The Days of Johann - an agility dog!

New AKC Fast & Mixed Breed Titles approved

Posted: 03 Aug 2009 03:16 PM PDT

The AKC Board, at the July Board Meeting, approved new Fast Class titles effective January 1, 2010.

Here are the details from the AKC website:

FAST Agility Class – New Advanced Title

...it was voted (unanimously) to approve suggested changes to Chapter 9, AKC Regulations for Agility Trials, to add a new advanced title past the Master FAST title. The new title will be called Triple Q Excellent (TQX).

In addition, the regulations correct the Titles chart to show the right number of Qs required for the MXF and MFP tiles. Complete regulation changes are attached as Appendix B. New wording is as follows (underlined):

Chapter 9.

Triple Q Excellent = TQX

Requires the XF title. In order to acquire the Triple Q Excellent Title, a dog must
receive 10 triple qualifying scores obtained from the Excellent B Standard Agility
Class, the Excellent B Jumpers With Weaves Agility Class and the Excellent B
FAST Agility Class on the same day.

Triple Q Excellent Preferred = TQXP

Requires the XFP title. In order to acquire the Triple Q Excellent Preferred Title, a
dog must receive 10 triple qualifying scores from the Excellent B Standard
Preferred Agility Class, the Excellent B Jumpers With Weaves Preferred Agility
Class and the Excellent B FAST Preferred Agility Class on the same day.

The Board minutes also include approvals of titles and trial procedures for the addition of mixed breeds to compete in separate classes and earn separate titles in AKC trials beginning April of 2010. You can read the full minutes of the meeting here.

Edit: Rumors are indicating that the TQX will be retroactive back to Jan 1, 2007, when FAST first became a title class. (unconfirmed)

Walkin' the walk!

Posted: 03 Aug 2009 01:23 PM PDT

Mum, Gracie and I have been walking a lot lately, mostly because the weather has been just amazing, nice and cool in the evenings. Mum decided to take our Palm Centro with us the other day and get a few pics, so we could show you some of our neighborhood. We thought for a phone camera they came out pretty good :)

Here we are waiting somewhat patiently for Mum to get movin'.

Awww...finally we are off!

First order of the walk, checking peemails since yesterday's walk.

And we always have to sit at the curb before crossing the road. Safety first, Mum always says. I don't think I've crossed a single street my entire five years of life before sitting. Gotta watch out for those cars and hid lights and look right and left (or is it left and right :)

Then we're off again, here's one of our nice walk views, sidewalks everywhere, new trees planted between the sidewalks and the road, lots and lots of look a like houses and overly fertilized green grass, that Mum doesn't like us to be on too much.

Every time we turn this certain corner, there's a house with a bunny in the yard. Shhhh...Gracie still thinks it's real, silly girl! She pulls and tugs and squeals her fool head off everytime we get near it. BOL!!!

Then we turn another corner to see one of four retention ponds in our neighborhood. Gracie loves them!!! Me too!!! But Mum doesn't let us go there much, lots and lots of duck poo, yum! And since they are retention ponds they are basically the run off from the streets and everyone's overly fertilized lawns, nasty stuff! We thought once we saw a two headed fish in theres.

Every other house has these utility boxes in the yard. The nice thing is that all cables and lines are buried in our neighborhood, so we don't lose our electricity very much, or our cable during storms. The' in' thing is to plant perennial grasses around them to hide them from view since they are in lots and lots of front yards. They are also very nice places for little critters to hide.