Thursday, April 29, 2010

Wonder Dogs Update

It was brought to my attention that I hadn't updated my blog lately. Where is the time going??!! I'm not working . . . one would think I had a ton of time to keep this updated. I just don't have an explanation, other than I've been too busy playing with my dogs!


I won't go into all the details of all the shows, but here's a brief summary since the Fiesta Cluster:


ASCA Cactus Cluster -- Kaylie took Best of Breed at two of the three shows I showed her at. I really should show her more often in conformation. She loves it and she just shines.


ASCA Agility Trial -- this was our Aussie club's first trial ever. Kaylie did fantastic, qualifying in most of her runs, placing 1st in all of her runs. Conor did pretty well too, but didn't always qualify.


DOCNA Agility Trial -- Kaylie earned her Silver Merit of Excellence title at the April DOCNA trial in Payson. She just needed one Gambler leg to earn the title, and she did it with a whirlwind of a Strategic Timed Gamble run. I couldn't remember the course I had planned out, as the map we got wasn't quite how the course actually looked. I had to run Conor first, and I completely messed up his run. Kaylie's run was just as insane, but the important thing is is that we qualified, got 2nd place, and earned our Silver MEX. Yay Kaylie!!


I think that about sums it all up. This weekend we'll be in Chino for an ASCA agility trial. I promise to post how we do. :)
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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.