Agility at the DCA national specialty.

The plan for agility day .... get up and be out the door by 6:30.  I am so not a morning person any more.  However, we did manage to get out the door and over to Dunkin Donuts for coffee and a snack, and be on the highway by 6:40 I think.  We got to the agility site around 7:15 in plenty of time for the first briefing and walk thru.  Steeler had to be measured as well.  This time he measured right at 22 inches so at least I didn't have to move him to the 24 inch class.  Although, looking at the photos from the trial I really had no reason to be concerned.  I am probably going to order some prints so I will have to see if I can scan them and post them.

First up for the day was Novice FAST.  A general explanation of FAST is that you have a set amount of time and you make up your own course to accumulate points and somewhere in your plan you have to do a series of obstacles from behind a line before you run out of time.  In Novice (20 inch) you have 32 seconds and you need 51 total points to qualify.  You have to get the "send" and that gives you bonus points as well.  So basically - for this course - Steeler needed to get 21 points and the Send.  Well, he got 63 points in 26+ seconds!  That got him a second place!  Missed first place by a point.  :-) 

Next ... a lot of waiting.  :-)  We watched open FAST, Excellent FAST, Excellent Standard and Open Standard, and then we got to run again!  We had a few handling errors in our Standard run - but overall I was pretty happy with our efforts.  Our last class of the day was Novice Jumpers with Weaves.  Steeler had a great run for another 2nd place and a Q.






All things considered - I was very very pleased with the spotty boy's performance in obedience and agility!  Now we just took it easy for the next several days and played "kennel help" for my friend Dawn.  There was the welcome party, the top twenty and the awards banquet to go to during the week. 

I also managed to take some time to visit my great Auntie Berna in Cincinnati which was fun.  I took Steeler with me and she had to knock on all her neighbors doors and introduce me and Steeler.  I can only hope that when I am almost 90 years old I am in half the shape that she is in! 

Wednesday night after the banquet we got most of the car packed up so we could leave bright and early Thursday morning.  On Thursday we drove from Ft Mitchell to Afton NY to see one of Dawn's puppy owners.  We got to NY around 4:30 and the dogs got to stretch their legs a bit.  We got to sit down and visit and have dinner and then we let the dogs play.  Steeler got to take turns playing with both puppies (8 months old) and he got to RUN.  I don't think he has had much of a chance to do that since we moved in December.  He definitely needed it.  We got on the road again around 7:30 and the dogs were all silent for the next 4+ hours that it took to get home.