HOLY COW!!!

So, early in the spring I made the decision that Vegas and I would push for moving up in AKC agility and try to qualify for an invitational spot this year. There are a couple of reasons: 1) The invitationals are in Long Beach, CA this year; next year they are in Florida. 2) This is the last year our private trainer, Craig French, is going to go to invitationals. 3) Our friends Linda and Zena were working hard to earn their place, too, and it would be nice to be amongst friends. 4) Vegas will be four in October. She is in good enough health this year that I felt we were capable.

To qualify for the AKC Agility Invitationals, you must finish the year (July 1 - June 30) within the top five of your breed. This means those with the most MACH points (or other criteria if nobody is earning MACH points yet). May and June were our big months as far as trialing like crazy. It then took the AKC a couple of weeks to get their data entry complete so I knew exactly what the standings were. I knew we finished with nine MACH points. However, if others were trialing as hard, what they did would affect us.

As it turned out, we were earning our MACH points only on our JWW runs since we are not yet in Excellent B for Standard. By June 30, Vegas had earned five MXJ legs, two of which were right on time so did not earn any MACH points. Her second MXJ leg earned us our first MACH points (3); her third, two points; and her fourth, four points.

I am proud and excited to announce.......

Vegas and I finished #3 in AKC agility for 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are the final standings and I cannot wait to meet some of these other Danes and their owners. I'm particularly in awe of the #1 Dane because she went from 277 points in April to finishing with 513. That's a ton of points in a short period of time for a Dane.

So now we have to continue practicing and training to a higher level and saving money at the same time to go to the Invitational. It's about a 20 hour drive for me and I have already requestd and been approved for the time off. So in December, Long Beach here we come!