The Ride Home from NADAC Championships

Monday morning I was up early and getting all packed up for that 2 day trip home. After one last run in the field

the dogs were safely packed back in the van along with that beautiful trophy and ribbons. I had a nice long drive ahead of me to do some thinking. Why do I take things so seriously? Why can I not see the good stuff I do with the dogs? This is not life or death. This is not a personal reflection of me as a person or a trainer. What is important? Just breathe. I am a good person and a good trainer and I have great dogs! I want to become the handler my dogs deserve because they ROCK!

It was a beautiful drive home and I was with my favorite dogs! I had seen the Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Monument in southeast Montana

on my way to Gillette and took note to stop on the way home. I had a great time watch this community of prairie dogs and took a ton of pictures.

Who lives here?

I arrived back in Missoula at Brianna’s just in time for dinner. The cats were not as upset to see us come back as a matter of fact I think they missed us a little bit. We had a nice walk in the park and a good night’s sleep. The weather was better for our trip home. We had to stop at the Fruit Stand for some more produce.  And we stopped at a state park in the gorge to let the dogs out for a walk.

There were windsurfers and we all enjoyed watching them.

We made it home for dinner with Jordana.

What a Great Week! Great Times!! And Great Friends!!!

NADAC Championships – What a Ride!!

Round 1 –

7am Thursday morning we were in the big arena for the first time enjoying the National Anthem and the Canadian Anthem. The arena was split it have with an over sized Regular course on one end and a Jumpers course on the other. The running order stayed the same for each day: Double Digit Dogs ran first then small to tall followed by Silver Stakes and Super Stakes. So Hershey ran first thing in the morning. Hershey ran fast and perfect; our only faults were because I had to cross the line, earning 6th Place out of a class of 13 dogs. The DD dogs only had to run the Regular course and not the Jumpers. Kant and I had a very nice Round 1 getting 4th Place. She was a little confused when we finished the Regular course and then went straight to the Jumpers course without leaving the arena and she had the BEST start-line stay for that Jumpers course.

Round 2 –

Mid-afternoon Round 2 started and DD dogs got to run first. Hershey and I had another great run with the distance line being our only fault but we were met at the end of the run and told we could not run anymore. Hershey was just too stiff in the shoulder to continue; his heart was there but the body was not. I knew it was coming but it still made me very sad to retire my first agility dog and have to admit that he is getting old. He did earned another 6th Place Ribbon ending his agility career with an amazing showing at Championships! Kant and I had an off-course but still ended up in 6th Place. There was only one other dog in the top 6 from Round 1 so I was pretty sure we were sitting in 2nd Place overall.

We went to bed very tired and off to a good start!

Round 3 –

Back in the big arena at 7am for the Anthems but this time we were looking out over just one big course. I had a hard time watching the Double Digit Dogs and not running Hershey. He did not seem to mind, he still liked all the attention he was getting and hanging out with me. Kant and I had a great run earning our first ever 1st Place at Championships. That run felt great and was one of those runs where you can feel the teamwork.

Round 4 –

We were having a great run and Kant was running fast; a little too fast to make the Dog Walk contact. We ended up in 10th Place on that round. I knew we were still in the top but we were going to have to step up the next day.

Team Round 1 –

I got ask to fill in on a Veteran team with Lynda and Robby, and Kathy and Dusty after their other teammate, Kelly and Fuzz, got injured in Round 1. It was a huge honor to be on a team with such great teammates and to represent a great team. Kant and I ran the 2nd part of the course with a three tunnel discrimination. We ROCKED that course along with the rest of our team getting 1st Place!!!

Once again we went to bed very tired with hope for the next day.

Round 5 –

We got another fault and I felt the Finals slipping away. Kant and I were still running as a good team but made one mistake. We got another 10th Place.

Round 6 –

We were having a great run until I took my eyes off of Kant to check where we were going and dropped by hand bringing Kant in to me over an off-course jump and over the distance line earning 2 faults for a total 15 points. I was having a pretty good pity party going on questioning my handling and if I should even be there when I thought get over it, put your big girl panties on, and run tomorrow the best you can! I went to bed early which caused me to wake up in the middle of the night and for some reason I checked Facebook and saw one of my friends post that his dog came up lame in that round and he was done with Champs. Pretty much made my pity party even more ridiculous and made me more determined to run our best because I was able to run my dog.

Team Round 2 –

Our Team Rocks and we had more smoking runs getting another 1st Place.

Echo also got asked to be on a team.  She had a great time and did awesome for a baby dog.  And she got to run in the big arena.

Round 7 –

7am back in the big arena for the last day of Championship. During the Anthems we were looking over a 10 obstacle U-shaped course. We were thinking and heard comments about this being a joke and where was the rest of the course but that was it. You had the option to walk or not; I chose not to but was still trying to figure out the trick. I knew better then to take the course for granted and I worked every obstacle. That course ate up teams. Kant and I accomplished the goal I had and went out and ran our best get another 1st Place.

 

Team Final Round –

The Final Round of Team is Batters Up, well we fell down! Lynda did a great job of batting but I could not throw a ball that Kathy could catch. But overall our Team ended up in 2nd Place!!

The Final Round –

I was outside with Hershey, Bart, and Bling when they started announcing who would be in the finals. Bart asked me if I wanted to go inside and I did not. I could hear just fine and I was just hoping to be in the finals. They were taking the top 33% this year not just the top 25% so that meant 8 dogs out of our class of 26. I was just thinking with two 1st Places I might be in the Finals. They started calling off names from my division and there it was Traci Bruchok and Kant were in the Finals.

Back in to the arena for the Final Round. I was sitting with a group of friends that had also made it in to the Finals in their division and we were strategizing. They knew where they were and I had no clue but knew I was going to go out and run as hard as I could. Then they started announcing the running order and the last dog called would be the dog sitting in first place. They get to my division and I said to my group where is Kant? And then I hear it the dog sitting in 1st Place in the 12” Veteran/JH division is Traci Bruchok and Kant. My chest hurt, I was going to throw up, I could not breathe, and my Mom was not answering her phone. How was it possible for Kant and I to be sitting in 1st Place with two 10th Places and a 12th and all those great handler/dog teams in our division. Change in strategy – run conservatively!

I watched some of the runs before our turn with a tricky opening, run it from the right or left side, and I saw some off-course possibilities. We handled the opening beautifully and then we got a part where several dogs were going off-course. I worked it hard, a bit too hard and pulled Kant off the obstacle she was supposed to take. I thought she is listening just fine, run her like you know you can and quit micro-managing. We danced through the rest of the course without any faults to become the 2010 12” Veteran/JH Grand Champion!! Even as I was handed the Trophy and Ribbon at the Awards Ceremony I still could not believe it!! I could not believe what a fool I was and what a GREAT dog I have!! Kant did not knock one bar at Championships!!

 

Journey to Gillette 2010

Technically this journey started August 1, 2009, when we started earning points to go to the 2010 NADAC Championships. I wanted to go since it was coming back to Gillette Wyoming. I knew Kant would easily qualify and she did. Hershey was well on his way to qualifying but we were struggling to get any Chances Qs so I stopped entering him in trials. Then just a couple of months before entries opened it was announced that double digit dogs only had to earn points in 5 of the 7 classes, Hershey was back on his way to Champs. For a brief moment I thought about qualifying Echo but I would have had to push her hard and it was not worth doing to a young, very talented dog who would easily qualify when it was her time. So this year my double digit (10 years or older) and veteran (7 years or older) dogs would be running.

Saturday, September 18, 2010, I spent the day cooking, packing, and cleaning by the end of the day I was ready to leave for Gillette Wyoming. My friend, Doreen, came from Bandon to make the trip with me as far as Missoula Montana where we stayed two nights before I left Doreen to spend the week with her daughter while I was at NADAC Championships.

Sunday morning I woke up excited and ready to go on a road trip. Our first stop was at Multnomah Falls. The falls was running nicely after the recent rains.

Echo was the chosen one to get out at this stop.

We saw Big Horned Sheep in the Gorge, this was the first time I have ever seen them. It rained pretty much the whole way to Montana but there was not much traffic so the drive was not bad. One of our other stops was at the Fruit Stand just out of the Tri-Cities on the way to Spokane. I got Habanero Jelly for my bagels and cream cheese which was the planned breakfast at Champs. I also HAD to get a scoop of huckleberry ice cream, yum!

A stop that I really wanted to make was at an old rest area that had been converted to an off-leash dog park.

It was on I-90 at exit 299 in Washington, the last exit before entering Idaho. I had heard about it when I was at the herding trial earlier in the month. But as we were approaching Spokane it was pouring hard and stopping was not an option. It stopped raining just as we got to the exit so we decided to go for it.

It was a great park with trials, trees, and balls everywhere.

There was even “agility equipment”, they were just irrigation pipes made in to tunnels but the dogs still liked them. There were also doggy bowls for water which my dogs appreciated after all that running and playing.

The only thing missing was a human bathroom so we had to stop at the rest area in Idaho.

The drive to Missoula was a great one seeing various landscapes from the heavy treed area right out of Portland, to the Columbia River Gorge where we saw Great Horned Sheep, to Southeast Washington, to Coeur d’Alene Lake, and the beautiful mountain passes in Northern Idaho and Montana. We made it to Brianna’s house in Missoula just in time for dinner that Brianna had waiting for us. After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk to the park and community garden.

Brianna was so gracious to let me and my three dogs stay in her house

but her 2 three-legged cats were not as thrilled with the house guests. Kant and Echo did their best to ignore the cats

but there were times that it was just not possible. Hershey on the other hand LOVES cats and just did not understand why they did not feel the same about him. You never had to wonder where the cats were,

Hershey could always tell you.

Monday Brianna had to go to school and then straight to work but she did manage to make time to meet us at the Montana Grill for lunch. Doreen and I spent the day running errands and checking out Missoula. Of course we made time to find a scrapbooking store and take the dogs to the off-leash dog park near the University. It was a great day!!

Tuesday morning I was up and on the road before the sun came up.

I had an uneventful drive to Gillette stopping for gas and to let the dogs out. Besides an occasional car I saw a bunch of antelope.

I did take note of a couple of places I wanted to stop at on the way back. I did not want to take the time heading to Gillette so I could get there and get my campsite all set up; which I did without any trouble.

I love camping out of the van. It rained the first couple of nights but then the weather cleared up and it was great the rest of the week.

Championships did not start until Thursday so I had all day Wednesday to hang out. After a very lazy start to the day I took the dogs on a long walk

around the Cam-plex.

It was nice to have a day to get acclimated. I did enter Kant and Echo in the new EGC Tunnelers class Wednesday night. I got set-up Tuesday night in time to catch some of the EGC Chances runs; I was very impressed with how well the teams did. I was glad I chose EGC Tunnelers for our first class. I ran Kant first and she did great getting a run index of 123.88 and earning 12.38 points towards the title. Echo also had a nice run but went on the wrong side of a gate but still got a run index of 100.00 and also earning 10 points. Since I am very new to this I do not completely understand the scoring but I know it is time plus faults and your points are 10% of your run index and you can get as low as 1 point if you have less than 5 faults. In Round 2 I ran Echo first and she was beyond perfect getting a run index of 131.62 and 13.16 more points. This is also the 2nd highest run index in EGC up to that point of any dog. Kant went on the wrong side of two gates but she did it fast and still got a run index of 100.74 and 10.07 more points. I had a great time running both of my girls and look forward to more EGC in our future.

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.