DOG DAYS OF AUTUMN

This past weekend was another AVID agility trial at the Saanich Fairgrounds. Cindy (with Joe) and myself (with Abby and Zack) were the only Island Dog Sports folks at this trial—although there were certainly a few former IDS members there: Susan Lewis, Wendy Amos, Iris Bergen and Heidi Dunn.

Zack picked up two more Qs (qualifying scores), one in Gamblers and his second one in Standard. He just missed a third Q—in Standard—that would have given him his Agility Dog of Canada title. How much did he miss it by? Just 68 one hundredths of a second. Ah well, NEXT time. Zack is also only one Q away from his Agility Games Dog of Canada title. He just needs a qualifying score in Snooker. I THINK I have this last game figured out, so will give it a whirl at the next AAC trial that we go to.

Abby picked up her very first Q as well, in Standard. I had reported before that she'd Q'ed at AVID's summer trial, but they later emailed to say that there had been a scoring error, and that she hadn't actually gotten her Q. Apparently there was a glitch in their software that gave several dogs Qs that it shouldn't have. This weekend, however, there was no doubt at all that she finally really does have her first Q. She was eliminated in two of her runs....off in la-la land again...getting distracted by one thing or another. And she ran just a little long in two of her other runs. As noted before, she needs a little turbo boost. All in all, I think she did just fine this weekend. To see her qualifying run, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8E01rIE9-w

Susan Lewis' dog Sage (also affectionately known as Spinny Minnie) also had a milestone this weekend: she got HER first Q. After so many years of patiently working with Sage, Sue was quite elated that not only had Sage actually finished a course but that she had also gotten a Q. Sue was one happy gal as she packed up to leave!

Thanks to Cindy and to Gillian (from ScallyWaggs) for holding onto Abby while I was running Zack, and vice versa!