Sent by Antoinette Krafcheck of South Bend, IN
Thu, 16 Oct 1997
Well, as you have probably heard by now, the "BAD 3" beardies competing at the agility nationals in Chicago didn't quite make it to the top 10, but gave it a valiant effort all the same with some excellent runs!
My "Tasha" (Meadow's Fantasia, CD, AX, CGC) is one leg closer to her MX, earning her 7th in Round One with a perfect 100 score, coming in under the allotted 60 sec. course time. (At the nationals, course times were 5 sec. shorter than the allotted time would have been in a "normal" agility trial). I'm really proud of Tasha. Her other two regular runs were very well executed, with a "judge's call" on the second round, which made her slip to 82 points (18 points per infraction, including off courses!) even though she again came in at under the allotted 60 sec. course time. We've all had it happen: we know that at least one foot is in the contact zone, but the judge, being at another angle, doesn't see what you KNOW is true. In this case, it was the down side of the dogwalk. The rest of the run (including that, from my perspective) was beautiful! Her third regular run would also have been quite nice, as she did some great send outs and fast weaves, but she popped off the table too soon! At the nationals, that's a big no-no!
Meantime, "Mikie" and Charles Gibson did a fine job with the jumpers with weaves, earning a green qualifying ribbon (score of 88), and "Breezy" and Jerry Bergen qualified in the fourth regular round with an 88 (a clean run, but some time faults). So each beardie team brought back the green! Mikie and Breezy had an additional clean run apiece in rounds 4 and 2, respectively, but didn't quite make the time. (Round 3 was the jumpers round.)
We're all very proud of our beardies and were delighted to have been able to represent the breed at the 2nd annual national agility championship.
