Run, Nari, RUN!! Focus, Steffi, FOCUS!

WOW - what a great weekend! No, actually I think it was an amazing weekend :) 

I packed up the car last Friday morning and Nari and I headed off to Holly Springs, MS for the 4 PAWS USDAA trial on Saturday and Sunday. I think that was the first time I had ever been to Mississippi before. I usually don't drive that far for a 2 day trial, but everyone in that club is so nice we made the drive to support them. 

We were entered in all three tournament classes and a couple of titling classes each day. The trial secretary was awesome and found a team for us right before closing - we were teamed up with a JRT named Han Solo and a BC named Rex - both of which were super fast and their handlers were so much fun. Our team did really well and we qualified!! We were all so excited because it was the first team Q that each of the dogs had gotten. We were pretty close to the cutoff line (and were under it for a class or two) but we held it together during the relay. Nari pulled off some great runs during her team events, I was just so proud of how hard she worked! Here is a picture of team "Han In Rex":

Here are some highlights:

We won both the Steeplechase and Grand Prix tournaments for our height. 

We got 8 Q's - and I think we got a Q in all of the individual events in DAM. 

Besides the 1st places in Steeplechase and Grand Prix, we took 2nd in everything else.

AND.... 

...I'm pretty sure we qualified for the 2011 USDAA Cynosport World Games Agility Championships in Steeplechase and DAM!!!! 

I am of course waiting for the USDAA office to confirm it because I'm always paranoid about that kind of stuff, but it will be a while before the results get recorded... 

And the awesome sheltie handler in our height group (she takes 1st pretty much all the time and has killer runs) came up to us and said, "Wow! You guys were the sh*t this weekend!" as we were leaving :) That meant so much to me :) 


We also had a great handler in Masters tell us that we handled a hard jump combo with a wrap the best he had seen so far, I couldn't believe it :) Huge thanks goes out to our trainer, Ace, for helping us with our jump wraps! 


I worked my butt off this weekend on trying to keep my focus, keep my energy up and not give up and it really payed off. Such a fun weekend! Now we need to keep working on increasing our speed and some other fundamentals. Agility is so much fun! 

Pictures from the Carolina Peidmont USDAA 4-Star Event!

Nari and I had so much fun at the CPA USDAA 4-Star Event. We just recently started running in all of the Masters classes back in October so the courses really kick our butts sometimes, but we have a blast. And I'm so lucky to have Nari, she's such an awesome partner. I love that when I make a mistake, she's right there to yell at me. When we first started trialing I would run Snooker pretty slow with her and a couple of times she actually yelled at me and nipped me in the butt! Now if we go slower than she would like, she goes through the course going, "Ahhhh! Ahhhh! Ahhh!" repeatedly but still follows me. She always cracks me up and makes the runs so much fun. 


Well, our favorite photographer, Suzie Wolf, was at the trial so we got some great pictures! 

Isn't she the cutest weaver? That's from our Masters Standard run on Jan. 15, 2011. 

There we are racing through round 1 of the Steeplechase - probably one of our best runs ever. So much fun and so exciting that we were able to qualify even though there were some super fast 16" dogs in our group! 

I love this picture! It's also from round 1 of the Steeplechase. 

And here she is in round 2 of the Steeplechase. I just love how her tail stays curly the whole time - so cute! 

And another jump pose during round 2 of the Steeplechase. 

The rest of the photos are from our Masters Standard run on Jan. 17th, 2011. Kind of a crazy run - we were both so tired and then there was the huge group of kids (> 50!) sitting in the stands right next to the table. Nari jumped on the table and then started yelling at me about those kids so much that she hacked up a treat and then did her table down! Oh Nari :) 

I love this photo of us. 

And I think she is one of the cutest jumpers.