AKC Agility National Championships
I just got back from competing in the AKC Agility National Championships. Wow! What an experience. It far exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were set pretty high. It was sensory overload for the agility enthusiast. There were 950 dogs entered, and the place was rocking. They ran three rings from 6:30 in the morning until around 8 to 9 p.m. at night. It was something to see!
Aslan and I traveled to Ohio in a two day trip. My aunt drove so I could go. I was so excited when we got there. All the big names of the sport were there, and one of the highlights of the weekend was watching them run. I learned quite a lot about competing at that level.
The first day of competition was Friday, and we were entered in the 14" division of the State Team Tourney. We ran two courses - a Jumpers With Weaves (JWW) and a Standard. We qualifed on both courses, and Aslan was the highest dog in the Soutern States Region.
Saturday and Sunday was actual Nationals, and we had three rounds. Aslan qualified in the Standard and the Hybrid round, but dropped a bar in the JWW round. It was his only big mistake all weekend. He wound up 64th (out of 233 12" dogs at Nationals and hundreds of thousands of dogs that compete in his jump height across the nation...not bad!!) If he had kept up the bar, he would have wound up around 18th or so.
It was a much better outcome than I had expected going into the weekend as we had developed a bit of an issue. It really didn't rear it's head at Nationals, though.
We got to see the Finals, which will not be televised this year. AP wasn't there. Rumors were flying, but I really don't know why they didn't televise the event. it is where the fastest dogs were.
The finals were incredible. The atmosphere was super-charged, and there wasn't an empty seat in the house. The stress on the finalists must have been extreme. They all did great, and there were some incredible runs. It was fun to sit in an audience of well-trained agility handlers and watch such an event. They knew when to oooh and awe and knew what they were seeing. When someone threw a double front (a new agility move), there was a gasp from the audience. When someone would throw a daring move (a bilne cross in front of the A Frame) the audicne would cheer. It was neat to be in a group that knew like you did what was happening and responded to it. The audence was loud and vocal, making it more exciting.
It's too bad everone won't be able to see it on TV, but AP never did a good job capturing the atomosphere anyway. It's much more supercharged and exciting than it is on TV.
We crated in a stall, which was actually pretty nice. If you didn't get a stall, you were relegated to only a 3 by 3 foot space to set up a crate, gear and chair. I had a cot in my stall where I did some resting between runs. There were about five to eight hours between runs because of the large numbers of dogs.
We were in a large horse facility, and we ran on dirt, which we all appreciated. Running on carpet or rubber is not what we like. It was great to have the big event in an arena that we're used to showing in.
Aslan loved it. He's still tuckered out after the big weekend and the big drive. He HATED driving out there, but once he realized it was a big show, his depression over having to ride in the car that long left, and he was just the perfect little dog.
I wasn't nearly as nervous as I had expected to be. The courses were quite easy, and that put my mind at ease. There was nothing in those courses we couldn't handle. The only thing I was really surprised at was the noise level. I train Aslan to respond alot to verbal cues only, and he had trouble hearming me on the course. It was so noisy, I felt my voice was only carrying a few feet. We managed anyway, and I'll be better prepared for that next year.
Rumor is it will be in Tulsa next year. That's just down the road from me!! I'm already stoked for the 2008 Nationals!
