At the MAC USDAA agility trial in Lake Elmo, MN, on September 4th and 5th, Team Alasera enjoyed some nice achievements on a beautiful weather week-end.

Mellie-jumping 12″ for the week-end-earned two Master Standard legs, a Team Relay leg and best of all, another Super Q in Snooker-topped by 1st place in that class. During the week-end, she definitely seemed slower with the higher jump height and came off the start line a bit too unmotivated for her handler’s liking. But she still managed some nice runs. Although she did not qualify in her Steeplechase tournament class, she did get to advance to Round 2 where she took second place and earned $12 for her efforts. Some really speedy dogs run in her class in USDAA so we have our work cut out for ourselves.

Abby showed some trial stress with some sniffing and some refusals, but she managed to do all the teeters I asked her to do and she earned two fabulous Performance II snooker Q’s and two Performance II Jumpers Q’s. Her best effort was her first Performance II Gambler run, nailing the distance challenge and getting her first Q in that class. Awesome.

Ace had some great teeter performances and would have Q’d in Advanced Standard except he looked up at Terry at the end of the teeter and slipped off it before it could come down. He didn’t seem too fazed as he gave Terry a mighty quick down on the table obstacle right afterwards. Ace had two fabulous Snooker runs, qualifying in both and earning his Advanced Snooker title. He also earned an Advanced Jumpers leg for good measure. Still a bit slow on the courses, but he is putting it all together.

Riply and Katie were along for moral support. No more USDAA trials until next winter.

On August 27-29th, Team Alasera participated in a grueling heat (almost 100 degrees!) marathon of conformation showing and agility trialing with the gang. Mixed success with what by all accounts was a miserable way to try to enjoy our favorite activities. Due to fitting in conformation showing while trialing, we had several conflicts with our class times. This necessitated me running three dogs back to back or with only one dog inbetween. Very exhausting, and probably not the best warm up for each dog. Learned my lesson there, its either agility OR its conformation!!

For the long week-end, Mellie did manage to get two Double Q’s, earning two first place and two second place ribbons. She also qualified in an additional jumper’s run, but was just too slow for a placement. Some very challenging courses, but fun.

Abby earned two Jumper’s Qs and third place finishes for both. Grass was very long and I don’t think she liked it much. She would have qualified in the other jumper’s run but for one dropped bar. She did manage a few teeters, but resisted on one other in her Standard runs. No double Q’s for her this week-end.

Ripley did not get any qualifying ribbons for the entire week-end. He did have a few rather good runs, with just one or two issues though. He is really alternating between slow runs and distractions and runs with more enthusiasm. He will be taking a break from trialing, while we work on motivation and working through distractions such as visiting people in the ring. Stay tuned for progress reports…

Ace only earned one qualifying run and it was in Jumpers, so the run of missed Ex. A Standard courses continues. He did do his teeters and it was a variety of other issues that caused his NQ’s. He did gain so much speed in one run, it left Terry late with a cue for a turn and sent Ace to an off-course tunnel. This is actually a good thing, because speed…we need!! Terry could commiserate with his fellow “Club 8″ competitors as many of them were shut out of qualifying runs as well.

Katie and Mellie showed in conformation on Saturday and Sunday but did not win their classes, let alone gather any points. The heat was a factor as was running agility right before heading over to be in the conformation ring. On Sunday, Katie was a bit wound up from being crated all morning and wouldn’t settle down while gaiting in the ring. So, more ring preparation will be needed for her. More conformation shows are coming up and it will be cooler weather and no agility to conflict with.

All in all, a challenging week-end.