Countdown to Qualifying

The title of this post could also be called "I HATE Random Draw Trials"

We did 1 day of an AKC trial two weeks ago. I really don't like this facility and have avoided it the last couple years. It's really too small to hold a 2 ring trial as there is very little crating space, and it also gets very dusty in there. To top it off, it Really smells like a horse arena here. The club that host this is not an agility club - their focus is conformation and obedience and therefore they don't have the best equipment. They are one of the few clubs that have not made the move to rubberized equipment.

Anyway, enough complaining, I did the 1 day in my quest to earn enough points to be able to attend AKC Nationals in Tulsa this coming March. Going into this show, both dogs needed fifty-some points.

As it turned out, it was a very good decision to attend this 1 day! Rip was running great and pulled off his most points ever in a JWW run, getting 17 points and 4th place of the 60+ dogs. Skye also had a nice run and Q'd this too getting 14 points.

Then we had Standard. Skye ran it first and he did run very nice, but jumped his dogwalk contact. Rip ran almost last in the class. He did great - a little slow on his contacts, but generally very nice and Q'd it for 20 points and 6th place. Another Double Q for Mr. Rip!

Thus at the end of the day, Rip now needs just 14 more points for nationals, and Skye needs 43!

In November, there are 2 one-ring random draw trials. One of them is 10 minutes from home - I did not get into this one (well, I am 27 dogs down in the waitlist for two days, and 60+ days down for the third day). I did get into the other random draw that is an hour and a half from home.

I am already scheduled for a 2 day trial the first weekend in November, and then two weeks after that we the other 2 day show. I certainly think that 8 runs will be plenty to get those last few points we need.

Here are Rip's runs