Debbie was up in Pomona, California for the past five days, with all three of our field spaniels (Lea, Mo'i, and Miki). Miki (our one year old) was just there for the practice; he needs to learn how to behave in crowds of people and dogs. But Lea and Mo'i were both competing in agility...
Lea was the star of the weekend -- in her eight runs (four standard and four jumpers) she had four qualifying runs, three first places, and a title. She runs with the twelve inch dogs (meaning that the jumps are set at 12" high). Three of her qualifying runs were on Excellent A Preferred standard courses, which earned her the AXP (Exellent A Preferred Standard) title. She also qualified on one Excellent B Preferred jumpers course. She took first place on three of her four standard course runs -- she beat the second place dog by 12 to 15 seconds!
Thyroid medication is a good thing!
Mo'i had just one qualifying run, but that's not as bad as it sounds. For starters, he runs in the most advanced category (Excellent B) and he runs with 20" dogs -- mostly border collies, which are your basic nuclear-powered sports cars. Mo'i had no problem with speed, which is a big improvement -- he used to "stall" on the teeter and the pause table. Those problems are history -- Debbie reports that Mo'i powered over all but one of the teeters, and just a second or so hesitation at the pivot point on the one that wasn't perfect. On the pause table, his "sits" and "downs" were crisp and fast. Where he fell down was on the weave poles, where he was slow on Friday and Saturday, but fast on Sunday and Monday after a friend helped Debbie figure out why he was fast on the weave poles at home, but slow at the show. And Mo'i had several "extra credit" events, where he took an extra jump or other obstacle -- still making qualifying time, but at his level the course deviation disqualifies him.
All in all, a good show. Debbie is all smiles and quite happy with how things went...
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