TeamDailyCorgi AKC National Agility Championships Round 2

 Saturday dawned bright and early for yet another day at the AKC National Agility Championships. It was Round 2, but day three for us (Thursday was Time 2 Beat), so you could tell the dogs were already a little tired of showing up at the complex.

Corgi Ying & Yang.
Exhausted #TeamDailyCorgi captains

Saturday was Standard, and the 4 & 8 inchers were in Ring 3. The opening was rather de-motivating---jump to a 180, to the dog walk. It wasn't as twisty-turny as the Jumpers run, but there were quite a few challenges that could cause some dogs to take off courses.

Porter kicked things off with a clean, fast run. Merinda handled him so nicely through the opening and the ending. Then I followed with Dally just one dog later. Again, a clean run. As I expected, the opening was de-motivating for Dally, but she started to kick it up after the weaves. In fact, she handled the 3-jump ending very well.

Unfortunately Maddie knocked the bar on the second jump, but was the fastest of the 95 scores, so hopefully that'll still help her. As far as our 12" counterparts for #TeamDailyCorgi, Keebler knocked the double on a superbly fast run, and Jimmy missed his dog walk contact. :-/

But one bonus from the day: Porter ended up finishing in third place for the Round 2 Standard, and is now sitting in second place overall through the first two rounds!!

Just one more day...it seems like we've been here forever! It was cold and rainy the rest of the day, so we spent the rest of our time watching obedience, shopping, and then handing out at the hotel. Sunday is Round 3: Hybrid. If Dally goes clean (she's currently sitting #9), she's got a good chance for the Challenger's Course. If Porter goes clean. he's a lock for Finals (if not, Challenger's). So, we're pretty excited!

Porter and Merinda with their 3rd place ribbon from Round 2!

Cumulative scores so far! Porter's #2, Dally's #9!

2013 AKC Nationals Part 3: Rounds 1 & 2

Quick update: Dally and I made it back to Lexington Monday evening. It was a long drive, but Merinda was a great driver. I'll be finishing up our wrap-up throughout the week, along with a write-up for The Daily Corgi.

Saturday dawned early and already warm--in the 60s! It was definitely different from how things were back in Lexington! We arrived at the Expo Center in time to grab our course maps and head over to the Mustang Arena, where both our runs for the day were going to be held. The day before we had watched our friend Camille run her Papillon, Gus, run in the same arena and the birds were swooping in and out of the rings, so I knew we had to be careful with those distractions. 

Jumpers was first. I thought I had Dally all riled up and ready to run in the course, but she started off a little slow. It was a winding course, but she stayed with me and only looked over at the birds once. She even handled a back jump like a pro (I'm so glad I had been working her on those in practice!). I had walked it with the hope of using some blind crosses, but I was worried that she might take that opportunity to chase the birds, so I stuck with all front crosses, and it still worked out pretty well:

First round--Clean!

Just a few hours later we were preparing for our Standard run. This was one course that I definitely needed her to listen to me. There were quite a few 180s and some off-course chances. Again she was a little slow, but for once I was alright with that because I wanted her to stick by me and listen. I wasn't planning anything fancy, I just wanted to try to give her the best shots for each obstacle as possible.

Second round--Clean!

We ended the day in 10th place overall. I was very happy with both of our runs. The rest of the Small Dog Posse had some little issues here and there, so we were leading the crew and doing our best to represent.

Our two clean round ribbons from Saturday.

The evening was spent relaxing and an early bedtime--we had a very early morning on Sunday for Hybrid!