Saturday, October 4, 2008

Finals Here We Come!!


What an amazing day we had today. I'm still in shock, as we accomplished what I thought was impossible. We had a great run in Standard yesterday but not good enough to place, and then we knocked a bar in Jumpers, so I thought Finals was out of the picture. But man, Kaylie kicked it up today and we had a FANTASTIC run in Standard today, and actually placed 3rd, and our Jumpers run was clean and pretty fast, but not fast enough to place. I was absolutely amazed when they not only called Kaylie's name for Standard Finals, but also Jumpers Finals. I start to tear up even as I type this, I'm just still so surprised. I guess consistency pays off -- the dogs that did well on Friday couldn't pull it off today, while I stayed right there in the middle. Woooo hoooo!!

Today was also the North America Challenge run. This course is typically longer than a regular Standard course, and has more challenges. Again, we are up against some very tough competition. Today I decided not to watch the other dogs in my class. I didn't want to know how the competition was doing, so I could just focus on Kaylie. We ran clean, and I felt we ran it as well as we could have. It was a very long wait until we got the results, and man, when they announced Kaylie getting 3rd place, the tear fest began. I was absolutely amazed. And then other friends were placing with their dogs, and everyone was in tears. It was so much fun. DOCNA is the absolute best venue -- I've made such wonderful friends, and the support everyone gives to each other is awesome.

Now for tomorrow! We have Trigility, which is a team event. I'm part of the "Sassy Trio" with my friends Cindi S. and Taz & Terri S. and Shayna. And then Standard and Jumpers Finals. I can't wait!
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1 comment:

Diamond Girl said...

OMG!! That is so awesome!!! I wish I could have been there to join in the tear fest!!! You guys are such an amazing team. CONGRATULATIONS, SUPER STARS!!!!

I can't wait to read the update on what happened today!

October 5, 2008 at 5:40 PM

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Kaylie - The True Wonder Dog

At our last DOCNA (Dogs on Course in North America) agility trial in Prescott, Kaylie did fantastic! We are trying to be the first team to earn the MEX (Merit of Excellence) who started in the Beginner level. We are getting VERY close. All the other teams that have earned the MEX were grandfathered in at higher levels. Kaylie was just starting her agility career when DOCNA was created, so we had no choice but to start at the beginning. And as it is, I believe there are under 20 teams that have even earned the MEX to this point.

Well, going into the trial at Prescott, we needed 2 Specialist Gamblers legs and 2 Specialist Standard legs. In DOCNA, there are two types of Gamblers runs -- Traditional and Strategic Timed Gamblers. Unfortunately, we have only earned 3 Traditional Gamblers legs -- one from the Beginner class, one from the Intern class and one from the Specialist class. All the other Gamblers legs have come from the Strategic Time Gamblers. So, I knew going in that the chance of getting that Traditional Gamblers leg on Saturday was slim. We walked into the ring, and I knew Kaylie was on fire and ready to go. The Gamblers class is usually the first class of the trial, and Kaylie is usually absolutely wild in the first run. Well, this was no different. She was incredibly fast, and I was not -- I kept getting in her way, and things just fell apart. At 30 seconds, the buzzer rang, which meant I had to get to the gamble portion of the course. I sent her over the jump to the tunnel -- she took the wrong end of the tunnel, then came right back to me over the wrong jump and that was the end of that. No MEX for us this weekend. BUT, she did qualify in the two Standard runs she needed, getting First place both times, and she got her Strategic Timed Gamblers leg on Sunday, earning a Second place. Wooo hooo Kaylie!!! Out of 10 runs over the weekend, we qualified in 8 of them, placing 1st, 2nd or 3rd in all but one run -- our Jumpers run on Sunday. I got lost on the course and just got confused. Luckily, Kaylie can read the numbers on the cones (that's the only explanation I can come up with) because she ran the right course despite my mess ups! Hence the name "Wonder Dog." So we still Q'd, but got 6th place. Still, not too bad!!

So, our next DOCNA trial will be in Pinetop the end of August. Hopefully we'll get our MEX there! Just one Gambler leg to go.