The Austin Five

From Eileen Dinneen of Colleyville TX

Mon May 5 1997

Capitol Dog Training Club of Austin

Five beardies showed in Agility: Ch O'Duinnin Picabo Streak, NA, NJC, AD, HC (Boo)-Karen Barratt of Galveston Ch O'Duinnin Oh DeLorean, OA, HC, CD, ROM (DeLorean)-Eileen Dinneen of Colleyville Ch O'Duinnin Andy Gabel Stolaway, NA, HC (Stoli)-Ann Chandoha of Austin Ch Ragtyme Simply Spectacular, CDX (Casey)- Yvonne/Taylor Slate of Abilene Ch Shanaspree-O'Duinnin Intrigue, NA, HC (Allie)-Gretchen Blackburn of Austin

THE SHOW RING: The big weekend for beardies in Texas did not go exactly as planned, but all in all things went well. Several of us Texas buddies with champions decided to help build a much needed major by entering our bitches which we planned to show without handlers. The idea was to focus on agility and run to the conformation ring when it was time. Problem was - two of us have Open Agility dogs and the Open Dog agility competition was scheduled the exact same time as conformation. Neither Karen nor I wanted to break the major we had tried so hard to set up. Four bitches of the six were specials. Our hope was that the open (conformation) bitch (who would be groomed and well handled) would beat the specials who would be owner handled and not groomed since two of the four would be coming straight from the agility ring. Becasue the timing was not going to work, we asked to be placed at the bottom of the Open (agility) list, then left for the other building to show in breed. The open (conformation) bitch was supposed to go best of opposite, instead the judge loved ungroomed Boo (O'Duinnin Picabo Streak) who was supposed to be in the agility ring. The judge REALLY took her time and I was becoming extremely agitated wondering how we were going to get to the other building in time to make our run. Boo took breed and the special who went BOS was dismissed at the last minute for limping. So she then had to go over the dogs again. YIKES> Casey, another male special, went BOS.

THE AGILITY RING: I literally ran back to the agility building with DeLorean to make the ring on time. We had three dogs to spare but that was not enough time to change clothes. Needless to say, I was the best dressed person to EVER run an agility course - in my dress, black hose and loafers. And no, I was not trying to coordinate my colors to my black beardie. Although I was stressed to the max, DeLorean was cool and "on". The audience was clapping when we left the ring so I asked someone if we had qualified. I was too shook to know. Not only did we qualify both days, we also ribboned each day taking third place. . DeLorean received her title and is now an Open Agility dog. Meanwhile BACK TO THE GROUP RING: For the first time in recorded history (OR AT LEAST SINCE I CAN REMEMBER) the herding group was first. A friend ran into the agility building to tell Karen Barratt that Boo was supposed to be in the ring RIGHT NOW. Karen, still in agility sweats and t-shirt since there was no time to groom or change (Karen was running a dog for a friend and that took precedence over the show ring. Good for Karen..), ran over with Boo and entered the ring late (nice judge) but did not make the cut. Boo did, however, show her agility ability by jumping and racing around the ring. Karen has never been in the group ring before (she prefers having handlers) and after today, I don't think she has any intention of being there again.

AGILITY RESULTS:

Saturday, May 3rd: O'Duinnin Picabo Streak (Boo) beat her mother, taking a second place and her first leg in Open. O'Duinnin Oh DeLorean (DeLorean) took a second leg in Open with a third place ribbon. Ragtyme Simply Spectacular (Casey) took a second place in Novice A.

Sunday, May 4th: Only O'Duinnin Oh DeLorean (DeLorean) and Shanaspree-O'Duinnin Intrigue (Allie) qualified. Allie did a great job getting a second place ribbon. DeLorean received her title and is now an Open Agility dog. So we have a mother-daughter team that did well, but nothing like the California 3 generation gang.

Eileen in TX

Tue May 6 1997

I'm sure Eileen will fill you in on all the happenings in Texas this past weekend. Being a novice at this sport, I was too nervous to notice who got what but we did well and with 5 Beardies competing, we drew a lot of attention. On Saturday, Boo and Karen (Barratt) took 2nd in Open while Eileen (Dinneen) and DeLorean took 3rd and titled. Casey and Yvonne (Taylor), who is 6 months pregnant, placed and got their 2nd leg. Stoli was having a great run till he decided to jump off the table and not go down. It was just one of those days for him and Ann (Chandoha). I had entered Allie in a herding seminar that day so she was a bit tired to begin with. I knew we were in for a run of a different kind when I sat her down at the start line and she yawned! She was slow but on target till the last obstacle...the dreaded spread jump. The poor thing was so tired by that point she just walked all over them. That's okay. We made up for that run on Sunday by having a perfect score and taking 2nd place. I was flabergasted. I still felt like it was a slow run, but I guess slow and steady will win the race in Agility, too.

From Gretchen_B@texmed.org

Off to a BAD Start

 Bad Attitude