obstacle, the dogwalk, to keep it fast and flowing. Regan was a bit tentative, but still ran well. She wasn’t quite as far as I thought she’d be when the whistle blew, so I opted for fewer points in the closing, but Austin totally rocked. I don’t have placements, but Regan picked up 34 points, and Austin picked up 42.

In the end, Austin’s fab team is currently in 2nd out of 68 teams. Regan’s teammates have struggled a bit, and the team is currently about 100 points below the cut-off line for qualifying. I think we’ll need to be perfect in the relay, and have quite a few other teams falter to have any hopes of qualifying, but what’s most important is how well she ran.

Two years ago, Regan crapped in the ring here…she’s certainly come a long way. We even worked on shaping our new trick “feet” (her feet on my feet) while waiting to run. That she’s relaxed enough to think clearly like that is nothing short of amazing.

And little Smitty was the bomb hanging out in the x-pen like a big dog. She was literally just feet from the ring, and while she did do her “beagle howl” a few times when I was sitting there (I think to get me to let her out), she was amazingly calm. We had several sessions at the practice jump, and she did all of her one jump work beautifully, and never broke a startline. What more could I ask for? I will say that the atmosphere is pretty charged, and I wouldn’t be surprised if her head popped off in the ring tomorrow, but we shall see!

Day 2

I woke up around 5am this morning, and when I started thinking about all the fun things I had to look forward to, I couldn’t go back to sleep. Had I known how great today would be, I may not have slept the entire night!

From yesterday-

Team Std: Austin came in 18th and Regan came in 40th.

Team Gamblers: Austin came in 22nd and Regan came in 61st.

Today-

Team Relay: Regan and Austin were both clean!!! Actually, the only ones to go clean on both of their teams! If Austin’s team had just gone clean, we would have won, but instead came in 11th. Regan’s team really bombed and came in 55th.

Grand Prix: This course was pretty clear on how it needed to be handled, but was a tight and a bit of a tricky one. Since Austin had a bye, I wanted to use it as a chance to run as fast as possible. I chose not to lead out with him (I think I may have been the only person to do so!) and it worked just fine with him really blasting off the start. For Regan, I got in a nice leadout with our silly “YOU WAIT!” game (someone actually came up to me and said that they thought she looked pretty solid on her stay, and that I didn’t need to worry so much…hysterical!). She drove nicely around the course, and turned in a respectable time…well off of the fastest dogs, but also a mile away from course time! Austin came in 10th and Regan came in 38th. So both get to play in round 2 tomorrow!

Steeplechase: I did not like this course on paper, but managed to find a lot more flow when I walked it. I had the new experience of running 22″ in one ring and 26″ in the other, and man, were they build differently, allowing for completely different handling options. Both dogs absolutely flew and made it into round 2 (I think another 1st for Regan at a regional). Austin came in 17th and Regan came in 35th.

And little Smitty…

Not to be outdone, Smitty did her own bit of shining. She managed to be 3 for 3 on her dogwalk.

Standard: She held her startline, did 3 gorgeous contacts, and her weaves on the first try. I did have to try twice to get her on the dogwalk, and accidentally sent her offcourse after the weaves, but I was pleased with how she ran.

Gamblers: I think she was cloase to breaking her startline, but only her butt came up from her down into a “reverse sit”. She did 2 lovely dogwalks, and then struggled with the poles. However, she did get the gamble, thus finishing her Starters Gamblers title!

Tomorrow, everyone better watch out, because I will be running her with intent. I was erring more on the side of calm and quiet to try to help her stay settled, but we will be driving tomorrow. Should be fun, and I’m very excited.

Day 3

We started off the day with a little more excitement than necessary…I got to the arena and my group was already walking Steeplechase Finals! There were several interesting angles that needed some pondering, but I didn’t have much time for that, as Austin was 4th in the ring.

My goal was to see if I could push him fast enough to get a semi bye for Nationals. With the tighter cut-off this year (115% of the average of the 3 fastest dogs), I knew this would be tough. And of course, we must be clean.

Fortunately, this was a course that I could do another “throw back and run” off the startline, and he really shot off the startline. He was so charged up; he did his fastest weaves of the weekend. It felt a little wide when I was running it, but watching the video (will post later for reasons mentioned below), I can see how he was really able to maintain his speed, and really wonder if cranking down on him would have resulted in a better time.

So…drumroll….he came in SEVENTH PLACE!!!!! Austin, a freakin’ VIZSLA! And he beat that cut-off by 1.6 sec. OH-MY-GOD! Obviously, he was the fastest non-bc, but he was just fast period. We were 2 placements out of winning $ at a regional! He must have been about 3 sec off of the winning time. I’m so proud of my red boy.

Regan had a smokin’ run as well, but got called for her aframe, which I thought might be an issue. Goodness, there were a lot of 22″ dogs in the Stp Finals….I think that put her about 40th.

GP Finals was TOUGH (for local folks, I’m setting up at PBH run-thrus a week from Friday). Extremely technical, complete with threadles, 2 180s with multiple offcourse options. Was a course were I had trouble in the end decided how I would handle. In Austin’s run, I thought “whew, I made it through the tough part”…and you know what happens when you do that! I rushed him to the dogwalk, and pushed him to the wrong end of a tunnel. Bummer. And I think the course was just a little over Regan’s head. She popped out of the weavepoles and then got a refusal at the next jump. But she finished strong and still looked happy. (Don’t tell anyone, but I got her so jacked up on the startline that she bit me! Regan!)

And then Miss Smitty (or should we say Spitty…wait until you see the Tien pic that I bought of her…). Now today was my day to run all out with her. I was just a little frightened…

In standard, took 2 tries to get her in the weaves, but then we raced to the dogwalk and got the best hit of the weekend (making us 3 for 3!). In the end, she dropped one bar on the way to the teeter, which I’m sure was handling.

In snooker, we went for 3 7’s baby….and she did it! Wow, what a good girl, and oh-my-god is she fast. It was a lot of fun. She came off the side of the teeter in that one, so something to take note of.

In jumpers, was a lovely little course, and again, we went for speed. We had another bar down (looking forward to seeing the tape on that one), but I wish I’d caught her time, because it was smokin’ fast. Certainly driving for speed is the funnest. I’m glad I did this in such a charged environment and was able to see that she still kept her head on. That will help me make that choice just about anywhere.

She again held every startline, nailed every contact, stayed on every table. She needs a standard leg and a pairs leg to get out of starters, which is my goal, as I think just taking whatever is in front of you is a deathwish if done for too long!

I’ve got video from a few runs of Austin and Regan, and all of Smitty’s runs. However I’m at my parents’ house because I got a flat tire on the way home! I recommend every keep a can of “Fix-A-Flat” in your car, as that stuff is amazing. A flat tire in the Bible Belt on Sunday at 7pm is not a good plan, and I had to limp along to get to Mom and Dad’s in Concord. So we’ll have to wait on the video. I may see if I can get their scanner to scan in the photos though.

Videos…
Austin:
Highlights - see Austin run relay with Linda/Super and Wendy/Snap; plus his 2 Steeplechase runs…notice round 2 we were much faster and less conservative, and he took 7th place!

Regan:
Highlights - I LOVE her steeplechase runs…there are glimmers of the dog that I know is inside…

Smitty:
Highlights - Just too cute!!! We had some wild runs, but I was very pleased with how well she did!

Pictures….

Who the hell is this??? God is she gorgeous and intense or what?

Should we call her Spitty? What a little ragamuffin!

Mr. Winkie But how come he’s winking the eye away from the poles???

Day 1:

 OK, I’m so proud of my baby girl, I just don’t know what to do with myself. She was brilliant on about 20 different levels. She ran in Gamblers and her first time in Standard. Let’s see if I can list what was so awesome.

1) She held 2 obstacle stays in both runs (OMG!!!)

2) She hit 2 of 3 sets of weaves on the 1st try, and got the 3rd set on the 2nd try.

3) She was 3 for 3 on her dogwalk. 2 hits were quite high, but one was nice and deep (and the deep one was the 3rd one, yay!)

4) She *still* got her weave entry on a wide turn in standard. She had every right to get in at pole #2 or even run by them, but no, she put on the brakes and dove right in.

5) Her table is incredible…gets on and nearly slams herself into a down.

6) She got the gamble!!! Looked like she’s been gambling for years!

7) She had the fastest time in standard and the most points in gamblers of all jump heights! Go Smitty go!

Unfortunately, there was a camera malfunction during the standard run, but we did get the gamblers run (thanks Sue!). I think she looks fantastic!

Not to leave them out…Regan and Austin also did well. Regan picked up a GP Q (3rd place), a 3rd place standard Q, and a 3rd place snooker Q. Austin picked up a 1st place gamblers Q.

Oh, it is fun to run a baby dog!!!

Day 2:

 Whew, goodness, another day of 13 runs (actually 14 as the timers didn’t work for Austin’s Steeplechase run, so we ran again!) + working non-stop. I have just enough energy left to write this post. I felt bad leaving Austin and Regan’s reports until the end last time, so I’m putting them first:

Austin - 1st and Q in jumpers, 1st in steeplechase (but had a bar, and since scores were combined with 22″, we didn’t Q), naughty and took the tunnel instead of dogwalk in standard, beautiful pairs run, but partner went offcourse, 1st and Q in gamblers

Regan - 3rd and Q in jumpers, Q in steeplechase (that’s the last Q she needed for National!), popped out of weaves in std, nice run in pairs, but team was 3 sec over, great gamble run, but missed the aframe/tunnel discrimination in the joker

Smitty - standard had LOVELY contacts (check out the stop on the teeter!), super fast table, and mostly optional jumps My cues were late, and I didn’t correct her for going by a jump. I really liked this run.

Gamblers: fantastic course for getting in dogwalks. We had lots of miscommunication with the jump before the dogwalk, and I forgot to say “go-go-go”. She *did* get at least one rear foot in the yellow both reps, but the judge only gave points for the first rep. Was my first experience with knowing that she got the contact, but we didn’t get “credit”. I’m such a “rules” person, inside I wanted to say something to the judge, almost like educating her, but I knew it wasn’t worth it. Didn’t help that a dog a few dogs before Smitty missed the contact by a good 10″, and the judge gave her the points. We really need to do something about a way to judge these contacts more consistently. I figured the gamble would be tough for her, and it was…no biggie.

Jumpers: I was determined to drive this course, and it’s a good thing, because I was hanging on by a thread. Even with all those ridiculously wide turns/miscommunications, she was still only 20 sec! Goodness, I think I need to lay off of the dogwalk training in favor of actually teaching her (and me!) some handling at those kinds of speeds!

Day 3:

Today was definitely the hottest of all 3 days. I was pleased with how all my guys handled the heat, and it seemed that I did a good job managing their temperatures as well (esp Smitty). Was another day full of Q’s…I’m terribly proud of my dogs again!

Austin: Q and 2nd in Standard; 1st in Steeplechase (had to run twice *again* cause the timers didn’t work!); Q and 1st in Pairs; bombed snooker (I had to change my plan on the fly, as it included taking the double backwards, and seems no one told Austin!); and Q and 1st in Jumpers

Regan: I needed more patience in Standard, she missed the weave entry; 6th in Steeplechase (missed the weave entry and an aframe contact - of course, I’m not sure she really missed it…I was SHOCKED at the inconsistency of contact calls this weekend…apparently if you just say YES really loud, you won’t get called); 2nd in Pairs (actually Austin and Regan were on the one qualifying teams); bomb in snooker (because of taking above said double backwards), and a Q in Jumpers (not sure of placement, but a nice run)

Smitty: Standard - Incredible drive to and down on the table. Course went table to dogwalk, and when I released her from the table, she zoomed right past the dogwalk. So I had to do another dogwalk from a standstill, but this time I remembered our “go-go-go” and she had a nice hit, still not superlow, but much less questionable (camera malfunctioned, so didn’t get this one taped, unfortunately) She popped the weaves when I said good, and then lost her head a couple of tries before getting them completed, but then finished nicely. Jumpers - Was a nice little run…she ran around one jump, but did the most beautiful little collected jump when I sent her around the back of the jump and front crossed. She still finished the course in just under 21 sec, even with all the fixing at the one jump. (filmer malfunctioned, so again, no video)

Q counts for the weekend:

Austin - 1 std, 1 stp, 2 jmp, 1 gam, 1 pairs

Regan - 1 gp, 1 stp, 1 std, 1 sn, 1 pairs, 2 jmp

Smitty - 2 std, 2 jmp, 1 gam

Well, she did it!  Got that last Gamble leg on Saturday on a not so easy Gamble (Austin didn’t get it).  It has been a tough 5 years, but I do believe that this little girl is lovin’ the game.  May actually be time to stop cranking her up quite so high…cannot even believe I just typed that. 

Austin had a tremendous weekend himself, winning his 4th local GP and coming in 2nd in the Steeplechase.  He also picked up his Bronze in Standard and Gamblers.

Smitty picked up her 3rd and 4th measurements (including her 1st CMJ measurement) for the 16″ classes (YAY!), and we had a very connected Jumpers run where she held her startline and we very much together went offcourse.  :-)  I’m feeling very good about how she’s progressing, and am looking forward to her contact debut at PBH in 2 weeks.

agilemindsmel

I really enjoy this trial…the club is so friendly, and they now rent this awesome building for the trial…it’s just perfect. Nice footing, and it has a nice cross-breeze. We were treated to some very nice courses with terrific flow and some interesting challenges.

The weirdest thing happened on Saturday morning. I can’t even tell you the last time this happened to me, but I ran the wrong course in JWW. I knew I got a little lost, but thought it just caused a missed weave entry for Austin, so when I looked at the score sheet and saw the E, I figured it was because I didn’t fix the poles.

But since I didn’t know, I did it AGAIN with Regan. Thought she SMOKED the course, so when I looked and saw another E, I didn’t know why. The Judge couldn’t remember, but the scribe said they were all wondering what I was doing when I skipped an entire loop. And then, the photographer asked me if I skipped the tunnel with both dogs on purpose. CRAP!!! But I tell you what…skipping 3 obstacles makes it look like your dogs are screaming fast against the competition on paper!!!

We redeamed ourselves in standard. Austin was fabulously clean and fast, and Regan was fast and clean for us (which means she missed the dogwalk contact).

Sunday, I was more focused, but this time Austin decided today was the day to get a bit “birdy” outside, and was in hunting mode. He hasn’t done this in awhile, but for goodness sakes, he is a vizsla. I took him inside to run him, and he looked focused, but must have been scanning a bit, because he found a hammer along the fence line for me. Silly boy. We still had a fast, fun run, and I’m still laughing about it. Regan was again clean (for us…another nice leap over the dogwalk contact), and very speedy. My favorite aspect of that run was her vulture crouch at the startline. My goodness, she wanted to GO!!! And in that crowded building with sounds and people right behind her. SOOOOO cool.

JWW, we *ALL* got it together and took a couple of blue ribbons. In fact, Regan was a solid 2 sec faster than Austin….a first for her in JWW, where she doesn’t have that contact advantage. Someone even told me…she looked like a “good bc” on that run. Regan got a lot of compliments this weekend…several folks saying she doesn’t even look like the same dog. I love it…who knows how far I can take her, but looks like we ain’t done yet!

Smitty had a wonderful opportunity this weekend; we got to train out at Anne Standen’s absolutely gorgeous property….I’m in love with the landscaping she has done, so very pretty. All of the contacts were slightly different from anything she had seen before, so was great, great, great! I didn’t put any pressure on speed, just gave her time to do each of them, and she was BRILLIANT!!! She also nailed every weave entry (on a different, wide base). I found her to be particularly smart and clever in pretty much everything she did!

This weekend gave Austin another 60 points; hopefully enough to carry us pretty much through for the Invitational.

The big news is….Austin went 4 for 4!  First time ever at a local trial!  And he managed all 1st place ribbons as well!  This gave him an amazing 132 points for the weekend.

I was perhaps even more proud of Regan…she had a fantastic clean run in standard, beating Austin’s time by an outstanding 3.5 sec.  And then, on Sunday, while no runs were clean, she was oh-so-fast.  I actually caught her digging in out of the corner of my eye, and she had her ears flattened back in all of her pictures…a sure sign that she was all about goin’ fast! 

I was both relieved and disappointed that I wasn’t running Smitty.  I knew in my heart she wasn’t ready, and that we made the right choice, but it’s so hard to be patient sometimes!!!  She got in fantastic work at the practice jump, as well as some time working on not shrieking hysterically outside the ring while other dogs are running.  Seems as long as she’s 20′ away, she’s ok, but get any closer, and look out!

My to-do’s include:
   1) Austin - long sequences for kibble (he didn’t come off the startline as fast as I’d like this weekend, so want to help him get used to working longer before cookies come)
   2) Regan - noodles/hoop (vary when hoop is out)
   3) Smitty - the usual list, but want to keep “working amidst other dogs”  high on the list

Too tired to post all the details right now, but here are the results:

DAM Team:
1st place - Austin’s team (Team Rubicon - Dawn K. w/Tess and Randy W. w/Abby)
2nd place - Regan’s team (Herding the Hound - Dawn K. w/River and Amanda S. w/Weaver)

Saturday:
GP - Austin won 26″
STP Round 1 - Austin won 26″, Regan Q’d 8th 22″
Masters Jumpers - Austin won 26″
Masters Gamblers - Regan Q’d 4th (one to go for her ADCH!)
Masters Relay - Regan Q’d 1st with Derrell’s Envy; Austin Q’d 3rd with Nancy’s Streak

Sunday:
STP Round 2 - Austin 2nd 26″, Regan 3rd 22″
Masters Jumpers - Austin Q’d 2nd; Regan Q’d
Masters Gamblers - Austin Q’d 2nd
Masters Relay - Regan Q’d 4th with Nancy’s Streak

New Titles: Austin earned his Relay Champion, his Tournament Silver, and his Jumpers Bronze.  Regan earned her Tournament Master.

A few tired notes: Smitty was higher than a friggin’ kite.  Need to get her in more group environments.  We will work on more connection before we trial again.  A startline would also be handy.  :)  Regan is clearly a notch faster.  She had a 5 pt fault in round 1 of Steeplechase and was still able to qualify (a 1st!) and on Sunday, in relay they had 10 faults and still qualified, which means she was MOVIN’!  She was a fireball on the startline, and several folks commented on her speed.  Austin was quite a trooper to run 15 times over 3 days.  Some runs were more drivey than others, but I was amazed; and was reminded again that I’ve got to always give him 150% if I expect him to fly. 

I uploaded all 5 runs together. First 2 are from the Team Competition on Friday, then Rounds 1-3 from Sat and Sun. I think I could sit here and watch them over and over again all night! Not that I’m biased… I’m particularly pleased with threadle execution, the speed he shows when I blast ahead, his weave pole execution, and his fabulous jumping skills!

I woke up at 3am this morning, and couldn’t stop wondering what the hybrid course would look like today. Which contacts…what order…and mostly, hoping that it would have the wonderful flow that the last courses had had. I stayed awake for an hour, and eventually went back to sleep, thank goodness!

We checked out of the hotel, and made it over to the trial site right on time. One look at the course told me that we were blessed with flow again. The hybrid course had an aframe and teeter, but no dogwalk. There was a tremendous outrun to the aframe at the end of the course, which I knew would be tricky.

I watched the 26″ class run, and was shocked at how many dogs struggled with the course. I figured that the 24″ class would be similar, and thought that if we ran clean and fast, we’d have a shot into the finals, but I was determined to focus more on the clean and fast, and less on the finals part… After I walked our individual walk-thru, I didn’t watch any dogs in the class. The performance of others was out of my control, and I really just wanted to focus on Austin. I could tell I was a little higher than the other runs…my heart pounded everytime I visualized us running, especially the part where I needed to beat him to the downside of the aframe.

Well, we went in and gave it our all. I have to say, all of my handling choices were great for Austin. My execution was a bit wild on a couple of them though… Austin did fall coming out of the chute, right on his face. But the speed that he picked himself up and jumped the next jump all in one motion was amazing. And I DID beat him to the aframe, and he DID get feet in yellow.

I couldn’t believe it….we went clean and fast 5 for 5 runs!!! I was sooooo proud of Austin. What a GREAT dog I have…I just love him. He, of course, was stuffing his face with meatballs, and was just on top of the world.

I went up to see my mom, who had been keeping track of all the dogs ahead of us in the rankings. I was shocked to see that all but one had run clean. And they kept running clean! Just amazing…quite a difference from what I was expecting. I was disappointed as I watched us slowly get edged out of the finals. But not nearly as disappointed as I had been at the Invitational. This weekend, we left nothing on the table. I had no regrets….no “wish I’d gone for it” or disappointing handling choices.

My special boy was clean 5 for 5…we’ve NEVER done that before! He came in 12th out of 94 dogs, and was known by several as “that fast vizsla”. We got SOOOO many well wishes to make it to the finals, and lots of disappointed folks when they saw we didn’t make it. Heck, no non-bc made it to the finals in 24″.

So all in all, a fantastic 1st AKC Agility Nationals for us…and next year, it’s 10 min from my parents’ house, so we’ll have the home court advantage!