Boost's Mom at AKC Nationals

SUMMARY: Tala is looking good.

At 11 and a half, Tala is around Tika's age.

Dang bar.



Looks like she was around 30th-40th out of 230 dogs in the rounds where she ran clean, and 53rd after 3 rounds even with the bar down. Pretty good for an old girl competing against a zillion top-notch youngsters.

And I might as well mention some siblings.

Boost's full sister (but 4 years younger), Tcam, also competing in the 20" class of 230 dogs, finished 5th in Round 1! (I'll have to find out what their faults were in the other two classes.)

Boost's littermate Derby, competing in the 24" class of about 90 dogs, finished 2nd in Round 2 and 1st in Round 3! Don't know what the fault was in Round 1. Placed 3rd in the challenger round, which wasn't quite enough to get them into the finals.

Let's Hear It for Veteran Dogs and Mixed Breeds

SUMMARY: I forgot to mention the AKC National Championships.

As you all undoubtedly know, they took place last weekend in Reno.

Because it was so close, tons and tons of people I know made sure that they qualified and then went ahead and entered. Fun seeing so many Bay Teamers do well in the early rounds and a whole 13 Bay Team dogs made it to the finals. You can see the list here on our Bay Team site.

I just wanted to mention some things, now that Tika is officially old (due to her hardness of hearing) at 11 years old and I'm thinking about stuff like this):

• Apollo, who competes against Tika in USDAA Performance 22" whenever they do USDAA--and who is a year and a half younger--and sometimes beats us and sometimes vice versa--took 2nd in the finals in the tallest Preferred class. That's pretty cool. (And  other coolness, his handler did this while taking two other dogs to the finals as well, placing 2nd in regular 26" and then, with a dog who isn't even hers (although they've been competing together for a few months while his mom heals from an injury), made it to the finals there, too.)
• Former classmates Ash and Luka, who have so many national (and international) championships racked up together that one starts to think, they can't possibly do it again, can they? and, how old is Luka anyway? And one looks it up and finds that she's nine and a half, and, yes, they won the 16" National title once again. So, in a world where a 7-year-old dog is considered a veteran, she beat dogs half her age. What a team.
• Current classmates Stacey and Roo, the completely good-looking tall mixed breed, also made it to the finals. How very cool that finally non-AKC breeds and mixes are allowed to compete.