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July 8-10 found many RyLadd shelties at the Blue Ridge (AKC) agility trial. Bunni Grant finished her MX! picking up 9 more mach points. On Saturday she picked up another 14 points! This makes Bunni's official name and titles; "UACH Daval Naughty Games RN, MX, MXJ, OF, NJP, APD, PJM, PRM, APS, APK, APS, S-TN-O, O-WV-O, NCC, NJC, NAC, TG-N, HP-N, JS-O Wow, that's a mouthful! Congratulations Becky and Bunni! Susan Kolster and Jordan picked up another QQ. Lexi Hope and Gossip had a VERY exciting weekend. The showed Friday and Saturday for the first time in Excellent B for both classes and walked (ran) away with 2 QQ's. As if her first QQ on Friday wasn't enough the repeat on Saturday almost sent Lexi over the edge!!!! We are all so proud. Sunday, Kara, Kelleigh and Gotcha made their way down and Gotcha picked up QQ number 7! Kelleigh was first in Ex JWW 12". What a fantastic weekend for all.

Family concerns have kept me from updating the news for a while. I will try to catch everyone up on some exciting accomplishments from the last few weeks. On June 20th Debbie Stewart wrote "Dream finished her NAJ and NF this weekend at the BOTC trial in steamy Birmingham, Alabama. This was her first time to run on indoor soccer turf and she ran really well with nice times. Of course time is not a problem with Dream, lol". Over the 4th of July weekend Becky Grant and her crew were at a USDAA trial. "Bunni - 1st place Q in Performance Grand Prix (PGP)
2nd place in Performance Speed Jumping Round 2 (so we got a check, but not a Q on Saturday)

2nd place Q in Performance III Jumpers 3rd Place Q in Performance III Snooker. Willie had a 2nd Place Q in Veterans Jumpers.

Bonnie Frank was showing at the AKC trial in Berks county PA. "Cosi and I went to the Berks trial over the July 4 holiday weekend. This is a new trial added to Berk's schedule. We were indoors, but there was no air conditioning. It was very hot; I set up near an outlet and brought Cosi's big box fan from home. He was warm, but comfortable with his cool pad, water, and fan.
We had great runs on Saturday, and ended up Q'ing in FAST and JWW on Sunday. We took 2nd place in both, coming in after Niki (Nancy Samchuck's sheltie). We were happy to see a 1, 2 sheltie finish! We had a very difficult standard run on Sunday. As I watched the 24's and 20's run, there were few Q's. Hmmmm...how will we do? Cosi nailed the course with only one little bobble (handler error). I have never been more proud of our team work."
6/23 Last weekend found Lexi and Gossip down at Mattaponi's agility trial. They just showed on Sunday and Gossip qualified for her second Excellent Standard leg with a First Place! Also showing just on Saturday, Gotcha Kolster earned another QQ and finished his MX. Congratulations!

Proving BIG things come from small packages, Matthew (Gaydos) won the Performance Grand Prix at the USDAA Northeast regional competition in Bethlehem PA. Way to go!!!! The trophy is almost bigger than little Mattie!

Memorial Day - Kelleigh(Kolster) earns QQ number 7!!!!. She more than managed to hold her own against all the younger competition with a First place in Standard and 3rd place in Jumpers!!!! You go girl! Heather Ortega writes "We were in Fredericksburg, VA this weekend. On Saturday Trax got his first Ex B Jumpers leg and took 4th place! On Monday he got his third Ex B Standard leg and got 2nd place. But his most amazing run was his Jumpers run on Monday. He didn't Q as a bar somehow dropped(didn't hear or see his feet hit it) but he did the 156 yard course in 25.00 seconds for a speed of 6.24 yards per second! The fastest in the 16" class and his fastest time ever!!! He seems to be getting faster by the day!"

Riddleand Becky Grant made their debut in Rally this past Sunday (5/22). Both did a great job and they earned their first leg with a First Place! Congratulations!

Kara Kolster emailed the following great news! "Gotcha trialled at the new Border Crossing site in Toano, VA yesterday and earned a QQ and his MXJ!! Just coming up on his 2nd anniversary of trialling in a few weeks, he now has his MXJ, 8 legs toward MX, 5 QQs and nearly 300 MACH points." And from Heather Ortega "Trax did great this weekend! He got his first and second gamblers legs(placed second both times), his first standard leg(first place) and he
placed second in Steeplechase/Performance Speed Jumping round 1 which qualified him for round 2. In round 2 he won first place! So overall a very successful weekend!"

Izzy (Plaiss) is making her Mama run! "Wanted to let you know that Izzy finished her Excellent Standard title this weekend. (May 8) I am so excited with her. Izzy was so with it on Sunday that she ended up in Third place with a 44 second run in Standard. She was beat by two border collies run by two 20 year olds. (38 and 39 seconds) I just can't keep up with that. We have some really hard competition down here. I pulled her off of a jump in jumpers. That is ok we now have 40 MACH points. I guess those double Q's will be hard for me. I have been showing for 13 years and have not had this success. Thank you Riot for this wonderful girl." And some USDAA news. Matthew (Gaydos) won the Grand Prix in both trials over the last two weekends!
A couple of late updates to last weekends festivities. Heather Ortega and Trax were at Sheltie club. "Trax got his first Exc B Standard leg this weekend and took 3rd with 42 seconds! Lots of other really close runs as well :)" And Karen Gaydos called to say both Riot and Matthew QQ'd on Saturday. Sunday they took the day off and Guiltyran. She Q'd in Jumpers and missed the elusive QQ by a single weave pole in Standard! Congratulations to all!!!!
April 29 - May 1 was another busy weekend. Here is all the news. Debbie Stewart and Dream had a successful venture into another performance venue. This time it was Obedience competition. "Dream finished her CD this weekend in Prattville, AL. She had a 3rd place and two 4th places. She's had a busy month!"
In the Agility rings there was lots of good things going on. "We (Jordan with Susan Kolster) had a GREAT weekend at the Sheltie Club trial in Frederick, MD Fri/Sat - QQ'd both days!! More importantly, she ran really well on, for the most part, not very 'Jordan-friendly' type courses! She had both 2nd place runs on Friday, 3rd in Std, 2nd in Jumpers on Sat. First time I've been to a local trial with so many 8" dogs, though ... there were 30+ 8's in Exc! ... most trials, you don't have that many little dogs in Exc/Op/Nov combined - it was great! (We're taking Sunday off, and don't show again until mid-May at the Belroi KC trial.) As usual, there were so many folks completely taken with the little girl ... and they're always amazed that she's 9 1/2! And Cosi (Frank) got his first Excellent B JWW leg at the SSCGB trial in Frederick. Proud mom Bonnie writes "It was a tough course and he nailed it!" Becky Grant was busy with 3 dogs. "At Sheltie Club this weekend, Bunni got her third Double Q on Friday and an Excellent Jumpers Q on Saturday. Nikkie got a Novice Jumpers Q and won her class and did her first set of right side weaves in competition! Willie, as always, had fun, but managed to drop one silly bar every time he ran, but without our usual spinning, so I was pleased and take my victories where I can. Riddle, not to be left out, enjoyed being loved and generally admired by all around her.
Karen Gaydos has lots of news....."My RyLadd kids are keeping me busy! Finally, I have time to brag about their latest accomplishments. Matthew and Riot both qualified for and attended the AKC Nationals and did very well. Matthew came in 8th place in the ISC JWW on Friday-8th out of over 200 twelve inch dogs-what a great little boy. Riot was 14th in the 18 inch division of the ISC classes on Friday. Unfortunately, only knocked bars kept him from going into the final round. He had only been back 3 weeks from recovering from a shoulder issue so he was a little out of condition. The following weekend, Riot and I headed to PA for the USDAA Mid-Atlantic showcase. Riot had a great weekend taking 3rd place in the triathlon with some very tough competition! He received a beautiful trophy and some $$! This past weekend we competed at a local USDAA show and Riot won both Steeplechase and Grand Prix! He also took 1st place in Snooker getting him a Super Q."
April 16 and 17. News from down south.....Barb Plaiss and Izzy. "Izzy finished her Excellent Jumpers title this weekend. She is so awesome that we went to Excellent B and got a second place and 21 MACH points. She also got an Excellent Standard leg. One more to go!"

April 16 and 17. Mattaponi held their UKC agility trial on a very wet Saturday but much nicer Sunday. Becky Grant writes "Despite the rain on Saturday Bunni was “perfect” in the two runs I ran her in. Today, she finished her U-ACH title with about 20 points to spare. Willie picked up 16 points this afternoon in AGI, and Nikki got her 2nd AGII leg this morning. We scratched most of our runs yesterday, as I didn’t want the dogs out there on the extremely sloppy course. All were placements, but at the moment, I am too tired to go out and get the bags with the ribbons, mostly, they were 2nd place in all of there runs. You would have laughed at Nikki’s expression in her second AGII run today, she ran happy, but when I asked for a down in the pause box, she looked at me as if to say, “you don’t seriously expect me to lay down in the mud do you”, so we went on, as her being happy is more important than her qualifying."

You would have laughted at Nikki’s expression in her second AGII run today, she ran happy, but when I asked for a down in the pause box, she looked at me as if to say, “you don’t seriously expect me to lay down in the mud do you”, so we went on, as her being happy is more important than her qualifying.
And Dream (Stewart) was not finished yet......April 15th "Dream finished her NA title today at the ASSA National Agility Trial in Gray Summit, MO. She took first place in the class and was also the High Scoring Novice dog." What a spring they are having!
April 10th was a busy day for RyLadd shelties. Debbie Stewart and Dream were strutting their stuff in herding. "Dream and I made our debut in herding this weekend and came home with a PT. Dream is now Windridge-Plail Relentless Dream RE PT. I'm so proud of my Dream girl! Attached is a picture of Dreamwith her ribbons.
April 8th, 9th and 10th found lots of RyLadd shelties at the big USDAA trial in PA. Bonnie Frank and Cosi were competing. "Cosi qualified once and placed second 3 times at the trial this weekend. We got our second gambler's leg. We dropped a bar in both std and jumpers (are you sure that's not a recessive gene!??!). His standard time was 36 seconds and his jumpers run was 17 seconds. Whew!" Riot and Karen were there as well. Riot's runs qualified him for the Triathlon competition and he came in 3rd!! They awarded a beautiful glass trophy. I am hoping for a picture of Riot and his trophy to post here. And Cindy Deubler wrote "Kimi was wonderful this weekend—she actually won Grand Prix (Steeplechase would have been more rewarding, at least financially <G>)! But she Q’d in Team, Grand Prix, Steeplechase and in our last run of the weekend—Masters Snooker (I think we just missed a Super Q—but it was an amazing run!) She ran wonderful today. She was very very good : )
Also this weekend, over in West Virginia, Becky Grant and her gang were showing at an AKC trial. "Bunni Qd in Standard on Saturday and Sunday at Mountaineer. Nikki had a clean run in jumpers on Saturday, but was over time, and was happy in Standard with mistakes. Willie had good runs each day, but one dropped bar in all but the last jumpers class, where the problem was tunnel suck coming out of the weaves. A good time was had by all! " The Kolsters were also there showing and had some awesome runs!
Everyone had a great time at the Agility Nationals. Chipper (Fletcher) had a fantastic showing with all 5 runs clean! Tracy emailed during the challenger round. "They just posted the final scores for 16 inch and Chipper came in 23rd overall. He was 4.5 seconds out of being in the finals. I'm so proud of him!" The others has some bobbles along the way but Sunday morning was a great showing for all the RyLadd shelties. Congratulations to everyone! If anyone who attended would like to write about their experience I will post it here.

April 1 - 3. The AKC Agility Nationals are being held this weekend in Lexington Virginia. Susan Kolster and Jordan are competing in the 8" division. Karen Gaydos and Matthew are competing in the 12" division and Karen Gaydos and Riot are competing in the 16" division. Also in the 16 inch division are Tracy Fletcher and Chipper. Good luck to all!!!!
Here's some exciting news from Pat Moloney-Harmon. "Beckham got his Open Superior in Chances at the Pawzazz trial at the beginning of March. We have been trying to get those Chances legs for some time and he did it in style with getting the last 2 legs he needed at the trial. Those legs gave him his Open Triple Superior, Open Superior Versatility, and Open All-Around Titles. He has been in Elite for all classes except Chances for some time now so now he is a 100% Elite boy. Beckham was the top dog in NADAC in Tunnelers for 2010 (not just Shelties, but for all dogs who compete in NADAC). He loves Tunnelers and just speeds around those courses with a big smile on his face. Beckham is also Mr. January for the 2012 Just Shelties Willow Press calendar."
March 21 Susan Kolster writes "Jordan& I have had some really nice runs the past 2 weekends - just not many Q's! We only got into the Blue Ridge trials at Winchester on Friday & Sunday from the waitlist - q'd in one run each day. This past weekend we were in PA at the (huge!) York trial, and went 1 for 4, on very nice courses - seems we're back in the j-o-l-t (just one little thing!) club. I'm hoping we've gotten the "dress rehearsal" out of the way now, and can relax and have fun at Nationals! (yeah, knowing me? - have fun, sure ... relax? - not so much!)
March 13 "My (Karen Gaydos) RyLadd kids were awesome again this weekend. I only showed Saturday at TBAC but 'the Rock' aka Matthew aka Mattie QQd once again and Guilty is living up to her name as a Quiet Riot with a QQ. And Riot had a fabulous JWW run and a Q. We missed a Std Q because he was a little over zealous on the dogwalk."
March 13 Bonnie Frank writes "Cosi and I traveled to Dream Park in NJ the weekend of March 12 and 13. In Saturday's Excellent B Standard class Cosicame in 2nd. It's our first placement in the Excellent B class! We were very close in jumpers all weekend, but no Q. It was a great start to the spring season for us."

March 6 From Karen Gaydos "I showed Riot at Dream Park this weekend for the first time after a 3 month break to rest his shoulder. He truly lived up to his name, Relentless. After 3 months off and only two short practice sessions this week, he QQd! What a boy!
February 19-20. Well it was a busy and successful weekend for RyLadd shelties. Heard from Heather Ortega. " Trax got his Exc A Jumpers title this weekend! I only went on Sunday. The course was 144 yards and his time was 23.58 which just so happened to be the fastest 16" time out of both A and B! The standard course was pretty interesting and he was so good! The tunnel/dog walk discrimination got us though and the tunnel monster sucked Trax in instead of taking the dog walk and so we didn't Q that run but it was so great otherwise!" From Kara Kolster "Kelleigh and Gotcha had a great weekend in Lexington, VA. Both picked up another QQ and qualified 3 of 4 runs for the weekend. Kelleigh earned three placements (1st, 2nd & 3rd) and Gotcha earned one 3rd placement, all in very competitive classes as this was a "warm up" trial for many people at the site of this year's AKC National." Matthew (Gaydos) earned a QQ Friday and another QQ Saturday. Nikki (Grant) was a star the an ASCA trial Saturday, qualifying in both her runs.

It has been awhile since I have updated the web pages. Here is a roundup from the end of December up through January. Debbie Stewart writes "Dream's herding instructor thinks she has a lot of promise and we hope to make our debut in herding in 2011. It's truly amazing to see my little girl do what she was bred to do." Debbie included some photos (more on the agility photos page).

Dream's litter sister, Izzy, has also been busy. The first weekend in January found Barb and Izzy Plaiss in the agility rings. "Izzy got another Open standard leg on Friday with a first. Saturday she received another leg in Excellent A with a first place. Today we had a great run but went from a tunnel to three straight jumps for the finish and I was a little too far behind and she spun at the last Jump. DARN!!! She has been so much fun. We need one leg in open and one leg in Excellent A jumpers. Maybe at Franklin at the end of the month."

Sunday January 9th, Bonnie Frank devoted her blog to Cosi's day at the PA farm show. This photo was taken by the Farm show photographers and posted on the Farm Show website. "Cosi and Jack and I traveled to the Pennsylvania Farm Show today. We set up camp at the equine arena. Here's a photo (photo on blog) of Cosi and me getting ready to run. He has his Chilly Buddy coat on because we were right next to an entrance:Our club set two mirror courses so that two dogs could "race" and the crowd could cheer on their team. And cheer they did! The noise was deafening. I was so proud of Cosi, who took the PA system, the crowd noise, and the excitement of the event all in stride. He totally rocked his run, enjoying every minute." Here is a link to see a video of the competition. http://shelties4us.blogspot.com/2011/01/farm-show.html

Karen Gaydos has been showing in USDAA this January. On Saturday 1/23/2011 Karen wrote "little Mattie (Matthew) got his MAD title on Saturday! Now working toward the ADCH and MACH 3!"

It looks like 2011 is starting off great!. Congratulations to all. Keep sending your news and photos. Check out the new photos on the Photos for Fun pages. If I missed any new titles or other news please let me know.

The News from 2010 and before

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