Gone to the dogs

We've finished a whirlwind three weeks of dog sports.  It started with the USDAA NW Regionals in Auburn, then we went to Falkland for Holly's excellent Paxton Valley Sheep Dog Trial, and finally, we finished up with the AAC BC/Yukon Regionals.  That's a lot of dog sporting in a short time!

Rex's DAM team partners (The Perfect RX:  Chili and Chocolate) had some great runs and we WON!  That's right, we are the 2013 USDAA NW Regionals DAM Champions!

That's the good news.  The bad news ... we had to fit 9 dogs and their handlers on a podium.  And Rex, while small, is still a solid 42lbs.  He also isn't used to being carried.  Therefore, this happened.

Let's move on, shall we?

Wick qualified to run in Performance Grand Prix and Performance Speed Jumping.  To say she went nuts in PGP would be kind.  It wasn't good.  Her steeplechase, however, was very good!  I thought it might be good enough to get her through to the finals, but alas, it wasn't.  

Oh well, who wants to run in a finals anyway.  :-)

Wait, what's that?  Rex wants to run in the finals?  Well, despite taking a bar in round 1, Rex squeaked into the finals as the last qualifier.

Due to a lot of fast dogs going off-course, Rex came 6th and earned a semi-final bye to the thing we're not going to in Tennessee.  Oh, and he won $23! And a pretty pale blue ribbon!

Well that was fun!  So unpack the truck, do some laundry, and repack the truck, then we're off to Holly's Paxton Valley Sheep Dog Trial!  This was the first trial in which I wasn't running Lou .  Therefore, I cross-entered Rex in Pro Novice and Open, so I could have four runs with him.

Rex worked his heart out, and while we had some glitches, he is doing miles better.  I think he's just a little bit away from becoming a good sheepdog.  Any deficiencies, it's not for lack of try!



And back down the mountain, some more laundry, and then we had the AAC BC/Yukon Regionals.  I was so happy that it was located just 30 minutes from home.  The dogs were happy that they could chill at home too.  We even had a house guest.

The first day of competition was a little messy, but by Sunday, my dogs really came through.  As she does most every year, Wick got a placement in Jumpers.  This year, it was a 3rd, behind two fast Kelpies.  She is a couple years older than most of her competition, and it's nice to see that, at 12.5 years of age, she can still get 'er done.

When the runs were over, both dogs qualified, so we'll be continuing our adventures in Alberta this summer.  As I've said before, this will be Wick's last Nationals.  Next year, they're going to be in New Brunswick, and I think she will be too old by the time they come back to the west.  Of course, who knows with Wick - she doesn't seem to understand the concept of aging.

Seriously, you've made it that far in this post?  Wow.  That's a lot of scrolling.  Um ... here's another video.  Thanks for reading/watching/scrolling!