Fox Valley Agility Trial - St. Charles, IL

It was a fun weekend for agility! Lots going on... a group of us started the weekend by having an awesome, enormous sushi dinner -- it was delic!

Saturday the boys didn't have much of a handler until the afternoon. I didn't help Rumor in Open JWW AT ALL and then I was unfair and tested him way too much on the weaves by fading a ton and that just was mean to ask of him at this point. Dylan didn't have much success with his weaves, but he did have a nice dogwalk in Std! I'll take a good contact :) Rumor also got his 1st Q in Open Standard. It's amazing how helpful it is when I actually DO tell the poor pup where to go. Alex/Grant had a beautiful JWW run and finished their OAJ!

Alex's OAJ was a great reason to celebrate so we all had pizza over at the Rupp's house... lots of dogs were there!
Abby, Alex, Remi & Trapper
Dylan & Rumor
Fergus & Ryder
Zane, Scout & Wisp
Ricochet
Neo
Pretty impressive... 13 dogs playing and everything went quite smoothly! Rumor showed everyone how much he liked watching basketball and playing Wii!

Sunday didn't have any Qs for me, but it had a lot of fun events...
MACH Abby Jo Kickass!!! Whitney/Abby had 2 fantastic runs and they earned their MACH. It was super cool because Whit's grandfather brought her the MACH bar... of course, I started to cry.
We also had a live feed of AKC Nationals... it was fun to watch the Challengers round and the Finals. Lori Sue/Lit made it into the Challengers round and Laura/Bruce made it to the Finals! Deb/Tucker also had a great run and finished 18th in the very difficult 16" class... I think she was only 5 dogs out of the Finals.

A fun weekend!

Smack Dab Agility - Naperville, IL

It seems like we haven't trialed in forever! Smack Dab had an agility trial in Naperville, IL this past weekend... it was nice because everyone was there. Unfortunately, the way they had the rings/running order set up I barely got to see any friends :( Oh well, hopefully both Dylan and Rumor will be back in Excellent soon enough and we will be with everyone again so I don't miss so many runs....

Dylan sure had fun this weekend if nothing else... he really is such a happy boy running in Preferred at 16". Saturday he didn't get to do much in Standard because he blew his A-Frame contact (which was the 3rd obstacle), so he was done. His Open JWW run later in the day was nice, but he slipped once and knocked a bar... but he was enjoying himself, for sure. Sunday, he got pulled after the A-Frame again... which, sadly, was the 2nd obstacle. Poor D. His JWW run was nice, but he was being a dork at the weaves and it took him a few tries... so, no Q, but he was cruising!

Rumor was a good boy this weekend! I actually had time and made the effort to rent rings the past 2 weekends and actually work and train him. It was amazing what a difference that made... I *almost* felt like we were a team! It really is tough to only train once a week... poor little dude. But, he still had a nice weekend. On Saturday, he got a Q in Open FAST to finish his OF title. His Standard run was going well until he crashed into the side of the chute - OUCH! Poor little guy... I think it really did shake him up. I wasn't helping much in Rumor's JWW run Saturday afternoon... for some reason my back was killing me and I could barely run... with the Open course we had... running was necessary! So, we missed a jump, but Rumz has a really nice run -- I was happy with that. Sunday he didn't have a shot at the Exc FAST send... so, I tested him... he broke his stay... and he got pulled. His Standard run was really nice... I was thrilled with it... the only odd thing is that he crashed into the double. For the most part, he doesn't knock bars... let alone take out jumps. I'm not really sure what went on there, but I'm not too concerned about it. We finished the weekend off with Rumor having his 1st Open JWW Q -- woohoo! He didn't hit the weave entrance so we got 1 refusal, but the rest was nice... I was happy to end on that note :)