Ending 2011 With a Bang!

We ended 2011 on a very positive note at the Queen City Dog Training Club's AKC Agility Trial. After a drought in Open Jumpers with Mesa, barely missing qualifying by maybe a dropped bar or an off-course, we finally got a qualifying score with a beautiful run! She scared Merinda (and the bar setter apparently) by jumping really early before the double jump, but her jumps have started to look much better and we ran a lot more like a team. (Not bad considering after walking the course, I changed how I was going to handle a 180 with her by doing a rear on the flat between the two jumps!)

Dally was a rock star, as she has been lately. We missed out on a QQ on Saturday due to a very tricking section of the standard course that caught just about everybody off-guard. One would never think that a 180 before the A-frame would be so difficult, but many dogs missed the second jump because of one little thing or another. But she did earn a QQ on Sunday, which made things better.

So our final tally for 2011:
Dally: 9 QQs, 314 PACH points (earned her MXP and MJP)
LaMesa: Earned her NA and NAJ titles, 2 Open Standard legs, 1 Open Jumpers leg

Also big news...Dally and I qualified for the AKC National Agility Championships! They are being held in Reno, Nev., March 30-April 1. After much mental turmoil, I was able to figure out a way for us to get from Lexington to Reno, thanks to Camille, who also qualified. Dally will be travelling, via car, with four other small dogs and a kind gentleman from Columbus, Ohio, while Camille and I will fly out there. I'm nervous about trusting someone I barely know with driving Dally across the country, but she's such a good traveller, I'm sure she'll be fine. Right now we're just working on conditioning for Nationals, as well as I'm working on trying to pay for the rest of the event by picking up more freelancing articles.

So for now, that's where we are. We start 2012 in Franklin, Tenn., next week and I'll be trying to get Dally qualified for the 2013 AKC Nationals in Tulsa (she already has 1 QQ and 28 points towards qualifying...only 5 more QQs and 372 more points to go...), and I'd like to get LaMesa up into Excellent.