In a couple weeks, Karma is headed to the American Kennel Club’s National Agility Championship (AKC NAC) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Unfortunately, we haven’t had that many agility trials around here and Jenny’s travel schedule has been crazy. This means that besides Westminster weekend and a trial in January, we haven’t been able to get much practice in. So as not to hit our biggest event of the year totally cold, we decided to try our hands at a different (meaning different from the AKC’s) agility venue. There is another organization, United States Dog Agility Association (USDAA) that has actually been doing dog agility longer than the AKC. Their venue is also famous for being a bit more tricky than AKC agility trials. This would be the perfect warm up opportunity for Nationals, because courses at the NAC are famously more difficult than the typical AKC course.
Yesterday was our debut and our first qualifying run was also a 1st place! This was in pairs which is a cool event — you are paired with another dog (you can pick or just do a lottery) and you each do half of the course. We were paired with a Border Collie girl and they were quite the dynamic duo! Karma was also clean and fast in Speed Jumping which qualified us for the finals today. SO exciting!!
Today Karma really went to town. She picked up qualifying runs in Performance I (which is like a novice level) Standard, Jumpers, and Gambler. Gambler is like FAST where you have to do a challenge with a send bonus. Karma also picked up 1st place ribbons in Standard and Gambler and a second place win in Jumpers! We also competed in Biathlon which is like the Master level of Standard and Jumpers that we do in AKC. Karma managed a 2nd place in Biathlon Standard and a 2nd place overall in Biathlon (kinda like a QQ!) And remember that Speed Jumping final she qualified for yesterday? Well she won 3rd place and $7! Lol, finally starting to earn her keep!
We had so much fun trying out this new venue, especially since our good friends Emily and Layla were there with us! I think we can safely say that the girls are warmed up for our trip to Tulsa!
