2012 AAC Alberta Regional Championships

This past weekend I attended my third AAC regional championships in Medicine Hat.  It was a great experience and I think the best regionals I have been to yet.  The event was held at a baseball sports center with 4 large ball diamonds.  The rings were set up in two of the diamonds with plenty of space between them.  This was a nice touch as there was lots of room to set up chairs around the rings to watch the dogs competing.  The other great thing about the location was an off leash park minutes from the ball diamonds.  The tipi in the pic was located at the entrance to the offleash park and several paths lead down into a beautiful greenspace with a stream running through it.  It was a great perk to be able to walk the dogs Friday and Saturday evening, allowing all of us to relax and have the stress of competition melt away.
      Flashing Canines in Medicine Hat was the hosting club this year.  They were incredibly organised and the trial flowed smoothly all weekend long. The volunteers were wonderful and everyone was happy and having a good time.  The club was also really quick at posting results and they added some original flair with a live auction (complete with a true auctioneer) on Sunday and pizza for everyone while waiting for the aggregate results.
       I even attended the banquet dinner on Saturday night, a first for me, and I had a great time at this event as well.  The food was excellent and the company entertaining.  The club even had a fun little game for door prizes where if your ticket was called you were given three darts and you had to pop a balloon on a board.  This is harder than it sounds!  Anyway my ticket was called and I did infact manage to pop a balloon with my second dart. Winning a very nice sports bag with the 2012 regionals logo embroidered on it.  I was thrilled with my prize and my full belly.  What a fun evening!

   So on to the results. Friday we did the warm up events which included a steeplechase and a snooker round.  Spryte won the steeplechase round and Strider came in third (I think, it's been a while now).  The snooker round had a twist were if you could get maximum number of points you won money.  So you needed to get four 7's and finish your closing.  Snooker is not Spryte's forte, running PAST obstacles is a hard thing for a speedy dog to do.  So we only got to three 7's when she took an off course on our way to number 4 and got whistled off. Strider is a good snooker dog and we did manage to get the maximum number of points and win $100 too. This was our first time getting the maximum number of points as I tend to just play it safe in snooker, get my 3 reds and get out of there.  So it was a good start to our regionals weekend.
     Saturday morning was the beginning of the actual regionals event and our group started with Standard, then on to Jumpers and we finished off with Gamblers.  Sunday we ran Jumpers, Gamblers and then Standard.  Both dogs ran really well all weekend. I was especially thrilled with Spryte who handled her first regional event like a pro. She was focused and responsive to my handling all weekend long.  She also never missed a contact and never self released from one either.  She was a rush to run and kept her speed up all weekend long.
        In the end Spryte had three clean runs, getting both gambles and a standard run.  Both jumpers and 1 standard she had just one refusal on each run.  She earned two first place finishes and a second place finish for those individual rounds.
    Strider was my steady little guy all weekend, and I had a blast running him.  He was always smiling and barking happily throughout every run.  He ended up running clean in 4 rounds, both jumpers, one standard and one gamble.  The first standard he unfortunately got an off course when I pulled to hard and sent him into a tunnel instead of onto the aframe. oh well, these things happen.  The gamble he took an off course jump, which ended that round.  In the end he placed 1st in three of the individual rounds and second in his other clean round.
        Now for the aggregate results.  You need 350 points to qualify to attend nationals.  I am so very pleased to announce that both my dogs qualified for nationals and both dogs ended up on the podium.  Strider placed third overall in the 10" vets division with a final total point value of 542.38.  Spryte shocked me by placing first overall and becoming the 16" Special Regional Champion with a final point total of 527.12. 
    I feel very blessed to have such wonderful shelties.  Strider who is nearly ten is still running agility and loving it. He is in great shape, healthy and happy. He lives for agility and I am so happy we can continue to share this sport together.  I am also so fortunate to have Spryte, my little firecracker who gives it her all in everything she does. She loves competition and loves to work.  She challenges me everyday with her abilities and potential. I love those crazy dogs!
   
  

here are some of our runs: