On Friday, June 11, 2021, the 8th Annual Westminster Masters Agility Championship was held at the beautiful Lyndhurst Estate in Tarrytown, New York. Due to Covid, Westminster moved their annual winter show outdoors. Collies from Ohio, Florida, Massachusetts and Rhode Island were well represented in agility. I had both girls entered, TC PACH2 Sequel and MACH4 Chapter. Mary Valentine had her two boys entered, CH MACH8 PACH3 Zorro and Tazz. Joyce Jackowski with PACH Carson, Kelly Kontur, DVM with CH MACH5 Tuppence and Carol Lariviere with CH MACH2 Starry.

Because I was recovering from a back injury and an illness, I wasn’t sure I could run both girls so I asked Nick Carleton if he would run Chapter for me. Many friends have helped me out in the last year running my girls for me when I wasn’t able to and I am so grateful to all of them. I am also lucky that my girls will run for others!

The first course was outside -- jumpers with weaves. This course is made of all jumps, weave poles and tunnels. It was a Masters level course made a bit more difficult due to some divots in the ground and the dimensions of the arena. All of the collies had some lovely runs. Then we moved inside for our Standard class which involves a seesaw, a-frame and dog walk. This is also the arena where agility finals would be held. Again, some beautiful runs by the collies. It was so great to see so many collies represented. Kelly Kontur and Tuppence ran clean in both her Standard and Jumpers round as did Nick and Chapter! Their scores qualified them to make the finals, representing a Smooth and a Rough Collie.

After we found out we would be in finals, we had quite a bit of time before we would actually show again. Of course, I had to get Chapter ready to be picture perfect. I think I was the only agility exhibitor with a pin brush and spray bottle! Nick had a wonderful run with Chapter in finals and was clean! The cameras picked up a great shot of Chapter giving Nick a kiss before their run. Chapter delights in running with Nick and at the end of their run, I feel like she says, “Well that was fun! Let’s go get some ice cream!” She is such a joy to have and a true collie temperament. (Watch Chapter and Nick's Agility Run).

It was after 10pm by the time we headed home but we had such a great time. We hope to get into Westminster in January, back in New York City!

Editors note: The 8th Annual Master's Agility Championship at Westminster was only open to Collies with both Master Titles (MX and MXJ, or MXP and MJP) Or if entering Preferred they must have Master Preferred titles (MXP and MJP).