Initially, I planned to get Rio’s Agility Grand Championship (AGCH) by the end of May 2022, but Rio had done so well on her Premier classes, we had a shot to do it in late April. So, our new goal was to get her Championship at the Icelandic Sheepdog trial at American K9 Country. This was an immense task, because Rio and I needed to travel to three different states (Vermont, Connecticut, and New Hampshire) from our home in upstate NY, after just returning from Maryland. In addition, we needed to trial under three different judges (Mark Upshaw, Zach Davis, and Lavonda Herring) over two three-day weekends. But that’s not the hardest part: we would have to go 4/4 in Premier Jumpers with Weaves (JWW) and 2/4 in Premier Standard (Std). Since Premier courses are the most challenging, we had a lot of work to do.
In Vermont, under Judge Mark Upshaw, we qualified in Premier JWW. There was a tough jumping sequence in Premier Standard. Rio took an off-course jump due to a late cue on my part. Even though it was an NQ, it was a beautiful run. As soon as we finished our standard run, we were on the road headed to Connecticut. It was a beautiful drive through the Vermont mountains. Time to refresh and regroup.
At The Fieldhouse, under Judge Zach Davis, Rio got another Premier Standard Q . . . number 49! We also got another Premier JWW Q . . . number 48! At this point, Rio had 190 JWW Qs, 172 Standard Qs, 90 FAST Qs, and 76 T2B Qs. She had all the requirements, 100 JWW Qs, 100 Std. Qs, 75 FAST Qs, and 75 T2B Qs, for the regular classes. Now we needed 1 Premier Standard Q and 2 Premier JWW Qs.
The following weekend, we needed to go 1 for 2 in Premier Standard and 2 for 2 in Premier JWW, under Judge Lavonda Herring, to get our AGCH in New Hampshire. On Friday, we qualified in both Premier runs. We got our 50th Premier Standard Q and our 49th Premier JWW Q! Saturday was the big day . . . one more Premier JWW Q, and we would be Agility Grand Champions! We had to wait until the middle of the day for our Premier JWW run. There was a group of handlers at the scoring table behind me as Rio and I were waiting to head into the ring. I remember Cara Armour, Noreen Bennett, and the others were trying to get me to laugh before I went in the ring. I was feeling confident, because we had a beautiful, flowing Premier JWW course to run. We just needed to get through it!
After I entered the ring, I released Rio’s leash and held her collar. She was wiggling, and I told her to “relax” which I never need to say to her. Rio flew through the tunnel to a wrap, then a three-jump serpentine. “Good girl!!!” Then another wrap that flowed to a five-jump circle, jump, blind cross, jump, and a turn to the weaves. I was silent as Rio went through the weaves. I didn’t want to say anything to throw her off. Beautiful weaves, then a front cross to an ending three-jump serp line. Then screams and cheers. My biggest job at the finish was to not yell with excitement too soon. It’s never a good day when that last bar goes down, and it didn’t.
We did it . . . Agility Grand Champions. I raced to put Rio’s leash on. The balcony crowd was cheering. Lavonda had just returned to judging after a car accident and lengthy rehab, and she wasn’t sure what was going on. Patti Gagnon paraded the beautiful Icy AGCH ribbon, and we told Lavonda it was our AGCH. It was so exciting. A day I will never forget.
Rio is only my second agility dog, so it is amazing that one week after her 6th birthday, we got her AGCH. I started agility lessons with Callie about 7 years ago. When I began, I didn’t know what a front cross was. One Tuesday at practice, none of us could get the front cross footwork cone drill. Wendy, our trainer, was joking that she was going home. Good thing we kept working at it!!! There is so much I learned from Callie, not only about agility, but about training collies. With Rio, I worked more distance and independence. As we travelled more, Rio got comfortable with different venues, noise levels, distractions, etc. I also set higher goals. I am grateful Rio and I got our AGCH in April. Now Rio can get a bit of a rest before the 2022 AKC Invitational in December, and I can focus my energy on training 2-year-old Shea. I need all the energy I can get with Shea!!! If you’ve met Shea, you’ll know why!