Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Day 3 - ASCA Nationals

Today was just Kaylie's day -- obedience and conformation. First was our obedience run. She did absolutely fantastic. Her signals were perfect, she got both correct scent articles, her stand for exam was perfect, but then she got the wrong glove on the directed retrieve - bummer! We even had glove #1, which is probably the easiest to get. For whatever reason, she retrieved glove #2. Oh well. Then came the go-outs. She actually did the first go out!!!!! I about broke into tears. She then took the correct jump and did a perfect front and finish -- woo hoo!! What a girl. But of course, the second go-out didn't go as well. She didn't go out on the first command, so I sent her out again - she decided to play agility and started barking, jumped the bar jump and just had a great time. Goofy girl. It was a great run though. Then came the conformation. She flew around that ring, stacked like a pro and acted like she'd been in the breed ring all her life. I couldn't believe it when the judge pulled us for the first cut. We got to run around the ring a few more times, and she didn't miss a beat. The judge then made her Best of Breed, Best Opposite and Best of Winners choices, and at that point it was a little confusing. Some people started leaving the ring, but then a friend told me to stay in because we had won a Premier award. I was so psyched!!! We got a beautiful ribbon, which is really all I wanted!
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1 comment:

Diamond Girl said...

Kaylie is a star!! Congratulations!!

September 29, 2009 at 10:42 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.