SCALLYWAGGING FOR REAL

It's been a loooonnngg weekend for the Island Dog Sports canines and their handlers. We spent Friday evening through Sunday afternoon out at the Saanich Fairgrounds having a ball at ScallyWaggs' Spring Fling NADAC agility trial.

There were some big FIRSTs for IDS: this was Lorri and Mylo's first real trial...and on the last run of the weekend (Tunnelers), they got their very first Q. Way to go, Lorri and Mylo! And remember the Howl-a-ween NADAC trial, where we had Switch wishing wistfully for a Q while his sister Betty ran off with a bucket of them? Well...Peni and Switch hit the jackpot in that same Tunnelers run. A bright shiny Q for Switch. Peni has worked long and hard with Switch to get him to this point. It's a major accomplishment for both of them. What a difference we've seen in Switch over the past six months. And in each run this weekend, he got better and better.

Another first? Abby. She got her first NADAC Qs this weekend. In fact, she reeled in FOUR of them. We're very pleased for our little girl. She'd been skunked at NADAC trials for the past year, so this was definitely her break-out weekend. We've been working hard on her motivation and concentration over the past few months, so it's great to see her making progress. She's sneaking up on her little brother Zack, who also racked up four Qs over the course of the weekend. One of them landed him his second NADAC title, this one in Novice Touch-and-Go.

And well, then there's Ann and Pecos. They battled bad-bunny-karma all weekend, after Ann 'smoked' a rabbit on the road on the way to the trial Saturday morning. She said she could see bunny-fur wafting about in her car's slipstream when she looked in her rear-view mirror after she hit the unfortunate creature. She knew then that the gods might not smile upon her and Pecos at this trial. But the karma finally turned good on that last Tunnelers run, and a Q floated through the air and into Ann's hand in the form of a black-and-purple Q ribbon. We think she also got good karma points for bringing the world's best Parmesan popcorn on the planet to help us snack our way through the weekend. Good karma points also go to Lorri for the chocolate chip cookies. And to Cindy and to the Horels for the illicit Bailey's Irish Cream that wended its way into our mid-day coffees.

Cindy and Joe did their usual good work and racked up some more Qs for the most popular wonder-wiener in the trial. Joe's got so much personality that he absolutely "owns" the trial ring.

Pia and Meredith nursed their aches and pains through the weekend. Swift swiftly erased hopes of Qs with her enthusiastic approach to any and all obstacles on the course. However, she did save some enthusiasm for smoking through all the tunnels on the Tunnelers course at the end of the weekend. The judge had to re-position a bunch of 'em after Swift's artful rearrangement of them as she banked off their interiors enroute to her Q. Brianna and Emma had an on-again, off-again relationship with the Q-ribbon-bin, as did George and Betty. And while George may not have left the fairgrounds with as many Q ribbons as from our last ScallyWaggs outing, he did leave with a bottle of scotch tucked under his arm—a lucky break from the "Screw-the-Q, Pass the Flask" consolation draw.

The good thing? We all know what we need to work on. The bad thing? We all know what we need to work on.

Zack sacks out on Saturday night...a pooped puppy indeed!

Abby too hits the hay, barely making it onto the green fleece before tumbling into slumber.

The hard work was worth it...Zack shows off his Q ribbons.

Abby does her share of showing off too. The ribbons are almost bigger than she is!