Agility
Clark pictured jumping through the tire. One of my most favorite agility pictures of him. Photo by M. Nicole Fischer Photgraphy
Clark loves agility, is fearless, and is a blast to train. He tries very hard and loves a challenge. His favorite obstacles are the teeter, which he loves to bang, and the tunnels. I'm really enjoying running with him. While we have been running together for 2 years, we are still learning a lot. Clark has really gained a lot of confidence and he is really picking up speed. He is an incredibly consistent for such a young dog. Clark finished #2 IWS for 2010. Clark finished #1 IWS for 2011.
Clark made his AKC agility debut the weekend of March 8th & 9, 2008. He far exceeded my expectations including a fantastic novice standard run. He got his first qualifying run and got first place. At only his second trial, Clark earned his first agility title on Sunday, July 13th by running two qualifying runs in agility standard both with first places. He also got his first novice jumpers with weaves leg. On August 23, 2008 at only his 5th agility trial, Clark qualified in all 6 of his runs and completed his novice jumpers with weaves title and earned his first open JWW leg. He also earned his open standard agility title and earned his first excellent leg. He earned two novice Fast legs. The following weekend, Clark earned his novice Fast title with 3 legs in 3 runs. Clark earned his Open Fast title on September 21, 2008. Clark earned his Open JWW title on Saturday, October 4th and also earned his first Excellent Fast leg on the same day.
Clark earned his Excellent standard A title on 11/1/08 and went on the next day to qualify in Excellent standard B and earned his first MACH points. He qualified in jumpers with weaves two days in a row (January 17 & 18, 2009) with both 1st placements, which completed his Excellent Jumpers with Weaves title. Clark earned his first double Q on March 21, 2009. He finished his Excellent Fast title on April 4, 2009 with a first place finish. He earned his Master Excellent Fast title on November 20, 2010. He earned his MX title on Sunday, May 17, 2009 and he earned his MXJ on Saturday, June 6, 2009. Clark earned his MACH on September 11, 2010 with two beautiful runs on the same day to earn the remaining points he needed. With his runs on September 11, 2010, Clark also qualified for the 2011 AKC agility nationals. In AKC, a dog needs 750 speed points and 20 double Q's to earn a MACH. Clark earned his MACH2 on Sunday April 24, 2011. He only needed points but he finished on a double Q with a 3rd place finish in standard and a 2nd place finish in jumpers. Clark earned his MACH3 on November 13, 2011. He needed points and did it in grand style by earning two double Q's to earn enough points for his MACH3. He now has 289 points and 10 double Q's towards MACH4. He qualified for the 2012 AKC Agility nationals on March 19, 2011.
The AKC started a new titling class on July 1, 2011 called Time To Beat. The course time is set by the fastest dog in the height class with a clean run and that dog gets 10 points. Then the dogs that qualify get 9, 8, 7, etc. points based on their percentage slower. It takes 15 qualifying runs and 100 points to earn a Time To Beat title. Clark won his height class the first time he ran the course. He now has 72 points and 9 Q's towards his title.
I don't video tape my runs often but I did purchase taped runs at the Oriole trial December 9-11, 2011. Here are Clark's runs.
Clark - Standard December 9 2011
Clark - Time to Beat December 9 2011
Clark - Standard December 10 2011
Clark - Standard December 11 2011
Clark competed at the 2011 AKC agility invitationals in Orlando, Florida December 17-18, 2011. Clark was ranked 2nd going into the invitationals. Clark ran great and his 2nd, 3rd and 4th round runs were all clean. He ran beautiful. I messed him up on the 1st round. We were not clean but we only got faults. Clark ended up 44th out of over 100 24" dogs competing. He also ended up the highest scoring IWS for the second year in a row.
2011 AKC Agility Invitational Round 1 - Standard
2011 AKC Agility Invitational Round 2 - JWW
2011 AKC Agility Invitational Round 3 - JWW
2011 AKC Agility Invitational Round 4 - Hybrid
Clark competed at the 2011 AKC agility nationals in Lexington, VA April 2-3, 2011. He had 2 out of 3 clean runs and ended up 33rd overall with over 100 dogs competing in the 24 inch jump height. Here are his videos from the 2011 AKC agility nationals.
2011 AKC Agility Nationals Round 1 - JWW
2011 AKC Agility Nationals Round 2 - Standard
2011 AKC Agility Nationals Round 3 - Hybrid
I went to the AKC agility invitational in Long Beach California December 4-5, 2010. Clark was ranked 4th IWS for the 2010 agility invitational. I was thrilled with how he handled this huge competition as it was the first time he was ever in an event that was so big. He had 3 clean rounds out of 4 and ended up ranked 20th out of 100 dogs competing in the 24 inch height class. He also ended up the highest scoring IWS out of the 4 competing. I'm incredibly proud of how he did at such a young age! You can see his 4 runs by clicking below.
2010 AKC Agility Invitational Round 1 - Standard
2010 AKC Agility Invitational Round 2 - JWW
2010 AKC Agility Invitational Round 3 - JWW
2010 AKC Agility Invitational Round 4 - Hybrid
Clark was ranked 8th IWS for the 2009 AKC agility invitational. Not too bad considering he didn't start to run in Excellent B until January 2009. He finished 2009 ranked as #5 IWS in agility.