And Thus Endeth Another Year

SUMMARY: Looking back. And forth.

In 2008, we competed in:

• 15 USDAA trials, including the world championships
• 3 CPE trials
• 2 fun matches

Between the two dogs, I ran 354 runs total:

• 58 Standard (CPE & USDAA)
• 39 Gamblers (CPE & USDAA)
• 40 Snooker (CPE & USDAA)
• 46 Jumpers (CPE & USDAA)
• 6 Colors
• 7 Full House
• 10 Wildcard
• 30 Pairs Relay
• 12 Team Tournaments (5 runs each tournament, not included in previous class counts)
• 30 Steeplechase (6 of them Round 2s)
• 26 Grand Prix
• 2 Strategic Pairs

We earned 113 Qs, resulting in the following titles:
In CPE:

• Boost - CL3 (Complete Level 3)
• Boost - CL4-F (Level 4 Fun Games)

In USDAA:

• Boost - Relay Master
• Tika - Gamblers Champion-bronze
• Tika - Jumpers Champion-bronze
• Tika - Agility Dog Champion-bronze
• Tika - Tournament Master-Gold (missed platinum in the same year by one leg. OK, on to 2009!)
• Tika - Snooker Champion-Silver
• Tika - Lifetime Achievement Award-bronze
• Tika - Relay Champion-Silver

Dogs knocked roughly 150 bars this year--largely contributed by Boost, who often got 3 or 4 per run. So I know what to work on... still... always...

Today, we practiced running through tunnels because it's fun, tires out the dogs, it's something I can do with a runny nose and cough, and I don't have to reset bars. Although I did set up one jump and both dogs left the bar up on every turn and every straight path that I tried between tunnels.

Tonight we're staying home, looking at my Christmas tree lights, maybe having some popcorn (dogs love that part), going to bed early. In just 45 minutes (7 p.m. PST), we'll gain a whole leap second for extra agility practice, so that's a good start to the year. Oops--got it wrong--that was 4:00 PST! Missed the whole event!

On to 2009 and many bars left up! Happy New Year, everyone--