WAG's 1st Annual Willamette Cup NADAC Games Trial

The Willamette Agility Group Club is the best!! The Spring in to Agility Trial this past weekend in Monmouth was an awesome trial. The weather was good and the people were great!! An idea thought of by a club member was developed and grew in to the First Annual Willamette Cup at the Spring NADAC Games Trial. Everyone that helped create the Willamette Cup did a great job from how to score it, divisions, logo, prizes, and all the behind the scenes work. The final results were Novice, Open, Elite, Small, Medium, and Large Dogs scored on who had the most Qs in the first 11 runs; 4 Touch’N’Go, 4 Weavers, and 3 Tunnelers, Hoopers was not included. Ties would be broken by a Tunnelers round.

Jordana took Sunday off work to run 3 dogs in 12 runs. Hershey got all 6 runs of the day. He had a running contact on the first dog walk of the day and so Jordana took the training in the ring option and went back to remind him that we would like 2 on 2 off at the end of the contact. Hershey seemed to learn something in Round 1 because he went on to Qualify in Round 2 giving him his Outstanding Novice Touch’N’Go title. Hershey and Jordana had a perfect Qualifying Elite Weaver 1 run. Hershey was over time in Weavers 2 with a bit too much arguing. Hershey also qualified in Tunnelers with a pretty good run with a little bit of arguing but he was still 1 second under time. They did not get a Hoopers Q. Over all they had a very good day and Jordana was pretty pleased with the 9 year old boy.

Slick and PITA each had 3 runs. Slick is pretty much done with competing; too much for him. He can still come and practice and do demos if he would like but he did not have fun this weekend and especially for him it is all about having fun. PITA on the other hand had a lot of fun and did great. She and Jordana still made a couple of mistakes so they also ended up with no Qs but they are a great team to watch. PITA is SO FAST; Jordana is going to have to keep working on her handling to keep up with PITA’s speed.

Kant had one of the best weekends ever. She was perfect all weekend and ended up with 11 Q’s and 11 1st Places. There was a Bearded Collie in her division that also qualified in the 11 runs for the Willamette Cup so there was a tie breaker run off between Kant and Polo. Kant ran the 8 tunnel course in 14.99 seconds winning the Elite Medium Dog Willamette Cup. I am very proud of my blue dog!!

I could not believe the pressure that the “Willamette Cup” put on a trial that is normally for us stress free since a Games Trial does not have any jumps. 4 dogs in the whole trial that was very full ran 11 perfect runs; 1 in Small Novice, 1 in Medium Open, and 2 in Elite Medium. There was also a tie in Open Large and Elite Large, so 6 dogs were involved in tie breaker Tunnelers runs. The crowd totally got in to the tie breaking runs with lots of cheering. Like I said in the beginning WAG is the best!!

Echo was so happy to be at the facility where she takes classes and comes to practice and play in the field but that quickly turned to frustration when she could not play. But she still looked cute!! And she only has 2 months before she can start competing.

Thank you Joe Camp for once again providing me with great pictures for my blog.

April - What a great month!

The month might start out with April Fool's Day but has been a great month for me and a couple of Blue Merle Shelties!

On the 3rd I celebrated my birthday by going to work and finding my cubicle completely decorated. Thank you Tammy and Ella!

I left at noon to head to Medford Oregon for a NADAC trial. Kant was the only one competing and Echo went to cheer from the sidelinesand of course play.

I thought my birthday would just go by unnoticed but Saturday morning I was proven wrong during the morning briefing when it was announced by Adele that it was my birthday and there was cake for everyone to share. It did not take me long to figure out a phone call from Lora was made to Adele. I was very surprised; Thank you Lora and Adele.

Adele and Lynda took me to dinner for a very fun dinner Saturday night and enjoyed when the staff sang Happy Birthday.

Thank you for good friends!!

Kant and I had an up and down weekend. We started out strong on my birthday Qing in Tunnelers and our first Open Hoopers. Saturday and Sunday we managed to make an error in both Jumpers, Chances, and all Regulars only Qing in Weavers and Touch'n'Go. But it was still a great trial in beautiful weather. Thank you RCA; you always put on a great trial!

Echo continues to improve in both agility and herding. I have been home the last two weekends getting things done around the house but always finding time to practice agility and herding. Echo started weave 6 poles without guides this weekend.

Here are a couple short videos from agility class and one from herding.

Practicing crosses.

Get those contacts!

Echo has great natural flanks and finds balance very well. And brings the sheep to me nicely but still with a little to much push but is learning to steady. Echo is getting much better with "stand" and "that'll do".

SPRING IS IN THE AIR

The cherry tree blossoms on the Capital Mall are just beautiful and the mall is full of people taking pictures. Heidi wanted pictures of Amelia and my dogs when the blossoms were in bloom. Today was a perfect day to take pictures; the sky was blue and the blossoms were in full bloom. This is a sure sign spring is in the air.

Mom and daughter, pretty in pink!!

Echo, Amelia, and Kant by the fountain in front of our office.

Kant and Amelia peeking over the fountain side looking at the water spraying down.

Ready Run! Or not...

Echo is always ready to run!

Hanging out on a park bench.

Peeking over the park bench.

What a perfect day to play in the sun.

Thank you Tammy for taking all these and many more wonderful pictures.