From Mia:
Thanks to Linda Tjarks and the Dog Agility Club of Ventura for putting on a very fun show this weekend.  It was a little windy on Sunday, but otherwise it was perfect California weather.  The courses in the Excellent ring were good, JWW on Saturday wasn't a favorite, but they had more flow than most of the AKC courses I've seen lately, so I'm not complaining.     

 Betty's dogs had quite the day on Saturday.  Kristi and Patches picked up their 19th Double Q!!!  (So, Kristi...... Can you taste the MACH?)  Woohoo!  Finn didn't do so bad himself.  Despite a less-than-what-we-train A-frame, he was 3rd in Ex. B 24" and had a great JWW run for another 3rd.  So, two Double Qs for Betty, the next MACH in SB is right around the corner and a good first time in Ex. B for Finn.  Not a bad belated birthday gift for Betty (who gained another year this past week).     

This weekend, Kristi picked up an extra dog to run, running Terry Simons' lovely young bc Reveille.  On Saturday they had a lovely Standard run.  Kristi was very good about holding all the Rev's contacts.  They Qed and picked up 3rd in Ex. B 20"!  Very cool!  Gale (Finn's hopefully pregnant sister) also Qed in Standard with good contacts!  Hooray!  Kristi let Olga (Luz's mom) run Cali in Open Preferred Standard and they ended up winning the class and finishing Cali's title!  Woohoo!      

On Saturday, Tom and Buddy qualified in Ex. A Standard with a lovely run.  Dave and Buddy also qualified in Standard on Sunday (I believe Buddy won the class both days) and also Qed in Ex. A JWW (another win).  Woohoo!      Cooper and Susan finished his NAJ title on Saturday and now are officially in Open!  Congratulations to Susan and Cooper!  In the Open ring, Nora and Lilly had some lovely moments and great contacts.            

Bubbles was humbling on Saturday.  Marie, Russ and I had some chaos right before her JWW run and she started off VERY distracted.  In the end she did an amazing "get out" (okay, so I sent her off-course, she still really moved away from me) and was booking to the finish line.  In Standard, the course started with a tunnel (none of the courses really benefited from a lead-out this weekend, second show in a row...I smell a trend).  Bubbles went into the tunnel, but didn't come out.  She was rubbing on it like a cat, I remember thinking,"I wonder what Gari (our cat) is doing" before snapping back to the course at hand and insisting Bubbles come out.  She did, but I was completely disoriented and so focused on getting her moving that I sent her over the wrong jump.  She later took an off-course that wasn't my doing, but for the most part she was a happy camper.      

Sunday started with Jumpers and we had another off-course.  To be perfectly honest, Bubbles was being a bit of a pill.  In Standard, we had an okay opening, then at the second tunnel, she did the cat scratch thing again!  This time she stopped faster and took off out of the tunnel.  She went on to do the fastest weaves she's ever done in competition and to pick up her very first MX-P leg with a win!  Hooray!  Marie was relieved.      

Between Patches and Finn, Betty had another double Q day.  Patches had a bar in JWW, but was lovely in Standard for a Q.  I caused a refusal in Standard for Finn (he had GREAT contacts!  Hooray!), but he was terrific in JWW.  The JWW course had lots of opportunities to really run.  Once again Finn took 3rd.  I did notice that only 3 dogs beat him all weekend, Rachel Sanders with her amazing bc Fable (they won both the classes on Sat.), Olga with Luz and Kate with Quick.  I can live with that.  ;-)    

Kristi had some great runs with her other dogs on Sunday as well.  Cinder took 4th in Ex. B Standard and she also Qed with Reveille in that class.  Cinder had a gorgeous JWW run and was the only dog that I know of to be under 27 seconds....too bad about the bars.  Qs are overrated compared to runs like that.  :-)      Paula and the always fun-to-watch Bo were there this weekend too! ~ Mia