Nationals ... awesome.

Nationals is over for another year. What a great experience, we had so much fun hanging out and seeing the sights of Ottawa the first few days, Pete and I are here for a few more days staying with family. I think Pete and Aaron must have drank atleast 60 beer between the two of them over the week ... Amanda, Jo and I had a blast too, and the dogs all got along super well, as did the people :)

Saturday was smokin' hot and Sunday it poured rain for half the day, and then got nice again, gotta love Canada in the summer! 581 dogs ... 6 rings ... and a lot of mud.

I'll get to the good stuff ...

Kaleb ... he ran his butt off, he worked great in the heat and we just clicked, he didn't make one error all weekend. What a boy, he gets the job done. He might not be the fastest dog in the world, but man, he has SKILLS, and he proved it, again. 2009 Regional Winner, 7th Place at Nationals ... I am just a little proud.

I wasn't sure he made top 10 as his class is CRAZY competitive, you could imagine my shock when they called him for 7th place overall!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!

Kaleb Placed 7th overall, he had 53 dogs in his division (16" (Double Drop) Veteran, and ran 5 for 6 clean!! 534.89 points (vets get extra time bonuses)

Standard 1 - 11th place
Jumpers 1 - 14th place
Gamblers 1 - didn't get the end gamble, not sure of the placement
Standard 2 - 6th place
Jumpers 2 - 10th place
Gamblers 2 - 10th Place (got the end gamble)

Gyp ... what do I say, she didn't take one miss step all weekend. She dropped one bar in the Standard on Sunday in the pouring rain she lost her footing. I had one bad handling moment which cost us in the other standard, but it was my fault, she did what I asked. Her other runs were so AMAZING that the points we lost in the standards, we made up for in her Jumpers and Gamblers runs. I have conquered my Gamble nerves and Gyp and I had awesome openings with 56 and 53 opening points. Gyp was freaked out outside the rings for most of Saturday, the loudspeakers, and people throwing cans in the metal bins, porta-pottie doors slamming etc etc. but when she got in the ring, it was game on, thank god!

Gyp placed 3rd overall in the 16" special division, in a class of 40 dogs. 535.30 points

I still can't believe it, and she won her Regional division in June, what a summer.

Standard 1 - faults (no placement)
Jumpers 1 - 2nd place (0.2 of a second behind 1st place)
Gamblers 1 - 1st Place, 93 points (101 points with time bonus)
Standard 2 - 10th place (2nd fastest time, but had a knocked bar for 5 faults)
Jumpers 2 - 2nd place
Gamblers 2 - 3rd place (91 points)

Friday was Steeplechase, and Gyp placed 2 and 3rd in her class of 19, and made the Steeplechase final, and placed 2nd overall, what a cool experience to run in that one! WOW! We've never run with that many people cheering and watching, it was awesome!!

The bad stuff ...
I am sure Amanda will write more about this ...
But the Banquet and the end Results being held in the dark, in a tent with no lights was pretty bad, not very professional, and how was there no contingency plan? Could you not buy 50 flashlights or hand some Xmas lights or something? The results are supposed to be a big memorable moment .... photos with the top placements ... literally ... they were finding our ribbons in the dark with a flashlight, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. We could only hear the names being called, we could not see anybody getting their awards. I am glad we were all with eachother, and had some close friends near by to enjoy the moment, we made the best of it, and tried to make the moment special.

Congrats to Amanda and WIcca, and Jolayne and Tag for a great showing too, and of course to the rest of Alberta, show kicked some serious BUTT!!!!!

I'll be posting more photos from the trip this week, so stay tuned!!