Kennel Club International Agility Festival 2013

I have so much to blog about but have been trying to stay off the computer.  Instead of trying to cover everything (European Open, Fionia Cup) I thought I would start with the KC Festival.

The Kennel Club International Agility Festival is the marathon of agility! Almost 20 rings, 2000 plus dogs and 3 days of agility. I have a love/hate relationship with the Festival but I decided to go back this year since it was at a new venue and I had a chance to compete at the Novice Cup with Giz-mo.

The venue this year was much nicer but the walk to the rings was still crazy. Especially for those who had to day park the walk was so far; I would hesitate to go again if I am not camping. I think the only reason I would go again would be to compete with a novice/young dog for the Novice cup. I guess next year will depend on how ready Yay is looking! (yes hard to believe but Yay will be competing next year!)

I enjoyed the show because we had a decent hotel near the venue and had the chance to spend sometime with nice people. We even celebrated Dennis' 50th Birthday!

I had my goals set and focused on the important runs. I wanted to use the graded runs to get Giz-mo his 3 wins necessary to move up to Grade 6 and qualify both Giz and  Zaz for Crufts 2014.  I expected to miss a lot of my runs just due to the fact that the walk to the rings is crazy and I wanted to be focused for the finals (Novice, British Open and Nations Cup).

Well to make a long story short: all goals were met!  Here is the obligatory photo of Giz and Zaz with their Festival wins.

Here are Giz and his litter brother, Fuze, looking darn cute with their medals and rosettes.

Giz-mo had a great KCI. He got his 3 wins necessary to move up to Grade 6, qualified for the Novice Semi final and then won  the semi-final and qualified us for Crufts 2014! Giz is going to Crufts! By the way, is he not just the cutest sheltie boy in the world?

 

 His win was made extra special when I saw the Kennel Club trophy and the engraved plate. This is the memorial trophy that we do not get to keep; it is kept at the Kennel Club offices. The novice cup is becoming a family tradition! In 2005 Giz-mo's mother Zen competed in and won the very first Kennel Club Novice Cup. I was away at a family wedding so she ran for a friend and still won. That's my special girlie Zen; she could run for anyone and still gave it her all.  Later, in 2010 the Novice cup was won by Zen's brother Bailey (OBay Truly Daniel's Dream). Now in 2013 it was won by her son Giz-mo.  I am going to take a moment and be a proud breeder over that!

Giz-mo's novice Cup run. I am really starting to enjoy running this little guy; he is getting stronger and stronger at each competition. It is hard to believe that he has only been competing since April.



Finally my little Zaz-star won the British Open!  She is also following in her momma's pawprints as Zen has won the British Open twice at Crufts. 

Zaz's British Open semi Final run.  I was a bit surprised to win this final and even more surprised to find out that Zaz's times were faster than all heights!



I really enjoyed running Zaz at the KCI; as always, she gave it her all and I felt as if we were one for every run. I cannot feel anything but gratitude for this girl.

So I cannot promise another post but hopefully I will remember what we did in July and be able to get it into a post sometime soon! 

 

PS isn't this a fun app? It took my blog and made it into a word star!