It’s been a while since I’ve updated Alex’s blog. Sorry!
Where should we start… I managed to not blog about our trip to the Super Retriever Series Crown Championship in late May. Alex and Abby were both invited to the Crown for the first time this year, which was held in Little Rock, Arkansas. We had a great time in Little Rock and hope we can make it again next year!
Unfortunately, the weather was a bit different than it was at home. The event was May 24th and 25th, we left very early in the morning on the 24th (~2:00am) and the temperature in Chicago was about 40 degrees. By the time we got to Arkansas and got the puppies out of the car it was almost 90 degrees. The look on Abby and Alex’s face said “not cool dad, not cool!” They didn’t adjust to the temperature change very well to say the least.
Alex was one of two dogs that qualified for both Super Fly (distance jump) and Super V (high jump). He ended up finishing in 6th place for both. His best Super Fly jump of the weekend was a 22′7″, he didn’t even make finals with his 6′6″ Super V jump, it was at this point (on the second day) that the weather was just too much. If we are fortunate enough to be invited back next year, Alex has requested that we roll into Little Rock a few days ahead of time to get him used to the weather. The folks at SRS threw a great event – one of the best times we’ve had doing dock jumping regardless of results! Congratulations to Stryker and Melissa on their Super V win and to Chris and Bear on their Super Fly win!!
Since SRS we’ve done a few agility events, Alex is still slowly improving but continues to knock bars more frequently than the rules allow for (i.e. about once per run.) We’ve been working hard on respecting the bars’ right to stay suspended in the air and hope to have some more positive results in the near future – we have quite a bit of agility planned over the next couple of months.
Aside from agility, we’ve also managed to log a few Dock Dogs events. Since the SRS Crown we’ve competed at a Chicagoland club event in Berwyn, a National event in Dubuque andlast weekend a National event in Evansville, IN.
Alex is doing great this year in Big Air andthe new sport called “Speed Retrieve”. Since he was doing well in E.V. last year, Alex has gained about 15 pounds, which we think accounts for his lack of “hops” when going for the bumper. Alex is currently ranked ~3rd nationally with his mom in Speed Retrieve, he’s a quick little swimmer andloves to make mom happy by “getting the duck”! His best in E.V. this year is 6′10″ (which he has only grabbed once this season). Big Air has been a strong spot for him, however. He had a great Big Air weekend in Berwyn and then went on to win the DubuqueSemi-Pro Big Air finals. Last weekendat Evansville was the highlight of Alex’s Big Air summer. He finished third in the Pro finals behindthe Outdoor Channel National Champion (the second place dog) and the winner of the event, some yellow lab named Abby Jo Kickass… that’s right, he was beat by a girl… his sister! The best part of the weekend was Alex’s new personal best in Big Air… 23′9″ – way to go Chops!!
Well, off to bed for now, we are in Rockford for the Chicagoland club event. Alex finished E.V. with mom tonight in 2nd place and looks forward to doing Speed Retrieve and Big Air with her tomorrow. So far his biggest Big Air jump of the weekend is 22′. We’ll post about that tomorrow night!
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