I haven't posted for a while.  Things are so busy with the new training space.  Organizing and advertising classes is overwhelming.  April/May were tough months.  I was stressed big time and it really had an adverse effect on our agility training.   But we made some great accomplishments this spring.



First, in March, Whisper earned her NAJ (Novice Agility Jumpers) title at the Burlington County Kennel Club in New Brunswick, NJ.  It was a very difficult trial environment.  It was inside and very loud.  The flooring was slippery as well.  She performed brilliantly.  She also picked up her second leg of her Standard title.   Next came a trail on Long Island which I don't care to talk about.  It was horrible and stressful and we didn't perform very well.  I was looking forward to the Port Chester trial in FDR State Park.  But we struggled all weekend.  Finally on Sunday, we had a clean run and got the final leg of her standard title.  So, Whisper is now Mikamar Best Kept Secret, NA, NAJ, NJC, CGC!  Great.  I'm so psyched.  But I was perplexed by the stress but I'm sure most of it is me - I have to conquer my nerves. 



In April, I started to study with a new agility instructor, Elise Lynch.  She is so wonderful and has helped us greatly.  I am learning a new handling style which works so much better for us.  Also, I know how I want to deal with our stress issues and Elise has helped us incorporate it into practice which has helped us greatly in our last two trails.  I can't be more thrilled to be studying with Elise.  And congratulations to Elise and her border collie, Ting for earning their ADCH this weekend at Keystone!  More on that later.



My good friend Leslie McDevitt wanted me to go to Keystone Agility Club's USDAA trial which was held June 15 - 17.  Since I had never competed in USDAA, I decided to enter a trial first so I wouldn't feel so much pressure being with friends.  Again, my goal is to reduce our stress.  So I enrolled in a trial up in Keene, NH near our summer house.  We had a wonderfully successful weekend.  Our first run was Gamblers - where you can make your own course.  We really started to get our confidence back.  I didn't care about qualifications but more about each run working on one thing.  We worked on weave poles or start line stays.  The end result was no Q's but a bunch of placement ribbons.  And both of us started to feel happy about agility again.



This last weekend, we went to Keystone.  We had a great weekend.  Whisper Q'ed and placed second in three events - Pairs Relay, Snooker and Jumpers.  We did great.  Again, we worked on breaking down different criteria in the ring.  Her weave poles are coming back!  Her contacts aren't great but USDAA has higher equipment and we haven't been training at those heights so I'm not worried, it's something we can train.  Leslie and her dog Snap earned their AD title (starters title in USDAA).  They certainly deserve it.  They've worked so hard.  I won't go into the mistakes we made this weekend because basically we had great success during each run and I'm just thrilled with our performance.  I got to see Elise run her dogs in competition.  She's very technical and she and her dogs work so well together.  If I can be a fraction as good as they are, we'll have a great agility career ahead of us.



Whisper says, hello and she's been working very hard and not being stressed by all the commotion at trials.  She loves when people come to watch her and is pretty proud of her accomplishments.