Wow has it been almost 2 months??

I just realized it's been almost 2 months since I posted to my blog. A lot of good Agility action has happened in that time!

In February we decided to travel to Lawrence Kansas for their USDAA trial and play team with our friend Mary. Rip teamed with Mary's young border collie Tangle and a nice lady named Lee and her border collie Kate. My wife did a PVP team with her dog Ice and Mary's performance dog Tip.

Rip did a great job with no "E"s anywhere, and took a high placement in Gamblers, and had a decent score in Snooker. We did get the Team Q for Mary & Tangle - Rip already had his Q so we were playing for fun. I believe we placed 5th as a team.

Rip also is really starting to come together running Standard courses. After getting two Master Standard Q's in the January USDAA trial, Rip then proceeded to run clean in Team Standard, and on Saturday, he ran clean again in Master Standard to earn his MAD title! This has been a long time coming - we earned our Advanced Standard title in April 2011. Contacts have typically been our issue, as well as a bar down here and there.

Skye did not play Team in Kansas, but in his titling classes he did pretty well. I've been trying to get Skye's P-ADCH Bronze, needing 15 Qs in all the titling classes and Tournament Bronze. All we have left to get now are 2 Gamblers Q's, which have always been our challenge. We were so close in Kansas, getting the distance challenge but Skye knocked the bar at the finish jump. I did not enter him in Standard, but he did get 2 Jumpers Q's, as well as 2 Snooker Q's, with one of them being a Super Q.

After our runs in Kansas, I also noticed that Skye is now just 10 Q's away from the 150 needed for his Lifetime Achievement Award - a pretty cool accomplishment once we get there!


A local club then held it's annual March USDAA event at the Castle Rock fairgrounds, and this is one of the few events in Colorado that offer DAM Team. I wasn't going to enter Team since we were already Q'd up, but decided last minute to put Rip in since Katrina was going to be playing anyway. Rip's teammates were a Sheltie named Ace and a young/green Golden Retriever named Rev'n. Since Nationals are being held in Colorado, everybody and their brother was at the trial trying to get qualified. We actually had 20 DAM teams and 19 PVP teams running at the show.
Rip's team did really well, and once again Rip did not have any "E"s, though my teammates BOTH got an "E" in the Jumpers run. Even with that, since we had done so well in the other events, our team finished 4th! My teammates were very happy to get their DAM team Qs.

I didn't enter Grand Prix with either dog, trying to save a little money, since we already have the 2 Q's for nationals, but I did enter Steeplechase (PSJ) with both dogs. Rip still needed his 2 Steeplechase Q's since we always seem to hit a bar or the broad jump and we're not quite fast enough to absorb the 5second penalty and make it into round 2. This time Rip had a really nice, clean run and got the Steeplechase Q, getting to play in round 2 on Sunday! Skye also ran really well and took 1st place in the 22" performance group - we had about 11 dogs in our group this time, which is more than the typical 5 or 6. I think Rip's 22" Steeplechase class had about 45 dogs - that's way more than we are used to seeing.

In the titling classes, Skye unfortunately did not get a Gamble Q. It was a jump and a distance discrimination - he was to take the tunnel that was next to the dogwalk. I thought for sure he'd take the tunnel but no such luck. He did get a Q and 2nd place in Standard, and also had a nice Jumpers run for a Q and 2nd. Snooker was not our game this time - we got called for the contact on the #3 AFrame in the closing on Saturday, and then he dropped the #2 bar in the closing on Sunday.
So, Skye ended up with 3 Qs this weekend, getting us a little closer to Lifetime Achievement.

Rip had a pretty successful time in the titling classes. He got a Q and 4th place in a very difficult Master Standard course on Saturday. Rip also got the Gamblers Q that Skye did not get - earning us our Masters Gamblers title! I am glad to get that since I struggled getting that last Gamble when Skye was going for his P-ADCH. Rip is definitely a better Gamblers dog than Skye is.

On Sunday, Rip's pairs team ran almost clean (we were called for an Up contact on the DW) and we got the Q and 5th place. Rip also ran great in Jumpers getting another Q!

In the Steeplechase finals, he really ran nicely, but did hit the top bar of the triple. I thought we had 3rd place in the money until I found that out - it put us to 8th place and no cash!

So, Rip ended up with 7 Qs at this trial, counting the Team Q and his Q in Team Gamblers.

Here is a video of Rip's Team runs from Kansas