At the Greater Twin Cities Golden Retriever Club agility trial held Aug. 20-22, 2010, Mellie managed to get her 20th Double Q for her 2nd MACH title. She was smooth and fast and happy. What more could I ask from this wonderful dog? She ended up with three Double Q’s for the long week-end, 143 MACH points, and placed in every run. We are already well on our way to MACH 3!

Abby had a variety of issues that kept her from qualifying in her Standard runs, BUT, she did the teeter every time!! We have a new, unknown to us before, table issue however. Back to the drawing board. But just so I wouldn’t get too discouraged, she put up some dynamite Jumpers runs, earning three qualifying runs, two first places and one second place finish, beating out Mellie. She went over 5 yards/second on two of the runs. FABULOUS!!! She earned 83 MACH points on just those three runs!

Ripley threw me a bone and got one qualifying leg in Jumpers. No MACH points because he was rather slow. The rest of his runs had moments of accomplishment as well as moments of distraction, hence no other qualifying runs. He will be a challenge, God bless him.

Ace and Terry had some really nice runs, but just enough hiccups to prevent them from qualifying. Ace did, however, do a few teeters, leading Terry to believe that maybe, just maybe, a qualifying run is in his near future. Maybe. :-)

On July 31-August 1 Team Alasera competed at the North Star Working Group agility trial. Only Ace competed on Saturday and his teammates, Mellie, Abby and Ripley joined him on Sunday.

Ace did not get those elusive Q’s this week-end, but he did have 3 out of 4 very good and fast runs, with lots of promising moments. Terry and Ace are soooooo close to putting it all together. The teeter remains a tricky obstacle, but he is getting more and more confident.

Ripley was…well…Ripley. A bit distracted and ever the socialite, he went visiting bar setters and judges. HOWEVER..he did return to me AND carried quite a bit more speed in his runs. He actually had some very nice sequences and he came right to me at the end of his runs. We didn’t get any qualifying runs, but he is progressing well. Stay tuned…

Mellie had two great runs. She was super speedy and nailed all her contacts and made pretty tight turns. She took first place in her Standard run and second in her Jumpers run. She earned 64 MACH points and another Double Q. She is just a joy to run these days.

Abby was STELLAR. She earned her first Double Q in 5 months. She took second to Mellie in her Standard run and took 1st place in the Jumpers run-beating Mellie! She earned 60 MACH points and looked like a pro. No one would know all the stress issues we have battled. Her teeter was perfect and I made sure to let her know how good she was. She was so happy running. I can tell you it is pure joy to work through these issues and see the fruits of that labor.

Very proud of Team Alasera again this week-end. Happy to be able to play the game.