TCLAC 2010 Specialty

Whew, what a busy couple of weeks. Another successful specialty has come and gone. It was a nice specialty, missed a few people and entries were lower than usual but the MeLou dogs did well.
First off the BIG news, little Miss Ella can add BISS to her name !!!
Thursday, August 26 she went Best in Specialty Show, she showed just beautifully.


BISS CH FFT MELOU “WELL SAID”
ELLA


Myth and Moka both showed, nothing of note to mention but both were very good.

Moka waiting her turn – grandpa Connor watching in the background.

Myth

Moka, Myth & Audrey

I split my time between the conformation ring and the agility field (quite a hike btw), Josie ran Friday, Saturday and Sunday, still very slow, had a little trouble in the standard ring, but Q’d in jumpers all three days, QQ and a 3rd place on Sunday. VERY interesting Jumpers course on Sunday, 3 jump serpentine to 3 tunnel serpentine to a 3 jump serpentine–very fun !! although it did take a lot of dogs out ;-) Great Dane Photography was at this show, check out Josie's photos;

http://greatdanephotos.com/store/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=17333 as always Josie has a great weave photo and check out her expression on the teeter ;-)
Suds was awesome, he only ran on Saturday – I try to limit his runs and run him only in the mornings, he Q’d in both Jumpers and Standard, and 2 first places. Here are Suds' photos;

http://greatdanephotos.com/store/index.php?do=photocart&viewGallery=17460

I really like the one of Suds coming out of the tunnel -to bad he is in my shadow.

I think everyone had a good time and the weather could not have been better, no rain, warm but breezy and the humidity stayed low.

We had a parade of Champions with nine Champions -so fun to see and the Club presented Josie and I with a special MACH bar- how cool is that !?!!!

Next weekend Josie has a USDAA trial and then on 9/9 we head for Colorado and the Lhasa Apso Club of Central Colorado’s specialty, and some fun with friends and good wine.

~M

Oh, and check out the special mention on the American Lhasa Apso Club's website; http://www.lhasaapso.org/agility/spec_award.html

Wednesday class highs and lows

Wednesday class was a huge roller coaster, started with a bang, Myth was fantastic, did a course that the Small & Mighty class had done on Monday and did it very well, serpentines and wraps, wow girl, go !!

We then moved to the other course and Myth toppled the sense of euphoria I was feeling….Teeter avoidance was the name of the game…..where this came from is anyone’s guess but Myth has decided the teeter is the enemy. Yes, it was amusing watching the little *&@* hide in the tunnel, I really wanted to cry…doesn’t she know we have done EVERYTHING right from DAY 1 for her to have fabulous teeter……..ugh. Since she was hiding in the tunnel Jacque had me leave, now for a majority of dogs other than the Lhasa, and even for Suds, this makes the dog want to find and interact with their handler…..this never worked with Josie so not sure how or why I thought it would work with Myth. I peeked back in and she was just standing with everyone else watching the dog on course, not terribly concerned I was not there, sigh.…….ended the class by putting her on lead and doing the teeter, not great, but got it done…. and looks like Myth will be working for her dinner on the teeter.

Josie on the other hand may have had a teeter break through (please, please let it not be a fluke). Jacque broke out the doggie crack (bruansweiger). Josie’s normal teeter performance it to drive up to the fulcrum, stop, wait for the tip, couple of steps, jump, with the crack on the end of the teeter we actually got a drive to the bottom! Yeah!! and more than once. I also had some in my hand when I sent her to the weaves, wow! speedy weaves. The plan is to reward for speedy weaves only and the teeter performance we want.

~M

Breakfast of Champions !

Kathy R is most awesome! Look what she sent Josie. She also sent me some fun earings and a cute Photo necklace with Josie on it (sorry did not get a picture of it).

Josie and her breakfast of Champions !



This past weekend, Myth, Moka & Ella were at the Albert Lea show….Myth won her first point, Moka was reserve. Both girls were very good, except when I had to hand Myth to someone else to take Ella into the ring, poor Myth had a little panic attack…… Ella won breed, did not do anything in the group ring but showed pretty well. Sunday Val’s puppy Audrey won the point. Ella won Breed again but showed just awful in the group ring – she has a little ear infection brewing so that may be why……I had picked up Moka on Friday to spend the night….she was in a crate with her dinner and apparently Josie wanted Moka's dinner, she figured out how to open it, let Moka out and ate her dinner…........

~M

MACH = Master Agility Champion

Maybe later I can find the words to explain what those four letters mean to me but for now;
Enjoy QQ #20 from St. Paul Dog Training Club’s Agility trial, Saturday, August 7, 2010.
First was Jumpers, this was one of the better runs we have had – her weaves, while not as fast as she can do them are an improvement over what she has been doing in competition, she ended up about ½ a second out of first place.



Standard on the other hand was a little dicey, let me just say it looks waaaaaay better on video than it felt. The teeter cause me a little anxiety, not only did she take forever, but she almost jumped off without touching the yellow contact zone. Unfortunately my videographer did not get our victory lap ;-(



And Sunday she double Q’d again, a little slower but I think we both were recovering from Saturday ;-)
Jumpers


Standard


~Melissa & MACH Josie

Sooooooo Close

And yet so far, Josie and I had a trial this past weekend, going for QQ #19 & #20 for her MACH title, here is a nice essay written by a junior explaining the MACH; http://www.akc.org/enewsletter/jrnews/2008/december/mason.cfm . I was more intense on Saturday than I had expected –it was only for QQ #18, and Josie was super, still very slow weaves (faster weaves are the upcoming project), but she the most stellar sit EVER in her standard run.
The little stinker did break her start line in Jumpers...
Jumpers run;


Standard run;
Notice the Stellar table !! We've worked really hard for a table perfomance like that.


Sunday was run small dogs first so we were in the first 10 to start. First class was Standard; Jacque (our trainer) was the judge and her courses are usually very technical and require not just speed but actual handling and teamwork between dog and handler. At the start line I picked her up to situate her (not something I normally do) and she yelped…wtf?....this kind of freaked me out, she started the course really slow, this of course made me more concerned…we did a couple more obstacles and I stopped her, Jacque came over and said that was very strange for Josie and suggested I have her checked over by Kristin (canine sports message therapist) who was at the trial. I also had a friend trialing who is a vet and she checked her over…the message therapist found sore hamstring and glute….everything else checked out OK. I probably overreacted to her yelp and she though something was up…I did pull her from her jumpers run just to be cautious.
I did really want to finish her MACH this past weekend with Jacque being the judge but It will come ;-)

~M
"You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. " Zig Ziglar