AKC Nationals Part 2

After the fire alarm at 3 AM we got up at 4:30 to get to the show grounds early to get set up and to calm down. The 24 inch dogs were running first.

First run of the day was a Standard warm up round. Nancy Gyes our instructor told us before we ran to practice our weak points(contacts) and don't do any unusual handling as it may shake confidence if the dog doesn't do what you want or expect.
So as expected Whisper didn't hold her contact and her "correction" was not to be able to continue to run. As you can see in the video she held her later contacts perfectly.



As soon as I started running Whisper it felt so normal and good I stopped being nervous then and for the rest of the weekend. She did front crosses and rear crosses like she always does, I felt like we were in sync. Time 2 Beat was later in the day and except for a slight bobble at the fourth jump went well. Again a confidence building round.



The following day was the competition with 2 out of 3 of the runs- the Jumpers and Standard runs. The Hybrid run was the next day.





Fun easy courses with no mistakes. The last day was the hybrid class and the most challenging of the courses. The opening was the tricky part, the rest was easy.



We didn't make it to the finals but came close. We were 9th out of 86 dogs competing. She gots tons of compliments and applause, in fact she could have been the crowd favorite. Vendors told me she was their favorite dog to watch never having seen a greyhound compete in agility before.
All in all a fun experience. My only regret was Whisper was in false pregnancy so not quite as amped and fast as normal. But what she lacked in speed she made up for in accuracy.