Debbie & Braedan qualified for USDAA’s 2015 Cynosport World Agility Games and made the drive to Murfreesboro, Tennessee to compete from October 21st through the 25th.  Braedan ran his heart out for Debbie throughout the five days of the event.  These are three of Debbie’s favorite runs of the week:

In the Grand Prix Semi-Finals, only the top 20 dogs move on to the Finals.  There were 161 dogs in Braedan’s jump height (22″).  Braedan ran clean and came in 32nd, but he was 1.61 seconds too slow to make the Finals.  Regardless, Debbie was extremely proud of Braedan’s performance.

Team Jumpers was the last Dog Agility Masters team tournament class that Debbie & Braedan ran.  Out of 330 dogs in Braedan’s jump height, Braedan ran clean and finished in 24th Place.

Culminating the exciting week was Biathlon Jumpers.  After walking the course and coming up with a plan for running it, Debbie watched team after team fail to get through it clean.  Lots of knocked bars, wide turns, and off-courses plagued the competitors.  Based on what she was seeing, Debbie started having second thoughts about her handling plan and literally walked to the start line with Braedan not knowing exactly what she was going to do.  Braedan’s responsiveness to Debbie’s cues made the course seem easy to get through, and they finished 17th out of 162 22″ dogs (only 32 of which qualified on this course).

Debbie always returns from these events motivated to work harder to improve her handling, and this year was no exception.  She’s already making plans to attend the 2016 Cynosport World Agility Games in Scottsdale, Arizona next November.