AKC Nationals!

Ok, I'm a bit behind.

We went to AKC nationals a few weeks ago and had lots of fun!  We didn't make it to finals or even the challengers round.  Aside from the numerous, "What happened?????" questions I've had since coming home I don't feel all that bad about it.  Icon struggled with the dry, loose surface the whole time he was there and watching the dogs in challengers and finals I think he would struggled there just as much or even more.

As for the "What happened?????" questions I have received since coming home I take it in a positive way (except for Greg.  I mean, Tammy, get control of your man!  Tell him to at least say hello to me first!)  If Icon and I shocked so many people by NOT being in the finals we must have a pretty good reputation!  :)

But the GOOD from AKC nationals is that we did win the ISTT combined for 26" on Friday.  I know for most competitors this is considered a warm-up day, but for people interested in AKC/USA World Team it's important! (winning NAC is more important, but we take what we can get!)

I thought there were some super competitors in the 26" class this year, Tori and Rev definitely stood out by winning the whole shabang (even before leaving for nationals I predicted they'd do well), I was so happy that my good friend Laura and Kep qualified for the finals; I cheered for them the entire way!  I loved seeing Terry and Presto make finals and have a clean round.  Since he's so nice you may think he's Canadian, but really he's from Minnesota.  They're close enough to Canada that our niceness wears off of them.  Jef looked super with both Voucher and his young dog Klepto, I think there is a lot in his future with both of those great dogs.  And Kelsey and Ace had a super run in the Challengers round with the fastest time of all dogs (but an unfortunate bar kept them out of the finals.)

And a special shout out for Ashley and Luka winning NAC 16" for the second time!  Not only is Ashley a great competitor but he is probably one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet (he's British, they taught Canadians about politeness.)  And he's taller than me, so he gets bonus points!

I'm looking forward to tryouts in May, there's going to be some tough competition this year!!!


All of the videos I have from nationals (more dogs than just Icon!) can be seen here:  http://www.vimeo.com/album/1572642