# My girl earned her MXP!



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Congratulations!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Congratulations on great team work.


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

Congratulations! Well deserved!


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Fantastic! Congratulations! I love celebrating dogs and handlers doing well together. Great job team!


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## 94Magna_Tom (Feb 23, 2021)

Congratulations to you both!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

Congrats on the successful outing.


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

Aw, thanks, everyone! I was pleased. Some of the runs were recorded, and I can see many areas for improvement. That's one thing I love about agility--so much to learn!


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## TeamHellhound (Feb 5, 2021)

Congratulations!


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Congratulations! Well on your way to a PACh!


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

Carolinek said:


> Congratulations! Well on your way to a PACh!


Alas! I have done the math and I think a PACH is not in our future. But we're gonna have fun anyway. Dog 2 now, that's gonna be my MACH dog. She doesn't exist yet, but that gives me time to work on my training/handling skills. Or maybe dog 3.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Sroodle8 said:


> Alas! I have done the math and I think a PACH is not in our future. But we're gonna have fun anyway. Dog 2 now, that's gonna be my MACH dog. She doesn't exist yet, but that gives me time to work on my training/handling skills. Or maybe dog 3.


Exactly, enjoy the journey, every run I learn a little more…usually a lot of what not to do, lol!

I have two older dogs that I started in a fun agility class at age six and they loved it, and I loved it. Next thing I knew we were competing. But neither one of them are my MACH dogs, they are each one leg shy of master’s level but are now 10 1/2 and 12. COVID came and the world shut down, and that slowed us down. When trials reopened around here, they were only outdoors and neither one of them did well with that, and the last few years have ticked on.

In the meantime, I got Gracie, who is three now, and will run in anything…dirt, grass, rain, etc. She was a puppy so I was able to get some good foundational work in and have concentrated on competing with her. She is definitely on the MACH journey, but I don’t forget my older girls who got it all started! They still go to class once a week and I enter them a few runs in CPE here and there. So it took me three dogs to firmly be on the MACH journey, but it has been a great ride.

pics for context, Lily, the parti color poodle mix is 12, Misty, a bichon shihtzu mix is 10 1/2. Gracie is three.


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

Scout got her first double Q this weekend! We had a nice little standard run. I was where she needed me to be, she responded to my cues. Lovely. Our jumpers run was clean, but not great. I got lost in a pinwheel, but Scout took the jump anyway. Then I did an awkward rear cross and we were back on track. Made it with 3 seconds to spare! I was super excited, I never thought we would double Q!

The next day we returned to form with a missed weave entry in standard and a clean run in jumpers that was 3 seconds too slow. Even so, there were some nice blind crosses in there. And as usual, I have several things to work on--speed in the weaves, tighter turns, etc.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Sroodle8 said:


> Scout got her first double Q this weekend! We had a nice little standard run. I was where she needed me to be, she responded to my cues. Lovely. Our jumpers run was clean, but not great. I got lost in a pinwheel, but Scout took the jump anyway. Then I did an awkward rear cross and we were back on track. Made it with 3 seconds to spare! I was super excited, I never thought we would double Q!
> 
> The next day we returned to form with a missed weave entry in standard and a clean run in jumpers that was 3 seconds too slow. Even so, there were some nice blind crosses in there. And as usual, I have several things to work on--speed in the weaves, tighter turns, etc.


Congratulations! Now you know you can do it 😀


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

Two more Qualifying runs with my girl! We had one of our most consistent weekends. Saturday we had two nice runs. Q in Standard, but dropped a bar in Jumpers. She takes off early, so I think this will become more frequent. I have decided to continue working jump grids with her, but not stress out when she drops bars during a trial. Naturally this is easier said than done, but I was pleased with her Saturday runs. Sunday we had a Q in Jumpers on a very nice open course. The big galloping dogs loved it. We had a nice Standard run going until I messed her up a bit and she had a refusal and a missed contact. I think I can fix that. She stayed with me on the courses, no sniffing, no wandering. I thought my handling was solid (except for one or two spots). Overall I left with a smile.


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## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

Yay! Congratulations. Nothing better than leaving a trial with a smile. Fantastic! Keep it up! Whoo hoo!


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

We've competed in a couple trials since my last update. She bagged another double Q a few weeks ago. This weekend we earned a Q in Standard. It was a slow but steady sort of run. In Jumpers I decided to try a rear cross because we had been practicing them in the back yard for a month. Sigh, chalk up a refusal on an otherwise nice run. My fault. I'll save the new moves for runs that NQ'd early. But it was a good day overall.


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

I got up the nerve to enter my girl in a Premier Standard class. I described this to my son as "something designed for teams that are bored by the normal classes." I've wanted to try this for a year or so, but frankly we are not up to that level. Except...we earned a Q! 😃 Not fast, not flashy, just steady. And then we proceeded to NQ in every other run that weekend. 🤷‍♀️ I love this sport. On the last day the 20 inch border collies were laying down some amazing runs, 22 seconds and clean. It was so much fun to watch (by comparison, we NQ'd with two refusals and 55 seconds).


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Congratulations on the premier run, they are not easy courses!


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

Carolinek said:


> Congratulations on the premier run, they are not easy courses!


We practiced back jumps and threadles only to find...no threadles, only one back jump, a couple wraps, and a box. 😄


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Sroodle8 said:


> We practiced back jumps and threadles only to find...no threadles, only one back jump, a couple wraps, and a box. 😄


Figures, but you’re ready for next time!


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## Sroodle8 (Dec 23, 2021)

We've continued to do runnings and jumpings! From the low--dog jumped out of the ring, twice in one day --to the high--Qualifying runs in 3 out of 4 tries in the next trial and the one we missed was my fault --we're still having a blast. I think we have 22 standard Qs and 8 jumper Qs. Clearly speed is an issue for us.  At practice sometimes I run fast dogs, totally different skill set. Still dreaming about dog 2, even while loving my current girl. I think my husband is resigned to the idea but would prefer one dog at a time.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Sroodle8 said:


> We've continued to do runnings and jumpings! From the low--dog jumped out of the ring, twice in one day --to the high--Qualifying runs in 3 out of 4 tries in the next trial and the one we missed was my fault --we're still having a blast. I think we have 22 standard Qs and 8 jumper Qs. Clearly speed is an issue for us.  At practice sometimes I run fast dogs, totally different skill set. Still dreaming about dog 2, even while loving my current girl. I think my husband is resigned to the idea but would prefer one dog at a time.


Hang on to the successes and laugh at the baubles! It’s all fun, although Qs are nice too 😀


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