OMG did I have a BLAST!!!!! The facility was ok, had it's positives and negatives, and I was a bit disappointed in the organization from the AKC. Results were on Twitter and Facebook, but not to exhibitors AT the event? I am not on either. They got that fixed by Sat but still.
We got home from our trip on Monday. What a FABULOUS time. The
weather could have been better though. It was supposed to be 80 on
Monday, it was pretty cold Thus - Sat, Sunday was decent windy but in
the 60's.
AKC Agility Nationals was awesome and let me tell you,
my big black dog rose to the occasion. Friday was "State Day". Mostly
warm up for people but it was a World Team qualifier event so there were
some there truly working hard. The courses were international rules,
quite a bit different from AKC. Belle back jumped in her first class, my
fault COMPLETELY, she did what I told her to do. Then in her second
run, I had a physical condition re appear, that I have not seen in over a
year, and I was LITERALLY out of breath before I took my first stride
in the ring. With Belle needing a cheerleader around the ring. It was
not pretty. Oh well, it was a warm up for us.
Saturday started
the actual Agility Championship competition. We had a jumpers and
standard (with contacts) on Saturday, and Belle ran clean in both
classes. She was in 10th place in her first run, 12th in her second. But
when I went online Sat PM based on her cumulative score.... she was in
5th place overall, in her division (20" Preferred). They take the top 4
for Finals.....No pressure. Sunday, I was worried my nerves would get to
me. Then they held us up at the start. Not something you do with Belle.
She doesn't need to be allowed time to think. But I held it together,
got my job done in the ring over a very challenging course. Belle did
her part to and we got a THIRD clean round. Perfect scores through all
the runs. I burst into tears after that run, people wondered what was
wrong. I said "happy tears" they didn't know less than a year ago, my
Belle was paralyzed behind. Here she was running perfectly at Nationals.
When I went to confirm she was indeed clean on the computer, they had
her now in second place overall for her division. She was IN Finals.
The
Finals course was AWESOME. I told Bellie when I pulled her out of her
crate, absolutely NOTHING she could do would disappoint me. I was so
proud of her. We did drop a bar, and then we had a tunnel under the dog
walk, and my Belle who really doesn't care for tunnels, got stuck in the
tunnel vortex and did it 3 times (oops) before I got her on the dog
walk. 
I was cracking up. Yup I assumed it dropped us all the way down, but
what the heck, we were here. Luckily for us, one person who qualified
for Finals...didn't show so Belle still finished in 4th place. Some
really pretty cool ribbons, gift certificates and trophies. I really
didn't mind my girl having the time of her life out there. You only live
once.
This will be Belle's last Nationals. She may qualify
again, but I hope to retire her in just a few more trials. I just want
to finish her championship. I hope to have videos downloaded that I will
post when I get them. When I get pictures from my girlfriend who took them, I will post
those also. What and incredible journey I have had with an incredible
dog. I truly know her big size is because her heart is HUGE! I love my
Belle.
Here are the courses in case anyone is interested:
Saturday Jumpers with Weaves
[IMG]http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa366/adhondt/Round1JumpersSat.jpg[/IMG]
Saturday Standard
[IMG]http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa366/adhondt/Round2StandardSat.jpg[/IMG]
Sunday Hybrid
[IMG]http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa366/adhondt/Round3HybridSunday.jpg[/IMG]
Sunday Finals
[IMG]http://i1194.photobucket.com/albums/aa366/adhondt/FinalsRoundSunday.jpg[/IMG]