DOCNA East Coast Nationals -- as reported by Maryellen Miller

We all had a great time at the DOCNA East Coast Nationals.

Brit, West and Charlie all came home with placements and lots of ribbons and medals.

West did not make the final rounds today for standard or jumpers since he dropped a single bar in both classes on Saturday. I am sure the bars were my fault as this is the first weekend I was able to run with him in nearly two months due to my knee injury. I think my timing is just a bit off with him. However, he and Brit both finished in 3rd place in the East Coast North American Challenge and earned a medal and a nice placement ribbon.

Brit and Charlie moved on to the final round for Regional Championships, Brit in both Jumpers and Standard and Charlie in Jumpers.

It was really fun as one of my good friends and fellow competitors was the only dog to make it to the final round in 16" veterans with Brit and it was a head to head competition between the two dogs for the final placements. I ran Brit in Standard and we beat Donna and Dazzle to become Regional Champs in 16" Veteran's Standard class. I was in way too much pain by the end of that round to be able to run Brit in the Jumpers final round. Al kindly took my jumpers run for me and ran Brit beautifully. Brit and Dazzle ran the course with a .03 difference in course time with Brit coming out the leader for the final round. However, she had dropped a bar in Friday's run, so Dazzle won the three day event by just under 4 points, giving Brit a second place in the 16" veterans jumpers class. It was a great way to end the weekend. Dazzle and Brit are both very competitive dogs in that class so it was appropriate that we split the Regional Championships between us in our jump height.

Charlie was a bit giddy with his run today and took an off course in jumpers to finish in Third Place for the Regional Championships for 20" jumpers. Still, he had some spectacular runs over the weekend and I was very proud of them both.

Maryellen