We are back from a very exciting, really fun AKC Nationals and I am very happy to report the boys and I did great! Unfortunately, neither Wally or Maze made the finals but both were in the Challenger Round and Wally was a mere .60 seconds from winning the class! Maze was also clean in the Challenger Round and took 3rd by about the same margin, I could not have asked either of them to do any better.
Agility has grown so much in the last decade and it is amazing to see just how small a margin there is between winner and the next gazillion places!
Wally was fantastic and smokin' fast all weekend, at the end of day Sat. he was in third place overall in the 20" class which had close to 300 dogs entered. Sunday saw Wally post the only time in the hybrid class under 27 seconds! He had the misfortune of being called on his A-frame when his exuberance caused a one hit backside performance resulting in his toesies not being clearly in that wacky yellow area :-) I was thrilled non the less.
Maze had a fabulous Standard run and and unfortunate refusal in JWW, his clean run and placement in the hybrid round won him the opportunity to play in the Challenger Round on Sunday afternoon.
The courses at the Nationals were awesome, I truly enjoyed running each and every one of them. They presented very fair challenges with a lot of speed and flow. I was especially happy with myself and the fact that I stayed focused and confident in all of my handling decisions throughout the weekend and kept the boys on course and fluidly moving through their courses.
There was really only one downer of the weekend and I feel the need to say something simply because I know that AKC prides itself on maintaining a very high standard within its rules, regulations and guidelines and I respect that, which is why I was so disappointed to have been on the receiving end of a complete dismissal of the rules by the people that are there to uphold them.
In a nutshell, there was a supposed timer issue that occurred during my JWW run with Wally on Sat. that went completely undetected by any ring personnel, judge, or any one of any power as it were. I was completely in the dark and as a matter of fact if there was a timer malfunction it was quick and over as Wallys time was very reasonable for the course and the speed at which Wally runs.
Anyway, I was the 14th 20" dog to run on Sat. so I was done before noon, I stayed the rest of the day to watch my friends and just hang out. At approx., 5:15 I was called to the score keepers room where I was told that an unsigned email was sent to the office requesting that they look at Stacy Peardot-Goudys Jumpers run as there was a potential timer issue, before I go any further let me point out that is has been explained to me that any unsigned correspondence sent to the AKC is by the rules immediately discarded, well not in this case.
They chose to look into the matter but not until the end of the day, and used a video to time the run. They did offer me a rerun almost 5.5 hours after the fact and after laying all of this wonderful news on me, I declined. They kept asking if I was OK with their decision in determining the outcome and I continually told them I was not but what choice did I have, they offered no alternative choices. The end result was a very respectable 5th place overall in JWW with a less than perfect attempt at timing off of a video.
Don't get me wrong, I am not interested in getting anything I have not earned but I am seriously questioning why anyone would go to these lengths to have it looked into and even more floored that the AKC would entertain such a ridiculous wild goose chase! Ultimately we ended up exactly where we would have anyway and I was able to put it out of my head and run some pretty amazing runs on Sunday, I just hope the AKC does not make a habit of this type of investigation it sets a very bad precedent and encourages anyone who feels like it to send cowardly unsigned emails potentially causing harm to people.
Well, enough of that, my overall experience at the Nationals was AWESOME and I really learned a lot! I think it is very important to learn something at every competition and what I learned at Nationals was that a true running contact is a thing of beauty that sends shivers up your spine and is also quite necessary if you plan on winning.
I know that is not what people want to hear but the 16", 20", and 26" classes were all won quite handily by individuals that had true running contacts, that means no management, no short striding, just full extension, balls to the wall running.
I learned that anytime you have to manage any obstacle you are potentially giving up the most efficient path on a course, OK I already knew that, but, I was kind of smacked in the face with it on one occasion at the Nationals :-)
I learned that you never know it all and that a huge part of the fun in agility is learning what you don't know and figuring it out so that you know it in the future.
I was reminded how much fun it is to watch your students and friends do fantastic at such a huge event and that a great run is not measured by placement or Q!
I had a fabulous time and now that I am home I am totally excited to work on the areas that need improvement, train some new things and continue to push myself to be the best partner and teammate I can for my dog!
I am spending the week, tuning up for World team tryouts, training my puppy, hiking the dogs and spending time with my family, well not much of that as Geoff is up to his eyeballs in taxes but soon we may get to see each other!
I am also having the pleasure of several private and semi private lessons and most importantly, SLEEPING IN MY OWN BED!
Good night all :-)
