Carolina Piedmont Agility USDAA 4-Star Event!

Sooooo..... What do you do when you haven't been able to practice or go to an agility trial in over 2 months? Why - enter the first USDAA 4-Star Event of the year that was also streaming live over the internet! Right.. what a great idea.. Yeah... I don't know what I was thinking but we still had so much fun!


It was run by Carolina Piedmont Agility and they put on amazing trials! Since it was a 4-Star Event the teams that were competing for a spot on the World Team were there so we got to watch some amazing runs! And it was a live cast event so Aaron got to watch some of our runs from home (and hopefully we didn't do anything too embarrassing).


We got to the site nice and early every morning so we got to watch the sun rise:

And we also saw the sun set there because it went on until well after 6 pm on Saturday and Sunday. There were around 300 dogs entered and it was a 3 ring trial. Here is a picture of the blue ring - where Starters/Advanced ran:

Next to it was the yellow (Masters) ring where we spent half of our time: 

And next to that was the red (Masters) ring:

Since they were running two Masters rings at once, we had to walk both courses then run them. I was nervous that I had to remember two courses at once, but we got the hang of it. We only got eliminated due to off-course twice the entire weekend which I thought was pretty good! 

Here are some highlights:

- Only got two E's this time and it seems like we have been improving our speed and accuracy little by little with every trial. 

- Ran our fastest Steeplechase yet at 36 seconds (Aaron got to see it, too!) and qualified in round 1! I never though we'd be able to Q in Steeplechase at this trial because there were a team going for the World Team in our group and the winner that was a super fast 16" BC! We got 4th place in round 2 and won around $14. Nari decided to blow her half of the money on matching Nylabones for her and her sisters, I got a sandwich that I shared with Nari. 

- Our first time doing the DAM team tournament and we made the Overall Top Individual list!! Here is the list for the 12" and 16" dogs:

Okay, so there's kind of a big gap between 2nd and 3rd, but hey - there were still like ten 16" dogs and it was our first time doing team so I was super happy with that. By the way - the number one 16" dog on that list is trying out for the World Team. Oh, and here's the list for the 22" and 26" dogs: 

Whoaa!!! Is that Nari on the same list of top individuals as a bunch of awesome handlers like Stuart Mah and Linda Mecklenburg!! Never thought I'd see her on a list with those people unless it was a gate sheet or something. Yeah, they totally creamed us in terms of points earned, but hey - I'm still super proud of how hard little Nari worked. 

Cute Nari highlights: 

- Nari being my own personal little judge. Whenever I would mess up a cue and cause a fault, she would stop to scream at me. Seriously, she was totally the judge's pet all weekend long, they probably didn't even need to watch us to know if I messed up. 

- Right during the walkthrough before our last run of the weekend, ~50 kids came in and sat in the stands right next to where the table was. So Nari jumped up on the table, saw the kids then started screaming at me, proceeded to spend several seconds hacking up some treat and then finally did her table down. The run was clean but she ate up so much time with her craziness that we were over time by 1 second. I couldn't help but just laugh at the whole thing - and that's why I love running with Nari, she just does the silliest things that I can never get upset or frustrated or mad during a run. 

Here she is looking all cute right before we headed back home:

And here she is posing with her ribbons: