Hurrah for Lacey!

You all remember my student Patty and her amazing whippet Lacey right?
Well folks they have done it again!!
On top of finishing Lacey's AKC Novice Jumpers with Weaves title on September 19th at the Wachusett Kennel Club show; last week they cleaned up at the Whippet Racing Nationals. What an amazing dog.
I received this email from her humble owner:

I took Lacey to the whippet racing nationals in Indiana and she won 4 trophies: high scoring bitch in her grade, reserve high score Rally titled dog, reserve high score Agility titled dog, and the coveted Loowit Memorial Versatility Award that went to the dog with the highest combined score for the two days that was titled in racing, lure coursing, rally or obedience, and agility. So, the fact that I got her agility titles this year made her eligible for 2 of the trophies that she won. We had a lot of fun.

A lot of fun!? Well YEAH!

Here's a few pictures Patty sent me a while back of Lacey in action.

Woohoo, do you think she has fun?

Beating the competition!

This is my favorite! she needs a cape with a big S on it.

Super dog!

I am pleased as punch for them!

Congratulations Patty and Lacey. Can't wait to see what you do next!

Kindle's Debut

Well Kindle made her debue this last weekend at Wachusett Kennel Club's Annual agility trial. I am so proud of her.
Just watch this!

At just 16 months she did a stellar job and I had a blast running her! The judge was quite charmed by Kindle as she left the table to say hi and kissed her hand.
She qualified and took second place!

What a girl!

She kept me humble though here is her jumpers run on Sunday.

Do you think she had fun?!

Scott and Beta get their 1st Master Standard Q!

Since making it to USDAA (United States Dog Agility Association) Masters level Scott and Beta have done really well so far they have earned their Master Relay title, excelled at Master Snooker but they have struggled with Master Standard.
But 2 weeks ago they had a wonderful run and Qualified taking first place in the 16" division.

Can you tell who was the most excited?

Beta earns her Excellent A Standard Title

I am off to Arizona on Tuesday and though things are pretty hectic right now I can't resist tooting Beta and Scott's horn. They did a bang up job this last weekend and earned Beta's AKC Excellent A Standard title and took first place in the class as well. Here is the run:


I am very proud of them and looking forward to watching Beta run with the big dogs!

Jackaroo did himself proud and Qualified in Excellent B jumpers earning 9 MACH points. Nice the old boy has still got it.

Dog Agility is done for 2008

We had a great time at our agility trial this last weekend. It was a 4 day show we entered just 3 days and got home last evening. The show was held at the Big E fairgrounds in Springfield MA in the large building that houses farm animals at the annual fair. For our show, they truck in tons of dirt for the rings and pack it down, which makes for excellent footing. Nice and level and cushy to run on for dogs and humans. The drawback is that by midday a haze of dirt and dust fills the building making it harder to breath and everything gets covered with it, I mean everything! We had to bathe all 5 dogs when we got home.
We still love that show site. Its huge and the show is too! We had really nice courses and great runs. Jackaroo and I managed to qualify once on Sunday. The rest of our runs were really close with just little mistakes that kept us from qualifying.
Here is our one Q for the weekend.

It was a wonderful run though I see lots of places for improvements. Isn't Jackaroo a speedy little guy. Hard to believe he will be 9 years old the end of January!

Scott and Beta had some wonderful runs too which I will post about later this week or possibly next. My sister Dlyn and her husband Big Lar are visiting for Thanksgiving so we will be busy eating, cooking, eating, playing cards, eating, sipping wine, eating, shopping and oh we might go out to eat one night too. Should be big fun. (Go visit Dlyn's log she is celebrating her one year anniversary of daily blogging! Congrats Dlyn!)

Check back for more on the show. This was also Kindle's first stay in a motel since she was 9 weeks old. She made the most of it!

Even though this was the last show for us this year we will be back at it the first weekend in January. In the meantime I will be working on those improvements!

Fall Dog Show Season

Well the fall season is upon us. I have been so busy with my pup Kindle my blogging has gone to a back burner and I have been very remiss in updating you, my 4 faithful readers, on how the dogs are doing in agility.

This last weekend we were at a USDAA show in New Hampshire and it was a bit of a challenge for me. Kindle has been going through a fear/bratty/barking stage of development. If you have never experienced a cattle dog shriek I just can't explain it. But suffice to say it is truly brain melting. Really! I'll tape it for you so you can experience it too.

I digress, Kindle was barking incessantly and I could hear her while in the ring with Jackaroo and it was very distracting. Saturday my handling was terrible. Despite this we did manage to qualify in Master Snooker. The amazing part of that is Jackaroo knocked a bar so we lost about 6 points but still Qualified. A testimony to how fast my boy is.

By Sunday I had settled down, as had the puppy, and Jack and I had a couple of decent runs. We were just shy of qualifying but I loved the courses. Here is our Master jumpers run. Jackaroo knocked 2 bars and incurred a refusal but it was still a nice run. and really fun!

Please no comments on my running style. It's not too bad taking into account I have no cartilage left in my knees.

So to date Jackaroo has won this year so far:

In AKC (American kennel Club):

1. Excellent A Standard Title
2. Excellent A Jumpers with Weaves Title
3. Novice FAST Title

In USDAA (United States Dog Agility Association):

1. Grand Prix Local Qualifier
2. Dog Agility Master (DAM) Team Qualifier

We have a few shows left this fall season and I think we may do a couple winter inside shows so stay tuned to see what my boy will do next. I have to check with Scott On Beta's statistics I can't keep hers straight she is doing so well.

Beta and Scott take 1st place!!!

I am so proud of Scott and Beta they had an absolutely gorgeous Master Jumper's run on Sunday at the ARFF's Agility Trial in Westford, MA. It was just flawless and wonderful to watch.

Go ahead watch it!!!!

They qualified and took first place. What a team!!!!!