MACH points, Double Q’s and placements aplenty at the NSHGA trial

At the North Star Herding Group Association agility trial on June 27 and 28 in Burnsville, Ace, Abby and Mellie had some impressive accomplishments.

Abby was only able to get into three runs for the week-end. On Saturday she started reverse sneezing at the start line for her Standard run. I had to pull her off course. She did not have any other runs that day. On Sunday, she was among the first group of dogs to run the Jumpers course in Exc. B. class. She showed them all how to do it. She had a super fast time and went on to take first place!! This was a large class of 8″ dogs, so I was very happy. Her Open Standard run was great with the exception of, yep, the teeter. This time, she refused it twice, but actually did do it (and very well) on the third try. Unfortunately, you only get two tries at it in Open, so no title yet. She was having fun though and the rest of the course was a piece of cake.

Ace had a fabulous Ex. A. Jumpers run on Sunday. Terry handled him beautifully and they managed a first place finish and he qualified for the second leg of his title. Saturday’s jumpers run was great as well, with just a pop out of the weaves that kept them from qualifying. Ace also had a few teeter issues, as well as a table issue which kept him from getting out of Novice Standard. Still, he showed great improvement.

Mellie was the star of the week-end. She ran four times and qualified in all of them. Good speed in the runs gave her two second place finishes on Saturday (with a 1.5 multiplier for the MACH pts) and two “fifth” place finishes on Sunday. (Abby beat Mellie’s time and pushed Mellie out of the ribbons!) Mellie earned two more Double Q’s and earned 62 MACH points!! She was really following my lead well and I think we are starting to really gel as a team. FINALLY!!

We have another round of trials in Burnsville in July and hope to continue to burn up those courses.