Finally! More Videos From AKC Nationals!

I apologize for the delay in posting these. Seriously. I have been swamped since Nationals... but I'll get you all caught back up  :)  I haven't even found time to read & comment on other people's blogs...

Here are a few of the remaining videos from AKC Nationals. These were shot by the professionals, 4 Legged Flix.

We started out bright & early Thursday morning with the Time 2 Beat round:



Such a classic Porter mistake... Or is that a classic Merinda mistake?  :)

Yep, my cue was late, I continued backwards, I never turned my body... And he took that off-course jump  :)

I was happy that we got to be announced on the loud speaker though, that never happened in Tulsa. And that mistake really helped me the rest of the weekend - I was hyper-aware of all off-course possibilities! And that my mom was watching at home  :)

On Friday morning we started the official rounds - first up, JWW!



Not a bad run, it earned us our first clean run ribbon ribbon (which was my only goal for the weekend!), but I was extremely conservative. Everyone laughed at my rear cross on the flat between 3 & 4. I was afraid to go in for the blind or front cross, thinking that may push him over the off-course... And I was too scared to do a rear cross on jump 3, because sometimes I don't wait long enough and push him off the jump...  And he was moving slower than I thought he would be... But we got it done  :)

Just a note while I'm thinking about it - We were the first group to run every morning. And we only ran 1 round every day. So Megan & I would be done by like 9am. It was nice to have it over with and just relax while we watched everyone else. You know, instead of stressing about whether we made the right handling choices while watching everyone before us.

On Saturday morning we ran Standard:



Another clean run for Porter! And we actually placed!

This was our best run of the regular rounds. It just felt good. Although his start was slow, his turns were tight & I was able to get in all my crosses. I was a little more aggressive, except for the turn off the dogwalk... If Porter is going to miss a contact, it's going to be in that scenario!

On Sunday morning, our big day started with our poorest run, Hybrid:



I don't know what I was thinking with that bad cross in front of the weaves... I got lost! And I don't think he ever got his rhythm or footing after that. But at least he got the backside of the jump (Last year in Tulsa, I accidently kicked him to the backside...).

Obviously this was the run that probably cost us our chance to go straight into the Finals  :(  But it all turned out for the best in the end!

Tomorrow I'll post the Challenger's & Finals videos from 4 Legged Flix. And maybe some of the asinine comments I made to random people (including Gail Storm - the AKC agility master)... I am an idiot from Kentucky!  :)