Adventures in Agility: Catching Up With Dally and Porter!

Almost a month ago, teams Dally and Megan and Porter and Merinda appeared on the blog with the exciting lowdown on their plans to compete in the 2013 American Kennel Club (AKC) National Agility Championships, mid-March in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

On March 15th, we got a Traveling Corgipants road report from the fearless foursome as they wound their way to the event and arrived triumphantly (with perhaps a little of french fry smell in the car) at Tulsa. Read their dispatch (and catch the fun photos) here.

In this, the third and final installment of the Dally and Porter’s Agility Adventure series, we hear from the ladies, back home with their Corgis, a couple of ribbons and a clutch of fantastic memories to show for their trip.

“We arrived back in Lexington late Monday evening, still processing our
weekend in Tulsa!” writes Megan. Meanwhile, Dally and Porter just wanted to be home, to
sniff their own grass and check out their neighborhood (did you know
Dally and Porter live just one block from each other?)”

“We had a great time in Tulsa and got to watch a lot of
excellent teams handle the same challenging courses. Merinda and I
cheered for our Corgi comrades, especially when Eve the Pembroke and
Letti the Cardigan earned the Preferred National Champion and Reserve
Preferred National Champion titles respectively in the 8-inch preferred
class! Go Corgis!”

“Dally ran her little heart out for me this weekend. We were
riding on a perfect weekend until the last run when I made a couple of
errors that cost us a few faults. We finished in 18th place for the
4-inch Preferred division, but we still brought home two Clean Round
ribbons.”

“I’m proud of my little Corgi. We’ve come a long way. This was the same weekend, five years ago that started our competition career in agility. Five years ago, if you had told me we would have qualified, and competed, at the AKC National Agility Championships not just once, but twice, I wouldn’t have believed you. If you had told me five years ago that we would have earned our Agility Championship, I wouldn’t have believed you. I’ve had people tell me, “She’s not an agility championship caliber dog …” And yet, she really is!”

“I would love it if we qualified for the 2014 AKC National Agility Championships, but I’m not going to push her. We’re looking forward to a fun year of agility and being the best teammates we can be!”

Merinda reports that she and Porter had an absolute blast at the Nationals. “We didn’t
bring home any ribbons like Dally, but I couldn’t be prouder of the
little guy!”

“He ran and fast an happy all weekend, with just a few bobbles here and there which kept him out of the top spots. He knocked a couple bars (my fault) an bumped into me (my fault again) and missed a weave entry (that may not have been my fault). Even with those faults, Porter’s times were quite competitive.”

“The courses were harder than what we run on most weekends, but not impossible. We enjoyed getting to stretch our skills a little. And we definitely know what we need to work on! All in all, it was a great trip spent with good
friends and awesome agility. If we qualify next year, we’ll definitely
go back! Loved it!”

For more in-depth coverage of Dally and Porter’s performances at Nationals (including videos), visit Megan’s blog Agility on Stumps and Merinda’s blog The Brews Brothers.