The National Agility Invitational

I have been procrastinating publishing the actual event and results as I had no video or stills to post with the update.  In today's mail I received the first of the videos from the event so I can put it off no longer.  For those who know me and Laura personally the following will make alot of sense..

"LAURA WAS LAURA"

What that translates to is she did the weaves when she felt like it and didn't do the jumps she didn't want to.  But to me getting selected to represent the breed was an honor and competing at this level is a thrill and a great learning experience.  The courses were tough and very challenging.  The biggest problem was they were tight which made it especially tough for the big dogs who like to run, which Laura is.  when a course is tight it is very demotivating for her and she loses interest and drive.  There was nothing presented in the challenges that we had not practiced or she was incapable of doing... The only question I had was, did she want to?? So here is her best run of the event. The result was a 95 score and was her second of 4 runs and at this point we were in the hunt.





She did not really get into her rhythm in the weaves till halfway thru them. As you can see she dropped a bar early but was running well.  She just hates tight turns and having to put on the brakes. After the double she really wanted to do the weaves again and it was tough getting her thru the 270, the wrap went better and the ending was wonderful.  The end result of the weekend was we finished number 3 Bouvier.  By not doing the weaves the first time in 3 of the 4 runs we dropped out of the top dog race.  But she did not embarrass me and she looked good running.  She made me proud not only on the course, but going thru the crowd where people would stop us and ask questions about the breed.  She was and excellent ambassador and travelled like a pro.