On January 22 and 23rd, Team Alasera once again hit the road for agility, this time to Simon Arena in Cannon Falls, MN on one of the coldest week-ends of the year. All four dogs competed on both Saturday and Sunday. Here’s the rundown:

Abby managed TWO successful teeter completions and for extra good measure ran clean and fast in all four runs of the week-end and earned TWO Double Q’s!! She earned 75 MACH points and earned placements in 3 of the 4 qualifying runs. Fast and consistant. NO trial stress, so this was a good week-end all around for her. Hopefully, more success to come.

Mellie managed two first place finishes in Standard beating some very competitive dogs in her class. She dropped a bar in Jumpers on Saturday (very unusual) but Q’d in Jumpers on Sunday with a second place finish and barely out of first. She loved running in the dirt and was super speedy. So a double Q for her and a whopping 137 MACH points for her 3 qualifying runs. Well on her way to MACH 3 and almost qualified for 2012 National Agility Championship.

Ripley lost focus on both Standard runs. First day with an off course jump and tunnel entrance in Standard and then on Sunday, visited a bar setter. But both runs, he came back to me and ran clean and nicely for the rest of the run. He qualified in both jumpers runs but needs to speed up to get more MACH points. All in all, he has come a LONG way since the last trip to Simon Arena last January when he refused to let me catch him at the end of his runs. He has potential, I’ll give him that!

Ace had nice runs but only Q’d in his Sunday Jumpers run. A blown A-frame contact one day, a refused teeter the next and a bit of handling at a weave entrance prevented the other Q’s. He really is coming along and will soon be getting those Double q’s again.

Next trial is in two weeks and Terry and his newest team member, Katie, will make her debut at On The Run Canine Center in Ham Lake. We look forward to seeing her start on her successful competition agility career.

Team Alasera hit the agility ground running on New Year’s Day at the North Star Herding Group Club trial at our local training center. All dogs had some fabulous runs, but Ripley gets the accolades for FINALLY running two clean runs on the same day to earn his first ever Double Q. Quite a feat actually. We ran both Saturday and Sunday and between the four dogs, many impressive placement ribbons were earned. Here is the summary:

Ripley went clean 3 of 4 runs for the week-end. No placements but he did managed to rack up quite a few MACH points. Only a short distraction kept him from two double Q’s. Good job, Ripley!

Ace had two great Jumpers runs and just missed qualifying in both of his Standard runs. All runs were fast and focused and he and Terry have really done well as a team lately. He earned more MACH points and even got a fourth place finish on one of the Jumpers runs.

Abby had some interesting teeter issues again. On Saturday, she bailed the teeter and hit the ground on her face. She shook herself off quick and kept going. On Sunday, I got too far ahead of her at the teeter and she reverted to past behavior and refused to go on the teeter. So, no double Q’s for her this week-end. She was a Jumpers specialist though, not only qualifying in both Jumpers runs, but took first place in both and earned 64 MACH points for her efforts. Way to go!!

Mellie once again showed why she is Queen of Team Alasera. Two double Q’s, placements in all runs and a load of MACH points again. She is so consistent and fast lately, a joy to run. Nice to see this going into the months leading up to the AKC National Agility Championship trial!