Clover's story

In Dec of 2003 I got a new puppy, Clover, and she became my very first agility dog. After doing some training in the backyard with lots of help from a friend online I finally found a local class that fit well with us. I had just started the class but our National was coming up and I wanted to run her there. We did one day in Charlotte, NC in the fall of 05 and didn't Q either run. Her standard run was close but she didn't jump the entire broad jump. Not long after that was a one day trial at the national. Again we didn't Q either run but again one was very close with a knocked bar causing the NQ.

In January 2006 Clover went to WV to be bred. Between the pregnancy, motherhood, and raising puppies Clover and I took a long break from agility. We didn't do another trial until November of 2006 in Concord, NC. It went much better.
November 18, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 63.97 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 2nd place 42.18 seconds
November 19, 2006
Novice Standard Preferred- 1st place 68.72 seconds
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 41.51 seconds
Wow what a weekend that was! It was our very first Q ever and she did it all four runs. To make it even better she was competing in conformation that weekend and took a nice Best of Breed win one day and made a cut in the group. I was exhausted but she held together fairly well. Plus her kids picked up a few conformation points.

Our next trial wasn't until March of 2007 in Charlotte, NC.
March 10
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- In a very rare performance she leaped off the dog walk missing her contact
Novice Jumpers Preferred- 1st place 45.18 seconds for her NJP!
March 11
Novice Standard Preferred- NQ- She slipped on the up side of the a-frame and came back down that side
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- I pushed her for speed while still having control. I got the speed and she tried to listen... We'll leave it at that :)
Somewhere during the summer we went and did a NADAC trial. We had a blast there and Clover Q'd 3 out of 4 runs. She was 1st in her tunnelers class and she loved running full speed there.

In September of 2007 it was time for the National again. All I asked Clover to do was to Q in her standard run to earn the title.
Spetember 11
Novice Standard Preferred- 2nd place 71.4 seconds for her NAP title!
Open Jumpers Preferred- NQ- She knocked the second bar because she was too busy looking at puppies outside the ring.
Novice FAST Preferred- NQ- We had the exact amount of points needed but she went around the last jump instead of over, causing us to go over time.

Because of the way Clover is built I haven't felt comfortable jumping her at 20 inches. When talking to people it seems to be split 50/50 on whether or not running agility would do her any damage so I'd rather be on the safe side. Clover is basically retired from agility at this point. She may come out for special shows and I'll let her play in tunnelers at NADAC trials. I might also use her at seminars until my next dog is ready enough for those. She likes agility ok and does it for me but she doesn't seem to love it most of the time. I don't think she'll mind the retirement as she has plenty of other things to do.
She has been a great dog to learn with and wonderful about letting me figure out what I need to do. She just goes with the flow and allows me to fumble through as I learn with her.

Brandy
Doubletake Samoyeds