Hello Friends and Family,

 Wow!!!!!!!   What a Weekend here in South Florida!!!!!  THE MARLINS WIN THE WORLD SERIES AND CODY AND I FINISH HIS NOVICE AGILITY AND NOVICE JUMPERS TITLE, not to mention 4 more placements ribbons - two 2nd place and two 3rd place.  And just for topping, we achieved his first leg toward his Open Jumpers Title.  PHEW!  The Open Level is a more difficult course to run, and the dogs in that level are more advanced as well.  Out of 17 total dogs in Cody's height division only 4 qualified, so for Cody to get third place in his first run in the Open level was pretty awesome.  However, the most exciting of runs was Saturday's standard agility course.  Cody took 2nd place running the course in 45.36 seconds.  The Standard Course time was 80 seconds.  The 1st place Australian Shephard ran the course in 45.27 seconds.  If that lady working the stopwatch would have moved her finger a little faster to stop time we may have had a first.  Actually, in reality, one of the places we can improve our time is to shave some seconds off our weave pole performance.  Some of the other top 4 placing breeds in Cody's height division this weekend was a Border Collie, Sheltie, our friend Lexie the Standard Poodle and a Portugese Water Dog.

Next stop, Palm Beach County's USDAA Competition in November.

 

Above is the report rec’d from Debbie Joslin this past weekend after she and Cody did pretty well for themselves in south Miami at their latest agility trials. This is their 3rd set of trials, and you could say that Cody has been moving through his first runs for the Novice titles rather handily. There have been two disqualifications when he left the ring for food (gee – imagine that? Basenji as a Chow Hound?!?!), but otherwise they have been turning in great performances. The ribbons on his crate (pictured above) attest to his  1st place wins (2); his 2nd place wins (2), and his 3rd place wins (3). If he qualifies, he is always in the ribbons!

 

 

Debbie and Cody’s trainer, Lynn, is always sitting at ringside, listening to the disparaging remarks being made about someone competing with a BASENJI, or a HOUND.. both dirty words, apparently, in the rarified world of agility competition.  Well, we are pretty proud of our Florida duo and their accomplishments thus far. It’s unbelievable what Deb is doing with her bad back – agility is not the relatively sedate enterprise that conformation and obedience competitions are – the human runs his/her butt off to keep ahead (hah!) of the dog, and Cody competes at the same speed as the sports usual speed demons, the Aussies, Borders and Shelties.

 

My hats are off to this team, and I look forward to celebrating more titles and oodles of ribbons to come!

 

Proud Grandma Susan at Calypso