Remington Gets His NATCH

After 6 and a half years, Remington finally got the last Gamblers qualifying score that he needed for his NATCh! (NADAC agility championship for nonagility types... This is somewhat akin to earning a chess master title--accruing points over a period of time at the top level of agility competition.)

[Jake took only 3 years to earn his--so I've been fretting about Rem's, especially since Rem turned 9 on July 1. But he's running better than ever!]

Our first qualifying score ever in agility was a NADAC gambler's leg in January, 1996, so I guess it's somehow fitting that the last leg for the NATCH was also a gambler's leg.

There were 2 chances to get it this weekend. We got saturday's gamble, almost first thing in the morning, which made the rest of the weekend absolutely fun and soooo relaxed! Actually saturday's gamble I thought was pretty easy--both my dogs and at least 1/3 of all Elite dogs got it; sunday's was so hard that only 2 8" dogs got it. Only 2 other dogs made it past the first obstacle on sunday, and Remington was one of those 2--made it thru 3 obst's but missed the last one. So he done good but didn't quite get a "CYA" gamble the 2nd day. Still, I'm proud of getting that far. Even Ron Etherton's World-Famous Infallible Gambling Dogs didn't get that far (! sorry, Ron, but it *never* happens :-) ).

To top it off--
- Out of 8 runs, Jake earned Q's in 6, got 4 1st places & 3 2nd places! (Out of about 9 dogs in his class).
- Out of 6 runs, Rem earned 5 Q's and got a 2nd, a 3rd, and two 4th (he doesn't often place, but he was running fast & happy & paying attention) out of about 12 dogs in his class.

See photo of dogs and awards.

We had to drive allll the way to Eureka for the competition, but it was *perfect* agility weather, and Jackie Drucker got all of our runs on video, and it was a great group of people up there who celebrated our NATCH at the general briefing on Sunday and made a big fuss about it, so it was a lot of fun.

Thanks to everyone who's helped & supported us through all of this! All those encouraging words, plus suggestions & advice on doing gambling, & those folks who took special gambler's lessons with us, and especially Jim Basic who's a great gamblers coach and Nancy & Rachel who've helped Remington and me in sooooo many ways over the last 7 years. :-)

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