2000 WAG NADAC and CAT Summer USDAA Trials

Old Duffers Do It in the Agility Ring... (7/23/00)
July brought two traditional long-time NW agility trials to new sites and with them, a new NATCH and two new MADs to a couple of CAT's more "senior" members.   July 15 and 16th were the dates of the Willamette Agility Group's (WAG) summer NADAC trial.  This year, instead of holding the trial at the Benton County Fairgrounds in Corvallis, the trial was staged at the Benton County Park in Adair Village, about 8 miles north of Corvallis on 99W.  This is a very nice site -- lots of room for the agility rings, lots of room to play with your dogs and shady groves for meals and relaxing.  As usual, WAG put on a well organized show.  The only drawback was that it was a pretty hot weekend and some of the dogs (like mine) pretty much shut down despite wading pools and soakings under the hose.

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Herb Gercke and OSO
NADAC NATCH 7/16/2000
USDAA MAD 7/23/00

 One dog that was undeterred by the temperature was Herb Gercke's Aussie Oso.  Herb and Oso have been on a tear this year with Oso running with great enthusiasm, speed and an uncanny ability to save Herb's bacon. And Oh, by the way, Herb's been handling pretty well too. 

The WAG trial was where Herb and Oso decided to quit fooling around and get that last gamblers leg that was standing between them and their NADAC National Agility Trial Champion (NATCH).  

The next weekend saw the revival of CAT's summer USDAA trial.  This year it was held at Timber Park in Estacada.  While not quite the facility that Adair Park is, Timber Park proved to be a good place to hold and agility trial.  Plenty of space and weather that turned out to be as close to perfect for agility as can be (about 20 degrees cheaper than the previous week.  The Judges were Dave Hanson of Texas and Kent Mahan of Colorado.  Dave judged our last summer USDAA trial, so we knew what we were getting in for -- challenging courses and a judge with a sense of humor.  The event ran smoothly and the new elctronic timer worked like a charm.  It's a keeper. 

 

One of the unique features of this trial was the extra Masters jumpers event.  This was included instead of the more usual extra gamblers or snooker because yours truly lobbied the Show Chair incessantly.  Duncan and I have been seeking the last elusive jumpers Q needed for the Master Agility Dog title since last February.  Four trials and always one little thing or another.   Maybe if we had two shots at it in a weekend...

Well, it worked.  Duncan came through on Saturday afternoon, despite a slight excursion to make sure that our son, Rick, and our grand-daughters Annie and Josie were still in the sun shelter.  (Duncan believes that Rick is the number one alpha-male in the universe).  Ice cream for Dunc that night!

Just to make it a clean sweep for the old duffers, Herb and Oso decided they'd finish their MAD the next day.  Many other handlers and their dogs had fine weekends as well. 

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Duncan and Dick Watson
USDAA MAD 7/22/2000

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 This year's trial also featured a Saturday night barbeque with the CATCooks (Jim Hibbard, Jim Rice, and Tom Berkely) serving up hamburgers, hot dogs, garden burgers, corn on the cob, salad and watermelon.  (Jim Hibbard was actually happier than he appears here).

All in all, a nice trial.  Thanks to Chairman Herb Gercke and the show committee that made it run so well.