The Weekend Report - A New Title and a Double-Q, Too!

This weekend we had an agility trial in Fredericksburg, Va, held by the Norwegian Elkhound Club of the Potomac Valley. The very first class of the day was Open FAST. This is the class where you pick your own course based on points and then must complete a Send. The send is a taped off area I cannot enter but must send Jimmy into to complete it. The judge was very kind and set up an easy challenge, just a tunnel to an AFrame. Jimmy did it without a hitch. This was his third leg so he earned his Open FAST title (OF).

Next up was Excellent B Jumpers (JWW). It was a medium difficulty course and we made it past all the challenges. We were in the home stretch, but alas, Jimmy knocked down the top bar of the triple jump, the 2nd to last jump. So close, so close.....

The running order for the day was tall dogs down to small dogs. When I had finished the JWW run, Excellent Standard B had just started, which meant I had about a three hour wait to run. Since we are in need of Double-Qs now, and my chance for one had been knocked down by the JWW bar, I opted to save all that wait time, packed it up, and headed home. Even with the hour and a half drive home, I still had a whole hour at home before my 12 inch competitors had their turns.

Here is a very rare photo of me. Jimmy's breeder, Anne, came to watch us run. She snapped a nice photo of Jimmy and me with his new title ribbon.

Today, the running order was the much more pleasant small to tall. Excellent B Standard started the day this time. It was a fun course that spiraled in on itself. Jimmy did his table just fine! He finessed the rest of the off-course traps and completed with no mistakes. He was 22 seconds under course time, so he earned 22 more points toward his MASH tally. He wasn't quick enough to earn a placement ribbon but did come in 6th.

We waited a couple of hours for Jumpers. Of course,Qing in Standard meant the chance of a double-Q if we were successful in JWW. I tried not to let that pressure me, yea, right! Fortunately, the judge was kind (and wanted to go home!) so she gave us a reasonably easy course. We had a bobble or two but nothing that ruined the run. Hooray! We earned Double-Q number two! Also, we added another 15 MACH points. There were a lot of speedy dogs running, so we came in 9th, but I am happy with a top ten spot!

Tracking Jimmy's MACH progress:
Excellent B JWW legs: 12 (out of 10 needed for his MXJ) Now he's working on his MXJ2!
Excellent B STD legs: 2 (out of 10 needed for his MX) But at least we are now in B class!
Double Q's: 2 (out of 20 double-Q's needed for a MACH)
MACH Points: 196 (out of 750 speed points needed for a MACH)