Mr. Jones, Djairo and I got back home on the 24th of November after 3 very nice weeks in the USA. I stayed with a very good
friend of mine, who lives in the San Francisco area for the first and the last week, and the week in between we went to the
Nationals in Las Vegas in the Southpoint hotel.
I entered both Mr. Jones and Djairo for the Most Versatile Australian Shepherd (MVA) competition. In order to qualify they
had to have at least a qualifying score for herding (cattle, sheep or ducks), at least one qualifying score for agility, obedience of
tracking, and a good report on their MVA-evaluation.
The sheep were huge and not very cooperative… (to say the least). The trial was in a large indoor arena with large video screens
hanging from the ceiling in the middle. All in all, it was just a bit too much for me and the boys…
Fortunately Djairo worked very well on ducks (he was very calm, which is very ‘unlike’ Djairo…). We got a fourth place in the
Started class! I was so happy!!!
In the agility trial they both did super! The Friday before the Nationals I entered them both in a pre-trial, so that they would
know the obstacles and the arena before the Nationals-trial. I entered Jones in a Regular and a Jumper round. He had a first
place on the Regular and a sixth place on the Jumping. It was sooo cool!!!
I entered Djairo for 2 Regular rounds and 2 Jumpers. He was 5th and 8th on the Regular runs and two 2nd places on his
Jumpers!!! I was so happy!
Also at the Nationals trial they did great at agility!
I believe Jones had another second, third and sixth place (and a very nice disqualifying run…), and Djairo had another first,
second, third, and fifth place!
For Jones, the obedience trial was on the same day as his Sheep run, and as I’m still not really sure about his ‘broad jump
technique’ and did not want to frustrate us both right before the sheep run, so I pulled him back for Obedience…
Djairo did compete (in the CD class) and had a qualifying score of 181 I believe.
For the MVA you also have to be in the MVA-evaluation where you get points for the head, movement, etc. The highest possible
score is 90 points. Djai got a very nice 88.5 and Mr. Jones had 87 points, so very nice results there too!!! (Plus two more very
nice ribbons… hihihi)
Finally, Djairo ended 17th out of the 85 dogs that were entered for the MVA-competition. Since Mr. Jones and I could not get
the sheep to go (and I foolishly did not enter him on ducks), he could not qualify for MVA…
But I am sooo proud of both my boys! But especially of Djairo getting the 17th place! It was so cool, because he was only entered
in the Novice and Started classes and then you get way less points than when you are entered in Elite or Advanced (175 for a
qualifying run in the Started class, and 195 for a qualifying run in Advanced).
I need to take another look at the list (when it’s finally published), but I believe that Djairo was also one of the youngest dogs to
qualify (not yet 2.5 years old…)!!!
Djairo also obtained 4 more ASCA titles that week! He got his final ‘legs’ for his STDd and RS-N titles and all legs he needed
for his JS-N and GS-N titles.