Awesome agility weekend!

Miska, Diva and I had a fantastic 4-day American Kennel Club agility trial in Romulus NY at the end of September.  Miska, especially, dazzled me with her performances except for Friday when she was totally 'off her game'.  Don't know what had happened that day but the other 3 days, she was magnificent.

Miska came home with:

1.  A Novice F.A.S.T. Preferred title   - NFP
2. An Excellent Jumpers Preferred title - AJP (this is Miska's 37th title)
3. Two legs tiwards her Excellent Standard Preferred title

On the last trial of the four days in the Excellent Standard class, I mismanaged Miska on a 180 degree turn and as a result, she went past the 2nd jump instead of over it which resulted in a Refusal and not qualifying.  Otherwise, she would have had a perfect, clean run and her title!!  Aaaaarrrrrgggh!! Oh well!!  Miska earned first and second places for all of her qualifying runs (7 of them!).  I was  thrilled with how Miska did, exceeding my expectations for her and for me.

I earned all those rosettes!!! (Miska)

And Miska's daughter, Diva, didn't totally disappoint.  She also earned her Novice FAST title (NF)  and two legs towards her Open Standard (OA) title.  She was a train wreck in all of her Open Jumpers trials so control, focus and weaves are what we have to work on before she goes into any more trials. When she Q'd, she also earned placements in every pass - two firsts, two seconds and one third place.  And she also earned one leg towards her AKC Lure Coursing Ability title.  And her younger, half-brother Bodi earned his AKC Coursing Ability (CA) title at this venue. 

All in all, it was a great Wine Circuit weekend!

Diva

Wine Circuit 2012

I've been very very busy lately, doing a lot of 'doggie' stuff with little time to post on my Blog.  The last 5 days I was in New York state at Wine Circuit shows and trials at Romulus, NY.  I've been going to this venue/show for many, many years.  The grounds are beautiful, the area is absolutely gorgeous, there is lots going on at this show (conformation, obedience, rally, agility and sometimes lure coursing). plus there are lots of NY state wineries to visit in the area.  I will, however, go on record to state that Ontario produces far better wines than NY state but it's still fun to visit the wineries, if one has time.

In previous years I've done only conformation and other years conformation and rally with multiple dogs.  This year I also had multiple dogs and focused on conformation with Quest and agility with Miska (Quest's mom) and Diva (littermate to Quest).  The last time I did agility here was in 2004 with Keira and I can recall it being extremely wet and muddy.  I was so covered in mud, I had to find a laundromat to get clean for the next day's competition in '04.

Weather usually repeats itself at this show and didn't 'disappoint' in that regard in 2012.  Last year was a mud bath and so was the previous 2010 (especially muddy!) when I was last in attendance.  Of the 4 days this year, it rained for two and turned parts of the agility fields and conformation rings into muddy paths.  It simply wouldn't be Wine Circuit without rain or cold or sun or high winds or clouds. One year there was the threat of a tornado and the entire show was cancelled on Thursday.

I entered Miska and Diva in two agility trials per day - novice standard and novice jumpers.  That meant I did 4 runs per day, times 4 days which equaled 16 runs.  I was totally gobsmacked that I didn't have conflicts with conformation on any of the four days.  That's virtually unheard of there!!

I was thrilled that Miska came home with her AKC Novice Jumper (Preferred) title and two legs towards her Novice Standard (Preferred) title.  The preferred class means Miska can jump a lower jump height than her withers.  She's nine years old and jumps 16" although she measures just under 22". Due to my handling error, Miska missed the dog walk contact by a paw; otherwise she would have aced and qualified in another Standard trial and completed her Novice Standard title.  Miska  had an amazing run and was going so fast on the dog walk that I didn't want to slow her down.  She was crossing it faster than she had ever run it in her life and had only the tire jump to go through to finish the course.  I failed to tell her to "touch" at the bottom of the dog walk, figuring she would touch the contact zone on her own.  Instead, she was flying so fast, she leaped over the zone and flew through the tire jump to complete her course.  I was sooooo disappointed she failed to qualify but her speed and happiness thrilled me immensely and so that helped to make up for my handling error.  

Out of her five qualifying courses, Miska had 4 clean runs (100/100) and 1 score of 95/100. She had 1 first & 2nd place finishes in Standard, and 2 seconds and a third place in Jumpers.  I am so proud of her!!!

Miska with her rosettes

Diva earned her Novice Standard title with 90/100 (third), 95/100 (first) and 100/100 (first).  She also earned two Novice Jumpers legs, both with first place finishes (scores of 95 & 100).  Diva is very fast but needs a lot more training on her focus on me so that she doesn't take jumps on her own.  And I need to work more on my distance handling skills with her.  She will become, I am confident, an awesome agility dog.

Diva with 4 first place rosettes, 1 third and hwe finishing title rosette

Vadasz's star finally rose

One to two times per year, I've been taking Vadasz (from our Sasha-Nova breeding in 2003) to dog shows in the USA, trying to earn his second and final major to finish his American Championship.  Sometimes he was too pudgy and other times he was too thin and other times, it was political - he was often the best dog there but not with the 'right' handler.  He was always breeder/co-owner-handled except for two times - when I had had knee surgery and couldn't show him myself and another time when I figured it was political and so hired a handler.

I have always believed in Vadasz and when I saw him recently (after he'd turned 7 years old), I said to his owner, Gary Krammer, "boy he looks great" and "wow, does he move nicely" and "you know, he really deserves to be an American Champion".

My plans kept changing this fall but to make a long story short, I finally decided to go to the Wine Circuit at Romulus NY.  I asked Gary to enter Vadasz in conformation as well as Quest (Vadasz' 2-year old nephew from my 2008 breeding).  This was going to be Vadasz's last shot at his AKC CH. It was now or never ( I was dreading ' never').

Thursday, September 30 at Wine Circuit didn't go as well as hoped. It was raining and the rings were turning to mud. Each dog of mine took second place in the classes but Quest and his sister Diva took Reserve Winners Dog.  Things really improved for Vadasz on Friday.  It was still terribly muddy but  he took Reserve Winners Dog.  And then on Saturday when I did so well with Miska in Rally, I said to myself, "I'm on a roll. Things are looking up." and I really had a feeling it would be a good day (or at least I sure hoped so!). 

Things started to look up  well when judge Linda More of Cary, NC moved Vadasz to the head of the line-up in the Open class and then gave him First.  However, before this happened, she mentioned to me that he was limping in the last go around.  "Oh no!" I thought.  She asked me to check his paws. Well, they were covered in mud and straw because of the terribly wet and muddy conditions at the show grounds.  I tried to pull some of the mud off this paw and hoped and prayed that there was nothing wrong with him.  She made us go around again and finally pointed to Vadasz as her Open Dog.  Then it was back into the Ring!  Again, Ms More pointed to Vadasz as her Winners Dog.   And it was a major!!!!  That's all he needed to finish!!!  5,5 years after getting his first major at this exact same location, Vadasz finally finished his AKC Championship.  I jumped up and down in the mud - I was SOOOO excited and happy.  The judge laughingly said to me, "Don't make the conditions worse than they already are!!!!"

Congratulations to Vadasz (Am/Can CH Varazs Kiralyi Vadaszat FDJ, Can/Am CD, NAVHDA NA Prize II, JH, RN (AKC), RA (AKC), CGN.  You are finally and officially an American Champion at the graceful age of seven!! No chalking, no hair dye or cheating to make you look younger.  Just beautiful you. And to top the day off, Gary Krammer, his owner, earned a second Rally Excellent leg in the morning.  Show photo to follow but here's a photo of Gary and Vadasz with their Rally ribbon.