What a week :)

We are home...the dogs spent an hour running around the property like crazed monkeys! That long in kennels, driving, hotels etc. No place to really tear it up and get all their energy out! Whew!

Zip and Ace are back with the pack and I really missed them!!! It is so nice to know a great friend took care of them while we were gone :) THANKS D!!!!!

The dogs did awesome. I am very proud of them. They did just what I asked of them, for the most part and I felt like it was a very successful Nationals :)

Gator ended up being the High Overall Team dog in 22", laying down some very nice runs in all his classes, placing 6th in Gamblers even :) Our team got to run in the Team Finals and ended up 5th place overall! Thanks to Jen and Pyro, and Shelley and Mesa! A great team with great friends!

The Tater Tot also made it to Steeplechase Finals! Amazing to me actually, but I'll take it! :) This year was much different for me, I wasn't nearly as nervous and I wanted to just go out there and have a blast. And we did :) Gator placed 9th in the Finals with a great run. I am resisting the temptation to tear apart the run and analyze it! LOL What a great week for Gator, he didn't put one foot wrong this week...so proud of him!

Tater Salad and his 9th place ribbon :) And me :)

Klinker was also a pretty good girl :) Before we left, she was having some "I don't care about knocked bars" issues (normal for her...don't name your dog the sound of a bar dropping!) but she only dropped ONE bar all week, Snooker. But otherwise she ran lovely in every team class, but with an E from a teammate, team finals wasn't meant to be. Still proud of her :) The gals on her team were a blast to run with!

Steeplechase Semi-Finals, she popped the 10th pole :( I think I checked up (shouldn't BE an issue...but I guess it was.....will work more on that) so a great run, but alas, no Finals for The Stink :) She listened so well though :) Good pupper and I am so happy with her jumping on the surface...

Both dogs had some issues on the surface, but did their best. We run mostly on grass so dirt is not their preferred surface :( I could definetly tell in their runs. But that is OK, next year I will probably run them on dirt more.

Crackers....what can I say about that boy...Andy started running him in January of this year. He has been to now, including Nationals,15 trials. Andy has never trained another agility dog, nor even ran another dog. And they were awesome. They placed in many classes, WON Team Standard even. And got into Grand Prix Finals! I would say, for their first trial being January of this year, they are doing amazing. What a year this has been for them! I couldn't be more proud :)

Andy and Crackers after Grand Prix Finals :) My Boyz :)

The dust sucked, the surface needs to be improved for next year. But the dust was horrid. I was sick every night until I started limiting myself to JUST the runs I was doing...that helped me a ton. Poor Crackers had to have his eyes and face cleaned off several times a day to keep his eyes from becoming inflammed :( Yuck! But I have no doubt USDAA will take care of things a bit better next year. If it stays there anyway.

It was so nice to see everyone! All my Facebook friends, people I don't see all the time, blog readers and all the amazing handlers out there!

My video camera is messing up....so no idea if the videos will be there when I can get to them :(
Damn...oh well...

Now, we chill, Klink, Gator and Crackers will not be running agility for a few weeks, just hiking, playing with toys, herding sheep and in general being dogs. Lynn will still be working sheep and doing agility...SHE didn't appreciate not running this week :)

Jello the ram went in with the ewes today, so lambs this spring...it's getting colder..we are one more step closer to the barn....crossing fingers still it happens...


Life is good :) Very good!!