K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pics)

[Jenni_Feathers]

K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pics)

The 2010 Purina Incredible Dog Challenge National Finals. The weather didn't start out too great; dreary, cold, cloudy, windy, and it had rained the night before messing with the sound equipment, but by mid day it was sunnier.. still chilly and windy, but I kinda liked it, better cold than hot, IMO.

I guess this is one of the good things about living in boring 'ole Missouri- Purina Farms. They have all kinds of cool events there for dog lovers; breed shows, agility trials, earth dog trails, weight pulls and more, plus both admission and parking are free. It's an awesome way to spend a saturday, even if I did have to get up kinda early, hehe.

There was a pretty good turn out of spectators, and of course lots of dogs of all types (as usual-lots of yellow labs and BCs and oddly enough- corgis). I didn't bring either of mine though, Belle would had been uncomfortable with that many people (especially kids) around, and Shadow would had been exhausted and ready to go home after the first hour. Most competitors were from the US, but there were some from as far as Canada, Poland, and Japan.

There are 5 events held: Agility (Large and Small divisions), Dock Diving, Jack Russel Hurdle Racing, 60 Pole Weave, and Freestyle Disk and I stayed for all of them.

If you guys have anything similar in your area I highly recommend going, especially if its free (it will depend on the venue). It's really great to be able to talk to and relate to people with similar interests, especially if you live in a town like I do where a majority people have never even heard of dogsports...and would laugh at the idea...just as a majority would laugh at the idea of keeping a dog inside, or oh, godforbid actually taking it to the vet when it inevitably gets hit by a car, rather than shooting it to "put it out of its misery".

Anywaaays *avoids major rant* I took a bunch (and I do mean bunch...1,214) of pictures. Obviously this is no where at all, or anywhere remotely near all of them, haha, but its just the highlights. I know theres a lot of dog lovers here so I thought you all might like to see some.

And keep in mind, I have only had my camera a mere week, okay, and its my first DSLR, and the sun was not being my friend, sooo there not the best...also I completely failed to remember to bring a notepad, so sorry I don't remember names or handlers.

Okay so the day started out with agility, the course must have been really tough--not a single one of the large dogs had a clean run-not one.

^my absolute FAVORITE dog of the day, a rescued pitty, whose name I can't seem to remember...

^this was one of the Canadian dogs, so pretty with the blue eye & very fast!

^Papillon named Jacques, the smallest competitor.







-MORE to follow-

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

^ beautiful brindle malinois

^BC on the teetor

^I'm preeeety sure this is last years returning champion, very pretty dog, has fawn (as in baby deer) like markings.



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[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

So now the dock dogs-- I have very few decent pics cuz I was looking through a tree...ya, I didn't want to move and loose my spot for the next events though.

^dog about to jump...and a tree...

^Chessie shaking off...ignore the leaves...

^the winner set a new record- gets lovin' from his daddy

There were 3 that were neck and neck, I believe that the longest jump of the day was 30' 2" (note they measure dif. than most- they measure nose instead of base of tail)

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

Here's 2 of the JRT races, they actually did pretty good, infact, the first run all 6 dogs made it straight to the chute (no falls, collisions, or confused stragglers)

^off the go!

^they sure are determined...notice anything off about this pic? It took me a sec to realize.

Most the 60 pole weave pics were kinda boring so here's just one, the event wasn't boring at all though, it was one of my favorite, the annoucer did a great job getting the crowd into it.

^Belgian Sheepdog vs. BC

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[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

Kay, so I saved the best for last- the disk dogs. I wasn't sure how they'd do because it was so windy, but they were amazing- especially the international competitors. When I think disk dogs, Japan is one of the last places that comes to mind, but dannng they were good! There were 2 teams- father & son, and they were amazing, especially the son- he won, his score was a 96!

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[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

^and thats a roll over, not a strange fall

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[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

The dogs from Poland had some really cool tricks as well

-almost done, promise-

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

and the American dogs has some fancy foot work as well

 

[Jenni_Feathers]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

(cont'd)

And thats all I'm going to post because with being able to only do 3 per reply this is ridiculously looong. I have more here: Purina Incredible Dog Challenge 2010 - a set on Flickr if you wanna see more pics.

Also it will air for the 1st time January 15th, 2011 on NBC, and there's usually repeats on ESPN, Animal Planet, or the like if you wanna watch the televised footage.

 

[Kipsie]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

Ahh, border collie overload!
But the last dog is really pretty.
I never thought a pitbull could be agile.

 

[blackcat1313]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

Great photos! Who'd have thought rural Missouri would have this much excitement with dogs that didn't involve a puppy mill raid? (tongue in cheek humour there, please don't take it seriously)

I was fortunate enough to see a smaller version of this when I was 8 or 9. I'm 35 now and would love to see it again.

I adopted a dog a couple months ago from a rescue that had little to no obedience training, due to her being passed around and definitely because she is deaf. It certainly is a challenge to train her, but she has finally graduated her first basic manners course. I hope one day she will be able to do something like this

Thanks again for sharing, I bet you had a BLAST!

 

[Deb's4Pigs]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

:eye-poppiThat was so great!! I would have have loved to have seen that. I miss agility. Wish I could still do it.

 

[louie_joey]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

Thanks for that! So cool!

 

[sstickly22]

Re: K9 Agility, Dock Diving, Disc Freestlye, 60 Pole Weave & JRT Hurdle Racing...(pic

The dock diving dogs are Black lab in teal vest- John and Maddy, the chessie is Melissa and Smoke (rescued chessie) the winner and new world record holder chocolate lab is Sean and Jordan. I only know since I compete with them every weekend and am best friends with John and Maddy and Melissa and Smoke. GREAT JOB GUYS!!! Great pictures. Let me know if you have any more as I am sure they would love them if you want to email them.