On March 14th, Stephen, the hounds, and I set out for Oklahoma to compete in the 2013 AKC Agility Nationals. The dogs at this event qualify by earning six double qualifying scores and 400 points for seconds under standard course time in the year prior. In comparison to the Agility Invitational we competed at in December that invited the top 5 of each breed, this event invites the "best" dogs in the country. It is an honor to qualify and to go.
Riley ran well, but it just was not her competition. Friday is considered a warm up day with two classes for practice and to exercise the dogs after a day of travel. In the first run, Riley back jumps a jump (43 seconds). She should have wrapped around it instead of coming over it. I think I stood there for a split second too long. But otherwise a very nice smooth run. In the second run, Riley knocks the bar before the weave poles.
And here is Round 1, 2, and 3 of the Nationals competition. In Round 1, Riley knocks a totally nothing bar, but it was otherwise a very nice run. Round 2 had tons of errors. She back jumped the second jump (sounds like I need to do some training), demonstrated how the new break away tire works, and missed her weave pole entrance. Just an unlucky run. So for Round 3, I new we had nothing to lose so we just went for it and placed 21st.... although out of 129 of some of the best dogs running in the 24 inch jump height... I was happy with that. I am just glad we finally ran clean once!
Back to competing locally and focusing on finishing her Agility Championship.
