Tuesday, May 26, 2009

New Bronze Merit of Excellence ("MEX")

I accomplished another goal of mine a month early -- getting Kaylie's Bronze MEX!!!!! To finish this title, all I needed were three more Gamble legs (in DOCNA, there are two different types of gambles - Traditional and Strategic Time Gambles, and you can get any combination to complete the requirements). At the trial this weekend, three Gamble runs were offered - one Traditional Gamble and two Strategic Time Gamble. Kaylie sucks at the Traditional Gambles, so I didn't even enter her. My plan was to get the two Strategic Time Gambles this weekend, and then enter the trial in June to get that third Gamble leg and finish there. Jim Mills, our judge, decided to throw in two more Standard runs and a Gamble run, because we were actually finishing up the trial "early" (it was close to 7 p.m.). One other gal had hoped to finish her regular MEX with one of her dogs and her Gold MEX with her other, but she didn't get the two Standard legs she needed. I'm sure this is why he decided to do the extra Standard runs too. But we weren't going to complain!!! I think it makes him so proud to see his students accomplish their goals. So if he wanted to throw in some extra runs for us, cool!! Here is me and Kaylie with our friends who also got MEX's last night.
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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.