Columbia Agility Team’s Columbia Cup Trial

The Columbia Cup is an award earned by the team that has the cleanest, fastest runs in the four Regular Classes and it is given to the small and large dogs in Elite, Open, and Novice.  This trial is my favorite CAT trial; the beautiful display of trophies is a complete contrast to the pressure that puts on me.

Echo was entered in all 12 runs, Kant had 9 runs, and Hershey was only entered in the 4 Regular classes.  The week before the trial was a short work week because of Labor Day and I was busy at home and work and did not prepare any of the normal paperwork that I do for trials so Saturday morning I was feeling a bit disorganized and took a quick look at the running order.  Ring 1 started with Elite Regular, perfect, so what special skills class would start in Ring 2; to my surprise Ring 2 started with Open Regular.  Not so perfect, I had 2 12” dogs in Open Regular and 1 12” dog in Elite Regular and not enough caffeine to start the day that way.  The Elite class was so big and running tall to small that I got both runs in Open done by 9am and before Kant had her first run.  Echo was running so nice and fast and with great distance that she took an off-course jump but the rest of the run was beautiful and the pressure of the Columbia Cup was gone.  Hershey knocked a bar in round one so again took the pressure off but he also was running very nice.  Kant wanting to also take the pressure off and knocked a bar.  Echo wanted to make sure not to win the Columbia Cup and got only 1 Regular Q but she did finish her Novice Weavers Superior Title,

Open Jumpers, and Open Tunnelers.  We did not have a very good Q rate but there were pieces of each run I loved and the runs that came together were great and her weave poles are the best!

Kant went on to Q in the next 3 Regulars and ended up qualifying in 7 of the 9 runs including both Jumpers.

Kant only needs 1 more Jumpers to complete her Triple, Triple Superior Award and is four Jumpers away from NATCH-2.  We were running as a very nice team and she had some of her fastest yards per second, I am hoping this weekend was a prelude to Champs.  Hershey also went on to qualify in the next 3 Regulars because he is in the Skilled class he ended up with Qs in all four Regulars and added 35 points to his lifetime points. 

This was Hershey’s last regular trial; after NADAC Championships he is retired from agility.  So he ended his last agility trial with a huge bang winning the Open Small Dog Columbia Cup!!

That was a wonderful surprise for my favorite 10 ½ year young Sable Sheltie!!  Kant also got

3^rd Place

in the Elite Small Dogs, that dang bar.  Another wonderful agility weekend spent with great judges that brought great courses, wonderful friends, and my incredible dogs.  Time to start packing for NADAC Championships; we leave Sunday, September 19^th.

Thank you Joe Camp for the agility pictures!

Labor Day Weekend

As much as I enjoyed my vacation and not competing in any dog events for the month of August it was time to get the wheels turning again and head for some competitions. I started out September at the Spokane AKC Herding trial Labor Day Weekend. This is the third year I have tried to get in to this trial and I finally got in. I have wanted to do this trial because of the number of shelties herding in that area. I took off Friday with Kant, Echo, and Slick and headed to Spokane after a quick stop at Brigand’s Hideout to work the girls.

We had a nice drive to Spokane staying on Hwy 14 on the Washington side of the gorge.

I have never taken that road all the way from Vancouver to the Tri-cities. It was very nice but two lanes the whole way and not the quickest route. I stayed with Gail and Kirk which is always great. Gail and I had a great visit Friday night; it had been too long since we had seen each other. I only entered the girls on Saturday and Sunday so we had Monday to drive home. The trial site was very nice and the hair sheep were great. Kant did a great job on Saturday with a beautiful cross drive where we only lost 1 point; we did not lose any points on the Z chute or the re-pen, and lost 1 point on the hold pen. But we had some trouble pushing the sheep off me at the post and getting control of them for the Y chute losing over half the points. So our score of 82 was not a qualifier but I was very happy with the work Kant did and I know what I need to work on. This was Echo’s first trial in Started and she was great. I got to the fetch the whole course and she did a good job of keeping the sheep to me and getting them through the obstacles. After we were done there were a lot of comments about how nice she worked and was always watching the sheep and what a nice distance she stayed off the stock. She was listening and settled in to working very nice. She got 1st place and her first Started leg. We were done mid-afternoon and that left me lots of time to visit with Gail and Kirk and of course play with all the shelties.

Gail and Kirk were helping Kirk’s brother, Eric, and new wife, Julie, move to their new home so I went over to see the new house and visit with Julie.

Sunday Gail with me to the trial to watch the dogs and visit with friends. The sheep were a bit more reactive and the dogs that did well on Saturday were struggling on Sunday. And the runs that did not go as well on Saturday continued that way on Sunday. Kant had a beautifully outrun, lift, and fetch only losing 2 points and our turn around the post and drive to the Y chute was better and then things fell apart. The sheep came right out of the Y chute and back to me, in Intermediate I could leave the post after the sheep went through the Y chute so I fetched them back to the end of the Y chute but as hard as Kant and I tried I could not get them off of me so I crossed the line and helped my dog. So no qualifying score on Sunday either but Kant was quiet, listening, and working well with me. Of course after I left the field I thought about something else I would have liked to try. I heard the AKC Rep say to someone else that could not get their run started that I loved, “experience is what you get after the run is over” so true. Echo did not do as well as Saturday, the sheep were more reactive which made Echo more reactive and I could not get her settled down and working calmly. She was listening but was fast with all her flanks. We got through the course scoring about the same as Saturday getting 2nd Place and a second leg.

I was glad I did not enter on Monday in case we got the third and final leg and in case the sheep were even more reactive. I was VERY happy with Echo and how well she did and there are things I definitely need to work on. Echo won the High Scoring Sheltie award on Sunday! Sunday was another perfect evening of visiting and playing with dogs.

   Monday we slept in and got up lazy. After breakfast Gail and I went to the scrapbooking store where I found some great sheep paper and stickers and a kayak sticker. Spokane has the nicest scrapbooking store. After that we went to a great nursery to look for some butterfly bushes. I have been looking for two years around here and not able to find any and Gail had some nice ones in her yard. I got two Black Knights and a Bi-color one; they are going to be perfect in the backyard along the fence. The shelties and I were packed up and back on the road by noon and I came home with the same three shelties that I arrived with, no extras yet.

But I will be driving by there soon on my way to and from Gillette.