Wow, what a great weekend we had at the AAC BC/Yukon Regionals but boy was it hot for around here! Temperatures went from the low teens all the way to the high 20's in a couple of days and neither dogs nor handlers had time to adapt. (for those of you on the farenheidt system that's the high 80's).

Both dogs did very well, especially Xena considering she hates the heat. She managed to make the podium in 5th place - of course the 22" inch division other than Xena was all BC's on the podium with one Kelpie! Yeah Xena! She would have won one of the gamblers if it weren't for a missed contact in her opening. We struggled on a couple of runs like a jumpers where her handler completely went blank and missed part of the course! Thank god we only get 20 faults for an off course instead of an E at regionals! But the 20 faults dropped us from a 3rd place finish. I was very proud of her to hold it together in the heat as she will often completely shuts down.

Phoenix was entered more for experience but man did she show flashes of brilliance. She placed 4th in one of the gamblers classes and had the fastest time in one of the jumpers by a full second (with 3 bars down though )! She didn't have any off courses all weekend. In the first standard course we were clean until the last jump which she ran by costing us 20 faults! She needed 300 points to qualify for our nationals and managed a whopping 453.83 points which put her in 15th place out of 51 dogs.

I'm very proud of both my girls! Now I have to decide whether to make the trip out east to Ontario for Nationals where it will not only be very hot but also very humid! Yuck!

Wendy