Sparkie was by far the fastest dog in the first round but she missed two of three contacts. But by the second time around she seemed to have remembered the yellow rule hitting all her contacts and came in 1st place.
The double shot really took everything that Wazzu had left. She was one tuckered puppy. Here you can see that for yourself. Wazzu hates cuddling. So when she climbs up next to me and falls sound asleep you know she is really worn out.
Next came two Weavers runs. By now the grass was dry and the clouds were clearing a bit so we moved back to the grass. While Sparkie had been doing well all weekend this was her turn to shine. She had a blazing 2nd place run and with that she earned her Versatility NATCH-7. They stopped the trial and let Mike and Sparkie take a victory lap which Sparkie absolutely loved. As they exited the ring they got sprayed with silly string. Sparkie didn't really understand this at all. She thought everyone should have sprayed cheese!
In the second Weavers run Sparkie was even more impressive and ended up getting first place by over three seconds! She is really becoming quite the weavin' dog. Too bad there aren't more opportunities for Weavers!
Wazzu tried really hard but just couldn't quite make time. I think her lungs may be bothering her a bit as she was really wheezing at the end of each run. But everyone said she looked so happy out there that we continued to play.
Finally, we had two Tunnelers runs to finish off the three day weekend. This is always a fun way to end the weekend and this was no exception. Everyone was really cheering each other on so the mood was very festive. Lots of razzing took place which made it that much more fun.
Wazzu had a lot of fun and did the best she could but wasn't fast enough to keep up with the leaders. Even so, we did get two Q's out of it. Sparkie got a fourth place Q in an extremely competitive class. There were some really awesome performances that were very fun to witness.
It was a fantastic weekend. Even though Wazzu and I both got pretty tuckered we wish all agility weekends were three full days - Sparkie seconds that motion! It is just so much fun being around so many great people and dogs. And the competition this weekend was really top notch which made it even that much more fun. From what we've seen in our travels the PNW has by far the toughest competition. That's not to say other places don't have good dogs as we've seen some great ones. But the field isn't as deep anywhere else. In other words, other places may have a couple really good dogs in a class whereas here you'll see seven or eight dogs that all have a chance to take 1st place on any given run. It's not uncommon for the first few places to all be within less than half a second of each other. Now that makes for a fun weekend.
So congratulations to all the amazing teams we saw and competed against this weekend. It was such a pleasure to be back in the company of all the teams we've grown up with in this sport.
And once again, a HUGE thanks to Karen Hunter and Mega-Dogs for putting on such a wonderful trial. We're already looking forward to next year....only 363 days to go. Darn, if next year wasn't a leap year we'd only have to wait 362 days! Oh well, the countdown begins!
Debbie
5/28/07
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