2012 USDAA Mid-Atlantic Regional

Piper by Agility Gallery

Did I say how much I love competing in USDAA? LOVE IT!!! We travelled last weekend to the Regional held at In The Net in Palmyra, PA. It was hosted by 3 USDAA clubs and except for the computer software glitches, it was efficiently run. The footing was great for the dogs as was the MAD Agility supplied equipment. The vendors were awesome with Clean Run, EMB Monogramming and several others with unique items, including really cute sheep stuff! :) I bought a pen and some oven mitts. I couldn't resist!

I have never been to a USDAA Regional before. In 2010, I jumped straight in Nationals! Duh... but even though our teams didn't qualify, we had a blast there. Since getting back in to USDAA in the last 6 months, I really wanted to go to the Showcase and Regional. The boys had their qualifications for Triathlon as well. This is a special class that takes a dog's scores from Team/PVP Standard and Jumpers to determine whether or not you make it into the 3rd round. You also had to have a GP/PGP Q too, I believe to be in the Triathlon. The boys ran clean in Standard, but didn't make the time for a Q, but they both ran clean in jumpers and MADE the time for a Q! To my surprise and pleasure, both of them made it into the 3rd round of Triathlon. The course was sort of a Hybrid course with a teeter and weaves. Both boys ran clean, but not fast enough to make it in to the placements. Piper finished 11th in Performance and Seeker finished 16th in Championship. I am very proud of them both!

Piper was in PVP with Alyssia Greiner and her awesome BC girl Zippity. The team name? "Loose Cannons", which best describes them both at times. He was rock steady in Gamblers, Standard and Jumpers. We made it through to #5 in the Snooker closing and although I screwed him up in our relay run, Loose Cannons finished 12th out of 43 PVP Teams and Piper has his Q!

 He also had a "bye" into Performance Grand Prix. He had a terrifying fall from the dogwalk in round 1 on Saturday morning, but after being taken care of by some amazing folks, he was able to finish the weekend. He ran Round 2 cleanly and finished in 8th place and a "bye" into Nationals semi-finals. We aren't going that far west, but it is awesome that he has one anyway. It was also very cool that it was being live-streamed and people we know got to see us!

Seeker by Agility Gallery

He also picked up a PIII Jumpers leg towards his PDCH with a 4th place. And we ended up not staying to run Masters/PIII Snooker on Saturday because they were holding rings while GP finished. We were all tired, happy, but very tired.

Seeker was also steady for his team, "The Evolution Of Seeking Magic" which consisted of Julia Ecklar and her wonderful, young BC Darwin and Diane Aramian and her sweet BC Magic. Although we finished in last place out of 63 teams, it was a good way to get mileage on the dogs. Seeker and Magic have their needed DAM Qs, so it was just fun for us. Seeker ran clean in 3 of 4 of his runs, with a Q in Team Jumpers. His only silliness was in Team Snooker where he earned 4 whole points and almost took me out on the way to a red jump. Naughty boy... :)

And not to forget the girls, Ceilidh and Gemmie... They were angels all weekend for their Daddy as they hung out in the van as there wasn't enough crating space inside. They got to play ball and go for walks and had their Daddy's attention exclusively. Gem got to come in and socialize a few times and watch the rings, which she does calmly. This is exactly what I wanted when I decided to enroll her in an obedience class with agility class running next to it at the same time. They were all well-behaved in the motel and it was just a great weekend. 

I would do it again... tomorrow if I could. I am so happy to be back running USDAA... and I can't wait until our next trialing adventure!