2015 Agility Invitational - Maddie

Back in December, Stephen and I took Maddie and Riley to the AKC Agility Invitational. The Invitational is an event that invites the Top 5 dogs in each breed. My girls were #1, #3, and #5 (Seven, Riley, and Maddie).

I did not take Seven because the event was supposed to be held on mats and I was not going to risk her wrist on a new surface. However, a month prior they switched the surface to turf which now that I have experienced it, I think I would try Seven on it.

Maddie handled the surface fine, but she worried me the first time we did a practice jump on turf. She was acting very strange and appeared to not be pleased with it. Dang it! Thankfully, Friday's run is a warm up run and does not count. Once she got moving, Maddie did not have any trouble with turf. In the warm up, she did jump off the teeter for some reason. Thankfully, she did not in the more important runs.

The next day was Round 1 and 2 and Maddie ran fantastic! We had been having trouble with the weave poles in the competitions preceding this one, so I fully expected it to still be a problem. However, she was very professional and handled the new venue, the crowds, the new surface, and nailed everything including her weave poles. She was 19th and 20th out of about 130 dogs.

Unfortunately, Rounds 3 and 4 were not so clean. The weave pole errors popped up again. Otherwise, she ran very well and the weave poles were her only error. Here is Round 3.

I believe next year's event is in Florida again. It would be so fantastic if all three dogs could go!