After a badly needed nap at our motel in Concord, we headed to the Cabarrus Arena to check-in for Nationals. At check-in while picking up our goody bag & t-shirt, a familiar face walked by - Carlene Groom from WA! Carlene, her husband Robert, and border collie Haley would be our companions throughout the weekend. Being that North Carolina is 2,800 miles from Washington State, few Washington agility competitors would be attending and a familiar face was very welcome.
Friday morning arrived much too quickly. We arrived at the arena at 7:00 am for the general walk through and opening ceremonies. First up - the ISC Jumpers with Weaves (JWW) course. This course had a threadle, something not seen in regular AKC competition. Here is a course map: http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/FridayISCJWW.pdf
The threadle is between obstacles #13 & #14. I walked the course thinking "no problem!" In theory, it would be easy to send Jolie over #13, call her between the jumps, and push to #14. Well, as it often happens in agility, things don't always go according to plan and Jolie ended up back jumping #13 (or was it #14, my mind is a blur!) Even though we didn't qualify, it was a nice run for us & good warm up.
Next up was ISC Standard in the smaller arena. This arena held rings 3 & 4 as well as the crating stalls. Room was tight, there was no seating and the room for chairs was very limited. Nevertheless excitement in this area was high as dogs & handlers crowded around preparing to run or to watch their fellow competitors. The ISC standard course was very nice. It had a serpentine but thankfully no threadle! Here is the course map:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/FridayISCStandard.pdf
I chose to handle the serpentine (#'s 10, 11 & 12) by sending Jolie to 9, pulling to the far side of 10, pushing to 11, then pulling between 12 & 11 to set up a straight line to the dogwalk. It worked! We got the rest of the course and our first qualifying run.
We were still recovering from the red eye flight so didn't stay to watch the Northwest Region team win the State Team Finals. We were excited to learn later that we had won, it was the first State Team win for Washington State!
Saturday morning found us back at the arena at 7:00 am for our first walk -thru: the standard course. This was a very nice flowing course:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/Sat_NAC_Rd_1_Standard.pdf
The only possible trouble spots were the off course potential of the tunnel and the line from the dogwalk to the chute. I chose to not take any chances with the tunnel & front crossed after #13 which worked very well. The line to the chute was a challenge - many chose to rear cross both #17 and the chute. My plan was to run on the inside and push to the chute. Well things didn't go according to plan, Jolie was driving too fast (or was I driving too slow!) so I ended up doing the rear crosses. Jolie "almost" didn't enter the chute, it was very close, whew! This was our 2nd qualifying run of the weekend and first run that counted in the championship - we got 42nd place (out of 113).
Our next run, JWW, wasn't until much later in the afternoon. The long wait gave us plenty of time to take in all the excitement of watching the other dogs run, as well as browse the vendors. It was fun seeing all the neat stuff & choose which souvenir I would take home. Jolie spent most of the time resting in her crate. We had decided to not get a stall (they were a little pricey!) so our set up was in the general crating area. Our space was in a quiet place and was not crowded at all. A nice place for both dogs & handlers to relax and catch quick naps.
Finally it was time to walk the JWW course. Here is a map:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/Sat_NAC_Rd_2_JWW.pdf
Count them: this course has a total of 6 possible front crosses! That is how I chose to handle it: front crosses after #'s 2, 5, 8, 11, 15, and 17. It worked very well, except for the fact that my mind went blank after 12 & Jolie got a refusal at 13, sigh! Other than that it was a very nice run.
Done for the day we were too tired to go out to eat so ordered pizza delivery for dinner that night.
Sunday was our earliest day, we needed to be at the arena before 7:00 am for the first walk thru. Our third & final course was the hybrid course - a combination of JWW and Standard:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/Sun_NAC_Rd_3_Hybrid.pdf
This was a simple and FUN course - no major trouble spots & plenty of flow for speed. I was anxious to run Jolie on this course, I knew she would do well. The 8" class was the first class of the day in ring 3, we were the 99th dog to run. After our wait & warm up, our turn was up. At the line I had just taken Jolie's leash off when the fire alarm started blaring! We had to quickly evacuate the building. After a few minutes the fire department showed up - some one in the food place had burned some french fries. After checking things out & declaring the buildings safe, the firemen allowed us to all march back in. The nice judge was concerned about Jolie's reaction to the alarm, but Jolie had not been bothered a bit by the bothersome & annoying noise. She ran the course perfectly with enough speed to get 29th place. We were very happy! This put us in 54th place overall (out of 113), not bad with only qualifying in two of the three runs that counted in the standings.
Our work finished, the fun part of watching the Challenger Round & Finals was all that was left! It was incredibly exciting to watch the best dogs & handlers in the nation. I think the most exciting part was the difficult dogwalk/tunnel discrimination in the finals:
http://www.akc.org/pdfs/national_agility_championship/2009/courses/Sun_NAC_Rd_5_Finals.pdf
As we watched dog after dog take the wrong course tunnel, the groans from the crowd grew louder & louder. Few dogs got this part, but when one did, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause. Our favorite finals competitor by far was Masher the papillon, handled by Daneen Fox. Masher had swept the 8" class and we were rooting for him in the finals. Unfortunately the tunnel was too tempting for Mashy & Daneen couldn't call him off. The winner of the 8" class (for the 2nd year in a row) was Daneka Hedges & papillon Allie, an awesome Jr Handler team.
You can watch the six winners of the finals here:
http://www.agilityvision.com/6-winners-video-2009-akc-national-agility-championship
After dinner at Applebee's with Carlene & Robert, it was back to the motel for our last night in Concord. What an exciting weekend it had been. Overall I was very pleased with our performance. I was so proud of Jolie for handling the long trip & long weekend so well. She did awesome & didn't show any signs of fatique or stress. What a wonderful girl she is!
Next: Scroll back UP to read Part 2, The BEACH!
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