Riffing: UKI Open

On Friday and Sunday I was a "full-time worker" at the first UKI USA Open, here in Santa Rosa. Friday I was the Scribe for all of the classes, and on Sunday the Timer.

It was a small show (about 70 dogs) but the competitive level was pretty good in most classes, especially a few of those 26" dogs - wow! Loved watching Lori Michaels and her 2-yr old BC Solei (from Kansas). She seems to be a meticulous handler. She used every minute of the walk-thru, planning and imagining different approaches, then practicing her choices. It looked to me like she uses the "whatever works" method. For sure her pup is incredibly well-trained. She gives all the credit to her young dog, saying Solei is just "smart, smart, smart." Nice young lady! Fast dog. And I enjoyed watching Terry Smorch and Presto (from Wisconsin). He can really run - well, both them can. Terry stays in front, flying through the course on those long legs, but giving crispy-clear decel cues. Presto has one of the smoothest decel-collect-and-wrap moves I've ever seen. And all the local handlers and dogs were fun, too! YAY!!!! The judges were great, the courses were challenging but flowed nicely, the atmosphere was relaxed, the trial ran smoothly, and folks were having a Really Good Time. The overall high-point winners from the four heights won a spot on the World Agility Open 2012 team, and are eligible to go to Belgium in May and represent the United States. Awesome!

For more details regarding the new UKI venue (brought to the US this year by the Derretts), the UKI USA Open, and the WAO Win-On spots, check out the UK Agility International page on Facebook....or look at their website at http://www.ukagilityinternational.com/. (Okay, yeah, now I'm sounding like a commercial....)

Cellphone photos are below. Erika was taking trial photos - you'll probably see a few online...