Episode 317: 2022 AKC Agility Invitational Wrap Up with Jane Bronson

(upbeat music) - Welcome to Bad Dog Agility, a podcast helping you reach all of your dog agility goals. Whether it's competing under the bright lights of the televised finals at Westminster, or successfully navigating a homemade course in your own backyard, we'll bring you training tips, interviews, and news about the great sport of dog agility. Are you ready? - I'm ready. - I'm ready. - I'm ready. - The

show starts with your hosts, Jennifer, Esteban, and Sarah. (upbeat music) - I'm Jennifer. - I'm Esteban. - And I'm Sarah, and this is episode 317. Today's podcast is brought to you by hititboard.com and the new Teeter TeachIt, an easy to use tool that controls the amount of tip on your teeter, so you can introduce motion to your dog in a gradual way. Go to hitIiboard.com for the new

Teeter TeachIt and other training tools and toys. Use discount code "BDA10" to get 10% off your order. That's hititboard.com. Today we're gonna be talking about the 2022 AKC Agility Invitational and we have a very special guest with us on the podcast today. Welcome to the podcast, Jane. We have Jane Bronson, welcome. - Thanks, hi. - And of course we have Jennifer here from Ohio. - Hello, everyone. -

And both of these ladies were at the event and Jane came home with the win in the 20 inch class, so we are excited to have her on the podcast, and I just wanted to start first with a little bit of history from both of you on your experience in the Invitational in general, and I'm gonna start with Jennifer, because Jane's is longer, so, Jennifer, I think we

had had alluded to this in a couple of previous podcasts about your journey to get to the Invitational with B, but why don't you give us a little recap about you and the Invitational. - Yeah, this was my first time attending the Invitational and competing with my own dog. I have attended once before and it was quite a while ago. I don't actually remember what year it was,

but I know it was before I had Ethan, so at least over eight years ago, and I went and showed two other dogs, a border collie and a miniature American Shepherd, and this was the first time going and qualifying with my own dog, so it was very, very exciting. I had not been in a while as a competitor. Now in between those years of going with students' dogs

and then going this year, I did do some coaching, so I would go down and work with the students and coach, work on mental game, assessing their plan, kind of working strategy out, but it was a very different experience to go as a competitor, so I had a great time. I'm really hoping to get to go again sometime in the future. It might not be next year, but

sometime down the road, because I really, really enjoyed the event. - Awesome, and, Jane, we actually met you at the Invitational many, many years ago when we were there with our Rottweiler, Sammy, and so we already knew you a little bit from back then, so tell us a little bit about your history with the Invitational. - I started going with my dog, Beamer. He was a golden retriever.

I took him seven times. We went to Long Beach a few times and then we transitioned to Orlando. He made the finals maybe once and came in second place that time. Phire has been invited three times. I took her two times and she was in the finals two times. This time she won. - And Phire is a Beamer daughter, yes? - Yes, she is. - Now, for people

who don't know, Beamer is a legendary dog in golden retrievers in agility here in the United States. Love that dog. I knew of Beamer even before we went to the Invitational and met Beamer, but then meeting Beamer in person was amazing, like, he was just such a cool dog, so sweet, and affectionate, and friendly, and just all business on the course, one of the great agility dogs certainly,

and so we're big golden retriever fans. - We're big Beamer fans. - I'm partial to the breed, so let me hear a little bit about the venue, so I understand that, once again, and now it's been many years in a row, right? It's been in Florida, in Orlando. What do you all think of the setup, like, how many rings are we talking about? How many spectators are we

talking about? Is it indoors? For people who have never been to the Invitational, but they hear a lot about it, what is the experience like? Let me go ahead and start with Jennifer, kinda set the stage for us. - So the Invitational is held indoors at the convention center there. It's a huge convention center area. Kind of navigating it down there with all the hotels and stuff, it

can be its own little journey, but it is in one of the corners of the convention center alongside all of the other events that they have. They have dock diving in another corner, obedience and rally in another corner, confirmation is kind of in the center, and shopping scattered all out in between, but it's three rings indoors on turf, kind of all in its own area, and if you

imagine three rings making an L that where the fourth ring would be held is kind of the managerial stuff, like check-in and souvenir stand, the practice jumps, and then alongside is all of the crating, so they kind of keep all of the agility people together, but then it's very easy to access different things, if you wanna go shopping or you wanna go watch confirmation. I took advantage of

going and watching some of the other events, but as far as the rings themselves, if you've been to AKC Nationals, it's very similar. It's three rings, all the same in size, all the same equipment. The only thing that's different is the main ring has got the fancy stuff, because that's where they do the filming, so it's got kind of the backdrops and the solid sides, and that's where

the finals was held, and that's where the stands were, so the other two rings didn't have a lot of seating. It was a lot of standing around ringside or bringing up your own chair and then the where the main ring, I don't remember what ring number it was, but where the finals was held was where the seating was. I felt like, compared to past events now, and when

I say past events, I'm not talking last year, even the year before, I'm talking way back, even pre-COVID, I thought the quantity of spectators was a lot less for the finals, but I also think a big factor of that, and I was discussing this with a couple other exhibitors, is some of the live stream offerings that they now have, and I'll use myself as an example. I got

done running, and I went to my hotel room, and I watched my students and my friends run on the live stream. You didn't used to be able to do that. If you wanted to watch people run or you wanted to finish watching your class, you had to stay there and watch, and now watching is so much more accessible. We see this across a lot of different events. I

know we talked about it following up the US Open that, because they live stream the finals, a lot less people actually come in and sit ringside to watch, because they can watch from the comfort of their hotel room, or at the dinner table, or in their RV, so I felt like the spectating was good enough to have some adrenaline and excitement, but not jammed, packed like I think

it used to be. I remember in past years, it was hard to get a seat for the finals. You'd lay your blankets out and now I just didn't find that to be the case. - Right, that is super interesting. I know way back when we went... I think when maybe we were at the very... Like, the first three invitationals that they had and people would be there watching

the finals. It was televised at that time and put on Animal Planet, so, for some of the finalists they interviewed us, and put little clips of whatever you said, while your dog was running, and you mentioned the AKC TV, so they're out there filming everything, putting the finals on, and so now you can get it as an app, right, on your TV? - Yes, I believe so. -

Just like Disney+ or Netflix, right? You can get AKC TV and watch the event. Now, full disclosure, I have not seen this year's event yet. I have not yet had the time to watch, although, I typically do, so I can't comment on the production of it at all, but I think the televised aspect is really, really... It's interesting and it's cool, and it's interesting how you mentioned the

adrenaline. Jane, what's your opinion on crowds? The first time I met Phire, I'll throw this story out there, was at Westminster, and it was pre-COVID, and it was packed. So old Westminster was just this, like, I don't wanna say madhouse, but it was just... There were so many people in such a small area. - I mean, it was very-- - It was very dense, dense population, people everywhere,

dogs everywhere, so much noise, and hustle and bustle, and these big cameras, and the strong lights, and, Phire, I recall sitting there, I wanna say we were sitting on one of the spectators chairs next to you, just a bundle of energy is how I remember Phire, so what do you think about crowds versus no crowds, and adrenaline both for you and your dog? - Yeah, absolutely. At that

Westminster, Phire was still very young and she certainly reacted to the crowds. She was a little bit nervous as a start line. I think now that she's more mature, it wouldn't bother her as much. The energy certainly feeds into the dogs. Some dogs love it, some dogs don't. I know Beamer would go to a large arena, look around, and say, "Oh, we're here. I'm ready to work." Phire

doesn't seem to care one way or the other. In the final run, she really was ready to go, and, yeah, I guess she really did like the energy of the crowd, because she ran a little faster and it's really cool to hear the crowd yelling and cheering, and putting that forward. - Yeah, that's awesome to hear. Now, did they interview you afterwards? Does AKC TV have, like, sideline

reporters? Did they do a piece or something? - I don't know if it was AKC or ESPN, some guy talked with me after she won, so, yeah. - Like, with a microphone, they're asking you questions about the course and stuff or they were just like? - Asking about what... I think he asked what I did to prepare for that particular course and I was like, "I don't know,

I just take her out and I run her." - Right, right, that's when you get the questions from someone who clearly is not... - I believe it was the same production crew and staff as they have at the Premier Cup in NAC, because I recognize some of the people, so since I wasn't interviewed, obviously, in the finals or anything, I didn't speak with any of 'em, but standing

ringside, I think I recognized that same guy from the Premier Cup, so I think it was some of the same crew and interview people that they've had in other events earlier in 2022. - The more that we have this on TV, the more I have noticed myself having an appreciation for the candid responses that professional sports people have, like when they've just come off the field and somebody

asks them something, and it's always like-- - You'd be the athletes. - The athletes, yeah. They never break stride. They're just like, "Well, it's a team effort, great game today. The other team did great, blah, blah, blah," and they don't even have to think about it. They could just spout out whatever and it gives me an appreciation for them, but, yeah, you mentioned it being... I think Jane

mentioned that it might have been ESPN and I totally forgot until you said that, that I was at a water polo tournament with the kids last weekend and we walked in the lobby of the Hilton, and it was on TV. It was there in the lobby of the hotel. It was just on the big TV. - You mean the AKC Invitational was on TV? - Yeah, right, yeah,

yeah, so I was like, "Oh, look, there it is again on, like, national TV," and it's not like it's just there for people like you and me who want to TiVo it and watch it, and stuff like that, but it was like what the hotel elected to put on the screen to just be kind of in the background while everybody's checking in. I was like, "Well, that's cool."

- Yeah, I think Agility might be headed toward a real expansion and growth. I've been waiting for it, then things happen, the 2008 recession and now COVID, but I think getting the television contracts for these events, what the AKC has done is really going to increase the awareness of the sport and hopefully get more people in the sport. I saw even a commercial and ad for some type

of drug, like a pharmaceutical where they had a woman and she... Have y'all seen that ad? - Yeah. - Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, and then she's out there doing agility with her dog and I think that's totally awesome, so I think dog agility is really increasing it's visibility, it's profile for the general public. Yeah. - Yeah. - Yeah, so I think that's pretty cool.

Okay, the next thing I want to hear is all about the courses. I guess, before we get to the courses, very quickly, Jane, what did you think of the surface? So what is the surface that they have over there, because it's a convention center, so it's gonna be concrete and I'm guessing they bring in carpet, lay it on top, how do you feel about the surface and how

did your dog do? - We did fine on the surface. The surface is essentially the same surface that we run on virtually every weekend. We trial a lot at American Canine Country and that is the surface that they have, so Phire was very comfortable on it. - Gotcha, so in the Northeast, like, everything's indoors. What about when it's really good weather, like summertime and stuff still? - You

do the soccer domes. - Interesting, interesting. Yeah, I think a lot of agility has really gone indoors. Jen, what did you think about the surface? - Very similar to Jane, it's the surface that I train on and trial on quite regularly. I don't know if it's, like, the exact brand, but it's the same type of surface, meaning it's the turf that's more carpet-like, so not the turf that

has the infill and the rubber pellets, but the type that they roll out. That's what I have in my building, that's what I have it in IncrediPAWS, that's what we trial on, so I did not feel like we had an issue with it at all and the traction seemed pretty good from my understanding that surface doesn't get used except for almost just the Invitational. I think it gets

rolled up and put in AKC storage. I don't know that for a fact, so don't hold me to it, but it's not like it has really, really high traffic use. It's clean, it's in good shape, so I did not have any complaints on the surface at all. - Oh, interesting. It's like the Super Bowl, they roll out the good stuff for you all. Okay, so the Invitational format,

they have a standard round, this is with the contact equipment, a jumping round, a hybrid round, and wait, there's one more, I'm missing one, so are there two-- - The jumpers? - Two jumpers, yeah. - Two jumpers, okay, so two jumping rounds and then they pick the finalists based a little bit on breed so that there are limits, so when we look at the larger competition, they're basically

inviting the top five dogs in each breed. Preferred dogs are included. Occasionally, you'll have dogs in the top five who receive invitations who are not able to attend or elect not to attend and then they will send out a second round of invitations to the, sixth, seventh, eight, ninth dog, however far down they need to go, and when you're looking at the finals, typically it's gonna take four

clean runs to get in, and, did both of you need four clean runs to get in or did both of you have four clean runs to get in this year? Jen, let's start with you. - I did not have four clear with B, so she did not make finals. She ended up with a 3.95, but I did have four clear with the miniature schnauzer and did make finals

on four clear, so in the 12 inch class, I don't know about all the heights, but in the 12 inch class, it did take four clear to make finals. - Gotcha, but one fall was the kiss of death for the sheltie. - Absolutely. - Gotcha, even though the... Oh, and congratulations, by the way, on winning some rounds. I know you won at least round two, because I was

analyzing that video for the VIP members, so, Jane, tell us, what was it, four clean runs that got you in? - Yes, Phire did have four clean rounds and she did win one of the rounds. - Man, that is awesome. It is so hard to win around. You're talking about, I believe, well over 100 dogs. - Yeah, I think there were maybe 130. - Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so

very cool. Okay, well, now I want to hear about the course design. I feel like, and looking at the Invitational courses the last several years, it's pretty static, like, they're, I don't wanna say the same, but they're kind of like-- - The level of-- - Yeah, yeah, they're pretty similar. I feel like there has not been an evolution one way or the other, like they're not getting easier,

they're not getting harder. I think they're fairly predictable, what some people would call AKC-ish. I feel like, typically, usually, the final course is a little bit more difficult. I don't know that that was the case this year. Jane, what did you think of this year's finals course compared to previous years? What did you think of all four preliminary round courses? - That's a pretty big question. I thought

the finals course was brilliant. It let the dogs open up and run, and then it had the double serp, which you had to have a little bit of control over and then they got to open up and run again. A lot of dogs missed the dogwalk, because they were just running full out and people wanted to hurry up, and the handlers wanted to hurry up and get to

where they needed to be for the weave poles. I think so many dogs were eliminated, because of the dogwalk. Most of the dogs just looked really fabulous running the course and they just made little mistakes. I thought it was a brilliant course. - Yeah, that's interesting. I like how, in courses, I know you'll look at elements, at these big competitions in particular, where you don't want it to

be too technical, and when I say technical, I typically mean controlled, lots of turning where the dog really doesn't have a lot of opportunity to open up and probably plenty of traps, so you mentioned that kind of double serpentine line. What we'll do is we'll put the course map in the show notes, so people can click on it and take a look. You'll know exactly what we're talking

about, but the courses then, also have these spaces that you're talking about where dogs can open up and I feel like one good thing that the AKC does for this competition that I think maybe doesn't happen for other competitions is they have a strong eye for the big dogs, especially, the 24s, because you get some of these breeds that are non-standard type agility dogs, like, you don't see

them very often in agility and they're, like, 25 inches at at the shoulders, right? If you're gonna see an Afghan hound running at a big event in the finals, this is the event it's going to be and you're not gonna run those dogs through three tunnels and lots of of ramps, for example, and so I think it's really cool to have those elements in there. Jen, what did

you think about the course design? - Overall, in the preliminary rounds, I kind of agree with you. They were on point with what I would expect. There were a few things that I didn't see that I would've thought. I was surprised that there were so many courses with lead outs. I'm used to the bigger events where they have more dogs to run, shorter starts, maybe a forward send

or a tunnel, and I didn't have that. I think I let out on almost every single round and some of 'em really benefited me. In round four I did a three jump lead out, so I thought that the preliminary rounds were pretty on point with what I would've expected. Nothing made me, like, super nervous. Nothing was super easy. I thought that they were pretty good. I felt the

finals course was easier than I would've expected, but that's not to say that it wasn't a nice course. I tend to see... Like the comment that you made, I tend to see the finals course to be a bit more unique or a bit more interesting. Rumor on the street is, that they lift some of the typical restrictions for a finals course, so, on paper I thought, "Oh, that

looks pretty good," and then when it was built I was like, I just didn't see some of the challenge that I expected to see, so when comparing the finals results, it did seem like there was a higher percentage of clean runs in the finals for Invitational than what I've seen as the number of clean runs in finals for AKC Nationals. Now I don't think it's fair to compare

the two events, because we're talking about two different structures, two different formats, different dogs-- - Different pools. - You had to run four clear to get there, so the quality of dogs going into finals and invitations, I feel like, is super high, so, if they ran four clear to get there, odds are they can run four clear again, but to have 11 clean runs in the eight inch

finals, to have all but one dog in the 12 inch finals ran clean, there was only one dog that didn't run clean, so, really at that point, when you have those high numbers of clean runs, you really get down to speed and it just becomes a speed game, and I think that's where, as Jane was mentioned, the course really allowed the dogs to open up and run, especially,

the back line, once you got done with the double serp, you just ran the perimeter of the the run. It was just jump tunnel, dogwalk, like, there was no turn, there was no side change, it was just a perimeter run. As you got into the 20 inch class, there were only four clean runs, so, yay, Jane, you were really kicking butt out there being one of the few

that could go out there and kill it, so, as we got with the bigger dogs, less clean runs, but even when you went up to 24s, you had seven clean runs, so I personally would've liked to see a bit more excitement and fun, and challenge in the finals, but, again, it's not to say that I didn't like the course. I'm just used to a little bit more, I

feel like, handling. I feel like it was a lot more test of skill, contacts, weave poles, dogwalk contacts, and that kind of thing, but the preliminary rounds, I thought, were all very on point with what I would've expected. - Yeah, I wonder if we've reached a point at agility and I think I've been wondering this for a couple years now. We're small dogs and I'm gonna say eight,

12, maybe half of the 16s have reached a point where the handling is really, really good and the courses simply cannot challenge them in the same way that courses are challenging the larger dogs, given that you're gonna put every class on the same course. - On the same course. - So, at at big, international events, obviously, the small dogs run entirely different courses than the large dogs, and

the differences matter, like, you cannot get a large dog through some of the small dog courses, because the spacing... There are gonna be situations where they land on top of a tunnel or they're just obviously going to crash a jump that a small dog could do, and I think maybe you need to have, for these small dogs, to differentiate between the very top teams, so how many years

will it be where you have a near a 100% Q rate in finals for the eighths and 12s before AKC says, "Okay, look, I think maybe we need different courses for the eighths and 12s, and then maybe we do small and then big," maybe not a different one for every single height class, but maybe we group them at least into two groups. - Wow, so I just had

a thought, and I thought probably this is not gonna happen, but the AKC has recently given themselves so much time for the challengers round in the finals in nationals, AKC Nationals. - What do you mean so much time? - I don't know if we've talked about this on the podcast, but the schedule came out for the 2023 AKC Nationals and it used to be that you would do

hybrid, and challengers, and finals on Sunday, and now they're only doing challengers and finals, am I right, Jen? Am I remembering that right? - Yes, that is correct. - Right, only challengers and finals on Sunday, which, personally, just... I guess, we'll go on a sidebar for, like, 30 seconds here, like, I'm not sure how I feel about that, because everybody who doesn't make challengers or finals is just

gonna leave on Saturday and it's gonna be a ghost town on Sunday is my prediction, but it does lend itself... If you've given yourself all day long, to do what used to only take half a day, it does lend itself to the ability to have different courses for your small and your big dogs, so I'm just gonna put that out there into the world for any ears that

are hearing. - Yeah, so two things on that, one, I mean, if you look at the numbers from NAC, there wasn't that super high, clean run rate in the small dogs, so, at AKC Nationals, less than 50% in both the eight inch and the 12 inch class ran clean, so you only had five out of 11 run clean in the eight inch class and you only had six

out of 17 run clean in the 12 inch, so maybe at the nationals, you don't need the two different courses, but definitely for Invitational, I love the way you're thinking, it's a small dog class and a big dog class, and, again, not to get off topic, but I think part of the thing about nationals, and I 100% agree it could be a ghost town, especially, if we can

all go watch on livestream now as I was talking about earlier, but from my understanding, I still think we're gonna have a pretty late finals, because it's all based on the television, so we can't do finals at noon, they have to push it back, so that's gonna be viewed, so I think Sunday's gonna be a pretty low key day with challengers for those that are having it and

then maybe, I don't know, but maybe two or three o'clock finals or maybe even one or two on Sunday, so I'm in favor of your thought for sure. I like that idea, small dog course and a big do course, but I'm not sure how AKC would pull that one off with time and all of that. - Right, right. Well, I have another question for Jane about course design

and I will put a link to the show notes, but we've a actually talked to Carrie DeYoung, who is the director of AKC Agility and if anybody is thinking about going to the Invitational, it's a must listen, because she basically talks about their thought process about the Invitational, and about course design, and about accommodating all of the dogs from the smallest chihuahua to the biggest Great Dane, and

what it means, and how they treat this event differently than other events, and one of the things that I believe is true, correct me if I'm wrong, about the Invitational, is that they use the wider aperture tunnels at the Invitational, so AKC allows for, I believe, is it 24 inch or 26? And they always use the 26 at the Invitational. Jen's giving me the head nod that I'm

right, so Jen Whitten noticed the difference, because she's running a sheltie, but, Jane, do you notice the difference or does it kind of... It's just part of the natural variation and agility, and you don't really notice, like, a palpable difference that you feel when you're running these courses. - I have to admit, I never noticed that, and there is one venue that I trial at that does use

the larger tunnel, and I can't say that I really notice that when I'm running the course there. - Right, so I guess it's really, like, the 24s, like, that's the class that's going to really be able to tell the difference. - And I will say, I nod my head to the fact that, yes, AKC allows both 24 and 26 inch tunnels. I don't actually know what was used

there, so I wasn't saying, "Yes, they used 26," just, "Yes, that is the rule," because I don't know either. I'm kind of with Jane, I don't... - No one noticed the difference, but I had run a 12 and a 16 inch dog, so I don't know that it would've caught my eye. - Right. I know in the past that they definitely have used the 26 inch tunnels as

part of trying to make it accessible, and I know for a fact that they definitely use fewer tunnel passes than your typical course, and your typical... Like, NAC, for example, they are very conscious of how many times they ask dogs to go through the tunnel, because there's essentially a time penalty for the largest dogs that have to duck down to make it through that tunnel. - Yeah, yeah.

I think all things being equal, I'd like to see them use bigger tunnels just for a little more equity among the dogs. Okay, Jane, now I wanted to learn a little bit more about you and probably we should have done this at the beginning of the podcast. Can you tell us a little bit about your own history and involvement in agility? There are people who want to know,

like, are you an instructor? Do you teach somewhere? Do you teach online? Are you a professional agility, full-time handler where all of your income is from dog agility? How long have you been in the sport? What kind of dogs do you run? Let's hear all of that. - I started doing agility eons ago. I started with a chocolate lab about 20 years ago. She did agility, because I

asked her to. I really started doing agility with Beamer. I started competing with him in 2006, so that was about 17 years ago. I've had two dogs between Beamer and Phire who were nice dogs, but not highly competitive dogs. Phire was not... She was my unplanned puppy. When we did the breeding, I told the owner of the dam that I had no intentions of getting a puppy and

she just found her way into my house. I'm glad she did. - It was on accident. - She is an absolutely wonderful little girl. I do not teach. I live out in the woods in a tiny little town called Gilsum, New Hampshire. I open my garage door and travel at least an hour and a half to get anywhere. - Oh, wow. - And that's my life. - That

is awesome. I think that's the kind of life a lot of people are striving for, just them and some dogs. (chuckling) - That sounds great. - Doing dog agility. - Yep. - Where it's nice and quiet. - Yep, absolutely. - Yeah, yeah, so it's cold up there right now. We're talking a little bit before the podcast. - It is very cold up here right now. - Is it

covered in snow? In my mind, I'm imagining everything buried under snow. - Not today, but maybe tomorrow. - Oh-- - You never know. - Crazy, absolutely crazy. All right, well, with that, we will go ahead and wrap up this podcast by going through all of the winners, and I guess just a quick note about the event for people who aren't familiar with it. This is an event where

the preferred dogs are mixed in with the regular dogs, so, if you go and you look at the results, you're not going to find a preferred results. There's only one set of results for eight, 12, 16, 20, and 24 inches and the fours are with the eights, the the eight preferreds are with the twelves like that, just so anybody who is looking up the results will understand what

they're looking at. - Were all Americans allowed to compete at the AKC Invitational? - Yes, I believe so. - Yes, yes. - Yes. - Yep. - Yep, absolutely, and so, this year, all of our winners were from the regular class, so they were running the height that they were in, and in the eight inch class, the winner was Dot, a cavalier King Charles spaniel run by Antonio Ratel.

In the 12 inch class, we have Skye, a poodle handled by Han Yu, and in the 16 inch class, we have somebody who is giving us a lot of trouble by winning the overall class. It's the 16 inch dog, Senna, run by Liz Barshock and now we had to learn how to say this breed. It's a relatively... I guess, I would say an obscure breed in AKC Agility,

and I'm just gonna play it one time and then repeat afterwards that the Internet even knows what it's doing. All right, I'm gonna play it. I'm gonna turn up the volume, so nobody else say anything real quick. (speaking in a foreign language) Oh, wait, gotta go back. (speaking in a foreign language) (speaking in a foreign language) (chuckling) That's my best. Oh, it's repeating. All right, there you go,

so that dog, congratulations, and I just wanted to take a second. As soon as I saw that they went, I had to go look them up, so this is a 16 inch breed. I will put a link in the show notes to the AKC description of the breed, but I looked up and there are 20 running in Master's Agility, so pretty-- - Oh, wow, that's a lot. -

Yeah, it was actually more than I thought. I thought that there were just gonna be a handful, but there you go. New breed, I think they were added in 2014 is what I read, so congratulations to Liz and Senna in the 16 inch class and, of course, in the 20 inch class, we have Phire the golden run by Jane Bronson. - That's Phire with a P-H. - That's

right, P-H-I-R-E, Phire. - I like it. - And then in the 24 inch class, Hogan, a Weimaraner run by Steve Basson, so those are our winners. Congratulations to everybody. We love this event. We love what it means for all of the different breeds, all of the different dogs. We think it's a great structure and a great kind of exhibition event for AKC, and if you are thinking about

going to it or thinking about trying for it, well, my first piece of advice was you need to look up the cutoffs, because we're already halfway through the Invitational year at this point, so, for most breeds, you're gonna have to plan ahead and really put in some showing time the year that you wanna go do it, so look up what it takes for your breed to make it

into this and we will put links to all of our podcasts about the Invitational, about the structure, and things like that into the show notes, so that you can get yourself all geared up and ready to go, and with that, we will wrap up this podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today, Jane. - Thanks for having me. - All right, and that's it for this week's

podcast. Happy training. (upbeat music) - Thank you for listening to Bad Dog Agility. We hope you enjoyed today's episode. For more information, updates, and links to all our socials, just check out our website, www.baddogagility.com. If you haven't already signed up for our email subscription, we would love to have you join the BDA community. Until next time, take care. (upbeat music)