Old Settler's Park, Round Rock, TX. WCD stake. Judge:
Mark Donnell. Trial Manager: Kim Donnell. Steward: Kim Burton. WCD Placements: Axel (Cory Tourino), Indy (Suin Tu), Shakti (Nicole Sauvageau), Argos (Susan Schultz).
Qualifications: Axel (WCDex, with 92.0 pts).
The first American Working Trial judged by an American judge! See the trial report for more details.
Old Settler's Park, Round Rock, TX. WCD & WUD stakes. Judge: Malcolm Byrom. WCD Placements: Shakti (Nicole Sauvageau), Axel (Cory Tourino), Tycho (Colleen Duffy), Indy (Suin Tu), Cheer (Diana Smith), Echo (Susan Parker), Argos (Susan Schultz). WUD Placements: Mako (Mark Donnell), Piper (Kim Donnell).
Malcolm is a British WT judge, competitor, and ASPADS chairman, who comes to the states frequently on business travel. In March, Malcolm brought his wife, Brenda (also a competitor and judge), and spent a week in Texas. After an enjoyable and enlightening few days of training, Malcolm judged a WCD & WUD trial for us. While no one qualified at this trial, we had a number of new competitors, many of whom showed a great deal of promise.
Barbara West's, Spring, TX. WCD and WUD
stakes. Judge: Harry Arbuckle. Trial Chair: Darrel West. Stewards:
Mary Arbuckle & Suin Tu. WCD Placements: Piper (Kim Donnell), Bliss
(Barbara West), Cheer (Diana Smith), Lassie (Diana Smith), Cody
(Sallie Chrisinis). WUD Placements: Mako (Mark Donnell), Piper (Kim
Donnell).
Qualifications: Piper (WCDex, with 88 1/2 pts).
Harry and Mary took time out from a US vacation to give us the opportunity for another weekend workshop and trial. Harry provided us with a wealth of information and training tips on Friday and Saturday, during which time we worked through all of the exercises in the WCD and WUD stakes, and some of the skills needed in the higher stakes. On Sunday we ran Piper, Bliss, Cheer, Lassie and Cody at the WCD stake, and ran Mako and Piper (who qualifed WCDex in the morning) at the WUD stake. After a morning of nosework, the weather closed in, and pretty soon we found ourselves doing control in pouring rain and 40 degrees (another day of English Working Trial weather?). The only disappointment in the whole weekend was that the weather prevented Harry from providing us with a WT manwork intro on Sunday afternoon.At WCD, besides Piper's qualifier, Bliss put in a beautiful performance but did not attempt the scale jump due to a recent injury, Cheer missed qualifying due to problems with the stays and sendaway, and the other two dogs did quite well at their first ever competitions. Mako's WUD track was the suprise of the day, when he qualified in nosework with 5 of 6 legs, missing the last turn and the last 50 yards of the track, after really only starting to train corners in the previous few days. But a brief sit during the down stay later in the day lost him his first WUDex leg. Piper ran into some nasty weather during her track, and did not complete it, but qualifed at the WUD level in all other areas. Finally, Mark completed one of two apprentice judging assignments in preparation for qualification as a WCD judge.
Old Settler's Park, Round Rock, TX. WCD
stake. Judge: John Rogerson. Trial Chair: Buddy Trotter. Steward:
Suin Tu. Placements: Mako (Mark Donnell), Piper (Kim Donnell), Twist
(Cheryl Trotter), Shakti (Nicole Sauvageau), Cheer (Diana Smith).
Qualifications: Mako (WCDex, with 91 pts).
Mako had a beautiful day, resulting in a performance comparable to those seen in U.K. wins (according to John), ending with the first American Working Trial title! Piper missed qualifying by 1 point in the nosework group (if Kim had just picked up that stick which Piper indicated!), and the others had some brilliant performances, with problems in specific areas resulting in missed qualifications.By the way, if you know Nelson - let him know Mako won, and ask him when he's planning to get his Malinois :-)
Old Settler's Park, Round Rock, TX. WCD stake. Judge: John Rogerson. Trial Chair: Barbara West. Stewards: Sallie Chrisinis & Nelson Smith. Placements: Twist (Cheryl Trotter), Mako (Mark Donnell), Kurigan (Carol Minor), Bliss (Barbara West), Piper (Kim Donnell), Cheer (Diana Smith).
This trial followed a weekend workshop run by Nelson Smith of England. It was a cool and drizzly day, and as John put it "perfect English weather for an English Working Trial". This trial had a number of serious qualifier contenders, but the consistency was just not there yet. While many of the overall scores were in the qualifying range, every dog had some problem on either the stays or the jumps, so no one pulled it off. This is also the trial from which most of the footage for our video was taken.
Travis Agility Group training field, Round Rock, TX. WCD stake. Judge: John Rogerson. Trial Chair: Diana Smith. Steward: Moira Rogerson. Placements: Bliss (Barbara West), Mako (Mark Donnell), Cheer (Diana Smith), Chelsea (Bart Emkin).
This was the first trial ever held in the US, and followed a 4 day seminar held by John Rogerson and his wife, Moira. Although none of us really stood a chance of qualifying, we learned alot and had alot of fun. For more info and photos, check out The First American Working Trial page.