PDFA was Guy's first Excellent Jumpers course. At this jump, I thought he knocked the bar with his foot and the bar came down. Now that I finally got the photos, I see that he actually cut the corner too close, clipped the jump upright and that caused the bar to fall out. You can see the side's feet going up and the wing, too.

Hmmm. Probably my fault for doing my front cross in the wrong place!


Check out Guy's tail position. It's either off to the side, but this was straight up! Maybe to propel him over all three bars of the triple?? :-)

Tail up and off to the side again...and the flying ears. Gotta love him, he's trying!

"We have all had days when we felt we let our dogs down in competition, but our dogs don't care about winning and losing ........... The only day you truly let your dog down is the day you put your ego first, instead of thanking your dog for the privilege of his effort."

Check out Guy's feet in this photo....all four feet off the ground at a TROT!

Can't decide if he was switching from a gallop to a trot and that's why all four are off the ground or if he's showing GSDs how it's done! LOL! ( In case you aren't a student of dog movement - when a dog trots normally there are two feet striking the ground and two feet in the air.)

Photo by Michael Loftis at the Swamp Dog Agility Trial in Oct. 2011

I was looking at my NADAC sheet and realized my dogs have more titles than I thought.

Guy is UKC Ch Mwamba of Kalahari NP, NFP, NJP, OAC, OJC, TN-N, TG-N, WV-N, HP-N.

Darla is AKC Ch Kalahari Zarina Maleka NA, NAJ, NAP, NJP, OAC, NJC, HP-N. ( I should try for her NFP title.)

Prize is just starting out, so hopefully we'll get some titles on her at the Feb NADAC trial.

Had a blast at the NADAC trials, hosted by the Gulf Coast Chihuahua Club, over in Vancleave, MS this past weekend. I always get so excited, enter a bunch of classes, but my enthusiasm is larger than my physical abilities! I should know better.... heck, so I creak around for a few days afterward, so what. It's fun and the dogs and I love it.

Guy is finally coming together and not spacey like he use to be. He only had one moment in the ring when he spied a small black dog zooming around just outside the ring and he briefly thought it might be a squirrel! He is a hound dog remember! To be fair, several dogs did the same thing until we went and asked the lady to play with him over on the other side. Guy finished his Open Jumpers title, too.

Guy had 10 runs over the 3 days and Q'd 6, including his first go at Novice Chances and it was a doozie! I was walking the course and suddenly thought "I'm in the wrong run....This must be Open!". Nope, it was Novice and a wicked send out and around to a hoop. Heck! I just consoled myself that we were never gonna get it anyway, so I might as well practice this handling maneuver I've seen on a distance handling blog. IT WORKED! Who knew??? The lady sitting next to me told me she was jealous because her AKC MACH dog failed that send.

Prize was up for her second attempt at NADAC. Last year, she wouldn't have anything to do with their contact equipment...It's covered in black rubber, including the contact points at the bottom. That was just too weird for her... Nope, not going up that, it's the wrong color. Some RRs are very color oriented and she apparently is one of them.

So, I put her in the Touch N Go, had Darla run first and make a big celebration about it. Prize is jealous. She can't stand for me to be praising another dog, her attitude is "Hmp, you think that's something, watch this!" Her best runs were her TnG class! Go figure.


She also had 10 runs over the weekend and she Q'd 4 of them. She's still green and gets distracted, but she's better than Guy at that age! She provided the comedy of the weekend, by running over to the judge, who was sitting down. She runs and sits next to him, then leans her head and neck over to rest on his chest.... Save me! Finally, comes back and finishes the course...over time tho....

Darla had 5 runs and Q'd 2, but to be fair, two of those runs, I let a friend run her and let's say they had a wonderful time making up courses.

All in all, it was a good work out for the dogs, Prize gained some experience and a good time was had by all.

This weekend was the Swamp Dog trial over in Kiln, MS. Since Guy can "fade" after the first day, I thought I'd try just entering him on Friday, skip Saturday and go Sunday. In reality, I don't think it made a difference. I think the key is keeping the temperature around 50 degrees! The colder the better he does!

It was very cool on Friday and he flew across the dog walk, with us nearly colliding at the end because I had decided to do a front cross to the jump and no way did I expect to find Guy barreling down the ramp just as I got there! (There will be an embarrassing photo of that incidence on Michael Loftis' site.)

Today, he was more his usual self, which is to say, his brains were leaking because his nose was stuck to various areas of the ground. He did it though! Not pretty, but good enough. So now, he's an "Open" dog.

Got his Novice Standard Preferred title today and his second Open Jumpers Preferred leg.

So now he is UKC Ch Mwamba of Kalahari NP, NJP, NFP, NJC, WV-N, OAC, HP-N, TN-N, TG-N....Now that's a mouthful!

Despite his failure to weave at AKC trials, unless I use the ugly voice ( and still not well), Guy really can weave....and he does: at home, at class, at NADAC trials...but at AKC trials, he forgets.

I know it's a stress thing. So, once it's getting just a bit cooler, we are hauling those weaves all over creation and letting him have a go at them in as many different places as possible. Hopefully, that'll do it.