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IN ACTION | |
12/29/09 |
    
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Yvonne & Flare win in long beach!!!!!!
Yvonne Mancino and her Doberman Pinscher, Flare win the 24" Class at the 2009 AKC Agility Invitational in Long Beach, California, Dec. 12-13!! The courses were very challenging for the big dogs, but still had some flow, and were lots of fun. Flare and Yvonne had a great start, running a fun jumpers course for round one, and finishing in 2nd place, just 8/10’s of a second behind the 1st place finisher. Round two; The run started great, everything was moving , and the team got to the really challenging part: off of the dogwalk, there was a 180 leading into the serpentine. Flare read the 180 perfectly, but Yvonne pulled just a bit too much to jump 14, and Flare slid right past for a run-out(all faults were 5 points, even wrong courses. the only fault that would have been worse was a popped weave at pole 10). Yvonne got her collected, and back to the correct side of the jump,. They were able to finish with a 5 point fault, but had eaten up a couple of seconds with the run-out: 38.59 seconds, 3.77 seconds behind the first place dog. Round three was another jumpers, and another blistering run: 2nd place in 30.16 (.39 out of first). At that point, there were still quite a few dogs that had 3 clean rounds, and even though their cumulative score (96.21)would have put them in 3rd place overall, the 5 point fault dropped them to 14th. Round four was the hybrid course. Everyone knew they had to push, and there was a very nasty challenge: coming off of the teeter (#11), we had to push out to a tunnel entrance on the far side of the A-frame, through the tunnel, and into a wrap after jump #13, to the A-frame. The big challenge was the off course chute next to jump #13. Most of the dogs came out of the tunnel on their left lead, and they had to switch to their right lead on the flat to make the turn to the A-frame. Flare was the 13th dog in: they handled the opening smoothly, and then Yvonne hung back, let Flare clear the tunnel, and then flipped her over the jump to the A-frame. They were clean, at 31.73. You could feel the pressure building, teams pushing for time, and getting off courses at the A-frame or the chute, or a back jump at #13. After the dust had cleared from round 4, Flare was in 8th place, and headed for the Finals! Even though their times were faster, and they had 2 placements, the 5 point fault kept them in 8th. They ran in reverse order, and there were 12 dogs in the 24” class. The first four dogs ran, and the time to beat was 38.465. The course opening presented a challenge for the big dogs: a dogwalk approach that invited a missed up –contact (with an extra Judge just to watch the up contact!). In this situation, Yvonne usually hangs back, to check Flare’s stride, but this run, they needed to go for it, because the sequence after the dogwalk was a chute(#8) to a 180, with an off course jump after #9. Yvonne knew she had to work the down contact, and had planned to try to get a front cross in after the chute to get the 180. Flare came out of the chute so fast, she had no chance to get a FC, so she flipped her over the jump with a rear cross into the 180, then took off. The course then took them to the teeter, jump, front cross, over the A-frame, to a double, into a U shaped tunnel then to the weaves another 180, and finish. The U-shaped tunnel was tricky, the double lined the dogs up for the wrong end. A hard pull, and they were into the weaves. Flare has great weaves. Once she was in, Yvonne took off, got way ahead to the landing side of the next obstacle (the tire, #17), did a front cross, got a great, tight turn, and then finished. Time 36.221. Yvonne was directed to the leaders seat, to wait and watch while the next 7 dogs ran. 4 dogs run, none of them have better times; 4th place is guaranteed. The next dog runs, and faults. 3rd place!! The next two dogs, a Weim and a Terv, had been back and forth at the top of the standings all weekend. The Terv runs, is going clean and smooth: they get to the weaves, a checks of the split time shows they can't catch Flare. Second Place!!! Wow, then the last dog, Booster, the Weim, runs. Another clean smooth run. They finish in 37.099 , .89 seconds behind!! Flare had won!! Yvonne is one of the Founding Members of Wild Weavers, and has been a long time lead instructor. Flare is a 5 year old Doberman Pinscher, and this year was the Number One Ranked Doberman Pinscher in AKC Agility, and the Number One Ranked Dog in the Working Group in AKC Agility.
FLARE, MACH5 Thornwoods Flare MXF MAD TM WAE CGC TDI, Doberman Pinscher Club of America Top 20 Agility Winner 2007, 2008 & 2009 #1 Doberman Pinscher 2007 AKC Agility Invitational # 1 Doberman Pinscher and #1 Dog in the Working Group, AKC Agility 2008 2009 AKC Agility Invitational Champion, 24” Class CONGRATULATIONS YVONNE & FLARE!!!!!
This site was last updated 12/29/09 |
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