Catching Up: NADAC in Buckner

So my friend Merinda is very active in NADAC (North American Dog Agility Council), having qualified for the NADAC National Championships twice--an amazing feat when you consider there aren't a lot of NADAC trials within close driving distance like there are AKC trials. Because of this, she's always doing her best to talk anyone in our group to join her for a trial. I've been to one trial with Dally last year, so when the opportunity came in July to enter one that's an hour away, I decided it'd be great to run Mesa in an indoor soccer facility on some fun courses...and let Dally play in her favorite class: Tunnelers.

Mesa ran her three classes first, first attacking Touch N Go, a class where there are no jumps so all dogs in all jump heights compete against eachother. The obstacles include the contacts (A-frame and dow walk), tunnels, and hoops (hoops that stand so dogs go through instead of over). Mesa blasted through it--the second fastest Novice dog (the fastest was a Border Collie)! So, she qualified and won her "jump height."

In Regular 1 & 2 (standard, only you run the course one way, then turn around and run it the opposite way), it included six weave poles, jumps, dog walk, A-frame, and hoops. The first way in Regular 1, Mesa handled it realy well, running fast and fluid, even hitting her weave entrance! I was so proud of her--she won her height and qualified. In Regular 2, she ran really well, except coming off the dog walk she noticed that a big fan had just been turned on (it wasn't on during Regular 1), and it spooked her, so she ran into the opposite end of the tunnel (an off-course). I picked her back up, sent her into the correct end of the tunnel, and she came out and nailed her weaves yet again! She ran clean the rest of the course, but with the off-course, she didn't qualify, but still won her jump height. Such a good girl!

Then Dally's turn finally came when she got to run in Tunnelers--all tunnels all the time. She loved it! She was fired up, rearing to go (as you can tell in the video) and you could tell after a while she was like, "You mean I can go through just tunnels?? Yes!!" She won her jump height and qualified. I hadn't entered Mesa in the class because I hadn't thought about it, but I'm sure she would have torn it up as well--maybe a little too fast to be able to direct her.

So it was a successful day at the NADAC trial presented by RuFF (Run For Fun). After that day, I decided to go ahead and register the girls in NADAC so we could hit any upcoming local trials for some more training and fun. I won't campaign hard in it like Merinda, but Mesa seemed to love the big, flowing courses, so why not?