2015 Agility Trial
Our second annual agility trial is in the books, and it was another huge success! Last September, we received the news that our facility, Denver Dog Sports, was being sold. This resulted in a few panic attacks as we scrambed to find another facility. With February being prime season for indoor soccer, we couldn't find another location to keep our original weekend. Once we opened up our schedule, we were able to lock down a fabulous new facility, Apex Field House in Arvada, CO. Apex is an indoor soccer arena that is also climate controlled -- a must for indoor agility in the Colorado Summer! After a quick check to see if our judge, local favorite, Laura Gillice, could still make those dates, we were off and planning! A big thank you to the Cairn Terrier Club of Denver. They also held a trial at Denver Dog Sports, and were instrumental in helping us secure the use of this new (and fabulous!) facility.
Our weekend went extremely well. We changed courses quickly, made good use of all the indoor crating space and air conditioning, and had a great sense of general commarderie. Apex's North field was inhabited by youth lacrosse, and our entrants were great about educating the public and letting those dogs who love kids socialize with the teams. We received so much positive feedback -- the head of the Apex Parks and Rec department even came by and thanked us for holding our event there!
We were so pleased to award 3 different MACHs over the weekend. MACH is earned when the dog passs both the Jumpers with Weaves course and the Standard course in the same day -- 20 different times! They also must accumulate 750 speed points. Congratulations to Emily Russell and her MACH 2 Golden Retriever, Layla; to Cindy Cohagen and MACH 9 GiGee the Cavalier, and MACH 4 Annika the Sheltie and her handler Phil.
We also awarded a High in Trial Sporting Dog each day, and it just so happened to go to two different members! To win High in Trial, these dogs had to garner themselves a Double Q and then have the fastest Yards per Second calcuation. On Saturday, our Trial Chairman, Jenny Follett and her Vizsla Karma took the prize. Sunday, new member Steve Rios and his Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Glacier, went home with the spoils. Congratulations!
A huge thank you to our trial secretary, Deb Ascher of Lookout Trial Services, for getting our paperwork done in record time and posted almost immediately. Laura Gillice was an amazing judge who designed fun, fast, and challenging courses for us this weekend -- thank you, Laura! Chief Ring Steward, Ginger Sammonds kept the volunteers working and made sure they were all compensated for their efforts. And a huge thank you to the rest of the club members that arrived early, stayed late (if you can call 4:15 late!), and worked tirelessly throughout the weekend to make this our best trial yet! Hope to see you all again next year!
