Katie was recently in a few AKC conformation shows. On August 14th at the Kennel Club of Freeborn County she earned WB and her first point under judge Barbara Alderman. Two weeks later, on August 27th, she was entered in the St. Croix Valley Kennel Club show and she earned WB and BOS and two more points under judge Dr. John Ioia. No more conformation shows for awhile, it’s back to the agility ring.

On July 2-4th, Team Alasera spent three days in Burnsville running at the North Star Herding Group Club agility trial. Very warm weather and lack of adequate air conditioning at the trial site, made for some challenging runs. Overall, lots of good moments, but also a relapse of some troublesome behaviors.

Mellie was once again the most consistent performer. She earned three double Q’s with numerous nice placements. Steady as always with just some slow starts during some of the runs. Beautiful finishing sequences however. She is already a quarter of the way to MACH 4!

Ripley earned a rare Double Q with a stand-out performance in his Standard run on Sunday. Showing actual speed, it was a refreshing change of pace. He had two clean runs on Monday but was over time in Jumpers so missed out on that Double Q. We need to get more motivation and speed if we want to make faster progress. On a very positive note, he did NOT visit the judge or a ring crew member the whole week-end. I know he looked their way and thought about visiting, but he stuck with me. Progress!!

Abby suffered from more reverse sneezing attacks. They seem to be related to excitement and it is hard for her not to do it when coming out of her crate. We tried all sorts of things to minimize its impact and only lost out on one run due to it. However, she ended up refusing the teeter twice to NQ on her standard runs. On the bright side, she is yet another Team Alasera Jumpers Specialist-qualifying in all her Jumpers runs and earning two third place finishes and a tie for first.

Ace also nailed all the jumpers courses but the same evil teeter caused trial stress issues for him. He actually did do the teeter one day, but had other faults. Thus, no standard Q’s and no Double Q’s for Ace this week-end. He is a challenge!

Katie had five runs for the week-end and only Q’d in the last one. But it was a doozy. She nailed her Jumpers run in Ex. A class for a first place and earning her AXJ title. Her time was 5 whole seconds faster than Abby’s first place time in the Ex. B class. She now gets to compete for MACH points in her future Jumpers classes as she moves up. Katie had various other issues, including a reluctance to remain on the table, and an unfortunate dropped bar to mar some other runs. But she is doing great and shows fabulous speed that her team mates can only dream of.

On June 25th at the Cambridge Kennel Club dog show, Katie took first place in the Bred by bitch class. She did not get WB, but did win over the Bred-by dog for Best Bred-by Exhibitor Variety. This allowed her to go to the Toy Group Bred by exhibitor ring to be judged for Best Bred-by Exhibitor toy dog.

She took first place! We then advanced to the Best in Show judging for Bred-by Exhibitors which did not lead to Best in Show for us. But we were still having fun showing late in the day under a warm sun. She won not only a nice pink rosette, but a logo cap and a hand towel for her efforts. Best of all, she really did a great job in the ring, moving nicely and showing off for the judges.

This was a special added feature of the Cambridge show to allow breeders who are exhibiting in the Bred-by class to show off their dogs. The regular group judging with the Best of Breed winners often has many professional handlers. It is nice to see owner handled dogs getting extra recognition from time to time.

At the Memorial Day week-end BOTC show, May 28th -30th, Miss Mellie earned her MACH 3 title. Quite an achievement and she is the first Phalene to get to this level in AKC agility. She was fast and happy and earned several good placements despite a large and competitive 8″ class. (Plus another 164 MACH points!) She also managed a Q in Ex. A FAST class with a nice distance element accomplishment. She QQ’d all three days showing the consistency that has brought her to this point in her agility career. Wow. Such a rush to have this great dog to play our favorite sport with.

Not to be outdone, the rest of Team Alasera had some other great accomplishments as well. Here they are:

Ripley: Star of the now famous “Ripley Agility Adventures” video, held it together to not only get another QQ (five total now!), but he put the finishing touch on his standard run to get leg #10 for his MX title. He didn’t exactly break any speed records, but he did get 33 MACH points to add to his collection. He couldn’t resist visiting a bar setter on his jumpers run on Saturday, and he HAD to visit the judge on Monday, so those runs were a big NQ. But, hey, we are making progress.

Katie: Three words. SUPER DUPER FAST. Katie had some interesting runs at Soccer Blast but she managed to put it all together and get her final Open Standard leg to earn her OA title and the privilege of moving on up to the Excellent level. She earned another Ex. A. Jumpers leg on Monday and her time beat all the rest of the 8″ class. Over 30 dogs. She was smoking hot and Terry knows he has real contender in Katie. The rest of Team Alasera will be looking for scraps after Katie gets into Ex. B. Sigh. Katie also earned a leg toward her Novice FAST title.

Ace: Two words. Jumper Specialist. Ace nailed all his jumpers runs to earn 42 MACH points. Unfortunately, the TEETER was at Soccer Blast. Not just any teeter. THE teeter. The really scary one. So, that was a no go. He had some good moments and pretty nice runs in Standard when not refusing the teeter. Just another challenge to overcome. Hang in there Terry!

Abby: Yet ANOTHER bout of reverse sneezing kept us from running one of the jumpers runs. Too bad too, because she Q’d in Standard that day and so we missed a QQ. She had a brief lapse in judgement and hesitated at the table in Standard on Saturday, so we forfeited a Q (and hence…the QQ) that day as well. But by Monday, I had figured out how to keep her from getting too excited before her runs (which starts the reverse sneezing attack) and we easily achieved a QQ and a placement to boot. She earned another 90 MACH points. Not that she needs those anymore! She ended up with two 3rd place finishes and a fourth place finish for the week-end and believe me, that is a pretty good set of ribbons given the level of competition. She also managed to get the final leg for her Open FAST title, so she moves up to Exc. FAST class.

Next week-end is a three day USDAA trial. More fun to be had.

In the April 2011 edition of Clean Run magazine, I wrote an article titled, “The Agility Addiction”. Guess I can say I am a published author now! Can’t believe I went from one dog back in 2003 to a family based hobby in 2011.

Mellie was awarded the “Phalene Achiever of the Year” Award at the 2011 Papillon Club of America’s Phalene Banquet at the National Specialty this month. She had earned the distinction of being the first Phalene to have both a breed championship and a Master Agility Championship. She also earned her MACH2 title this past year as well. We were not able to be at the banquet as we did not attend the Specialty this year, but it is still an honor to receive that recognition among fellow Phalene fanciers.

At the Twin City Lhasa Apso Club agility trial over Easter week-end, Alasera hopped to it and enjoyed a great week-end of achievements.

Ace led off the week-end by earning his MX title and his 6th Double Q. He also finished the requirements for qualification for the 2012 AKC National Agility Championship trial in Reno next Spring. He was super speedy and earned 48 MACH points and two 3rd place and one 4th place finish, much to Terry’s delight.

Katie earned her OAJ title and showed off more super-sonic speed. She enters Excellent level jumpers next and will run the same courses as her fellow team members.

Ripley once again missed earning double Qs due to his lack of focus and desperate need to meet the ring crew and judge. He did have two qualifying runs and earned a few MACH points to boot. He needs two more Excellent standard legs to earn his MX title. His handler needs to have lots of patience in the quest for a MACH on this little dog.

Abby had three great runs (had to pull her at the start of one run for the dreaded “reverse sneeze” attack). She had three second place finishes-mostly to Mellie. On one run, she did finish ahead of Mellie but not enough to take the first place lead. She earned 91 MACH points and a QQ. She is also now qualified for the trip to Reno! Best of all, perfect teeters both days.

Mellie had another great week-end; three first place finishes, one third place finish, two QQs, and 150 MACH points. She is getting a good fast start off the line again and appears to know exactly what I want from her. Only two more QQs for MACH 3!

Mellie and I attended the 2011 AKC National Agility Championship trial in Lexington, Virginia on April 1-3. Fellow Team Alasera member, Terry, also came along for moral support. We were entered in the Friday State Team Tournament and then the 2 day (3 rounds) NAC trial. Mellie managed 4 clean runs out of the 5 runs and her only mistake was a blown dog walk contact which we would contest. :-)

She ran well overall, with only a few slow starts to mar the performance. Perhaps the “big” trial experience and the travel caused a drop in motivation. Who knows? But despite all that, she ended up 23rd overall out of 115 dogs.

Being able to watch some of the best teams in the nation during this trial was a great thrill and very inspiring. We have lots of work to do but I know I have a wonderful agility partner and we can achieve even more success in the future.

We are already qualified for next year and we plan to return!!

At TCOTC on March 4-6, 2011, Team Alasera strutted their stuff on the agility courses. All team members did their part to stay connected, focused (for the most part) and have fun while successfully completing many courses. An embarrassment of colorful ribbons are on the kitchen counter!

Katie earned her NA and NAJ titles and an Open Jumpers leg. All were first or second place finishes. (see previous entry)

Ace earned a Double Q and much to Terry’s delight, beat Mellie straight up on a Jumpers run for fourth place. He ended the week-end with four qualifying runs, two placements (2nd, 4th), and 93 MACH points. A very good week-end. He is now very close to qualifying for the 2012 AKC National Agility Championship trial.

Ripley held it together to earn a QQ and finished the long week-end with 4 out of 6 qualifying runs. No placements for Mr. Slow and Steady but he did manage a whopping 55 MACH points. Truly a great week-end for him. But for his wandering visitation ways, we might have actually gotten another QQ, but he remains a free-spirit.

Abby really made some headway this week-end. Handler Lisa tried a new tactic in the ring (no screeching and no clapping) and Abby seemed to really enjoy the runs at her old training grounds. She went a perfect 6 for 6 and earned three QQs and finally achieved her MX title. All runs were placements except one. She ended up with one 1st, two 2nds, and two 3rd place finishes and a huge 170 MACH points! She is almost qualified for the 2012 AKC National Agility Championship trial. So proud of her beating back her trial stress and completing three successful teeters!

Mellie continues to triumph in the ring, but is finding heated competition more and more. Not only against her fellow Alasera teammates Ace and Abby, but also some speedy fellow 8″ dogs who are not willing to stay behind. She will have to step it up and rise to the challengers. Heaven forbid when granddaughter, Katie, arrives in the Ex. B. class. Mellie went a perfect 6 for 6, earning three more QQs, many placements (two-1st place, one 2nd place, one 3rd place and a fourth place finish) and another 190 MACH points. She is closing in on MACH 3.