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I would like to take a moment and thank all the members of Team Spirit, we couldn’t have done this without you!

· Anne Riba – for her unwavering faith in both me and Spirit, as well as for wonderful instruction over the years both on and off the field!
· Barb Scalise – for a phenomenal trip to Long Beach and back. It not every day you find someone not only willing to make the drive with you, but fabulous enough to also make it really a whole lot of fun!
· Ralph Scalise – for top notch entourage services at the Invitational as well as videography/photography services too!
· MACH2 Hilldale If I Had A Million, JH, RE, OF, aka Penny – for being a great traveling companion and calming presence for Spirit. He’ll have dinner with you any night!
· Dana Pike – for moving lawnmowers and other mousey distractions for us at camp after camp along with great instruction too!
· Pat Hugart – for hand-making an awesome crate cover for Spirit – on short notice and in plenty of time for Long Beach!
· My dad – for videography services and for driving so many miles to see us compete – usually 70 miles one way, even on Father’s Day you didn’t bat an eye at the effort!
· Jason – aka Spirit’s Dad, thanks for putting up with the sheer enormity of the time and energy I’ve put into Spirit’s training. Even though he steals your chair, sleeps on your pillow and wipes a drippy wet face off on your leg!
· My mom – for deciding that Spirit really is a pretty cool grand-dog too!
· For all of our friends, both on and off the field for your support and encouragement, we’re really lucky to have so many of you! Spirit is lucky to have so many buddies and girlfriends too – he can’t wait to see you all and celebrate with wiggly tushes and playbows!

Video From the Event! ('right click' and 'save as' please!)
Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Finals
Spirit and I were honored to be invited to the AKC Agility Invitational Dec. 13-14, 2008 in Long Beach, CA. Each year AKC invites the Top 5 agility dogs of each breed to compete in 4 rounds of head to head competition. Spirit qualified for the event as the #3 German Wirehaired Pointer for the qualification period of July 1, 2007 – June 30, 2008. Ninety-five dogs, including Spirit, accepted the invitation in the 24” height class, there were 470 competitors overall including all height classes. After each round the scores and times for each dog were summed to determine the cumulative top 12 dogs for the 24” height. There were 57 dogs in the finals including all of the height classes. Those dogs would then run in the finals in an all or nothing competition for final placements in the event. It was an amazing and emotionally overwhelming experience to be at such a large event and to know that we were there because he was one of the top 5 dogs in his breed. There were lots of tears of joy over the weekend – my friends were teasing me since I’m not usually the sappy one in the group, but it was really a wonderful amazing experience! Spirit ran clean and fast to take 2nd place in Round 1 – only 3/10ths of a second behind the first place dog! Throughout the next 3 rounds of competition Spirit continued to be clean and fast and placed individually in each round in the top 8. He maintained his 2nd place standing cumulatively after each of the four rounds of competition. After Round 3 the top handlers in each height class were called to the announcer’s stand. Much to my surprise, a representative from Animal Planet was there to schedule interviews with each of us. We’ll have to see how much of my interview makes it past the editor’s room! Round 4 started with a fire alarm being sounded during our walk thru – it turned out to be a false alarm, thankfully, but it was a little odd walking a course with an alarm blaring and strobe lights flashing throughout the arena, but the show must go on! Spirit’s clean Round 4 performance guaranteed him a spot in the finals, making him the first German Wirehaired Pointer to make it to the finals of a national event! He was just 1.5 seconds behind the leader! He was also 1 of 7 dogs going into the finals that had perfect scores in each of the four rounds, and only one of two dogs that didn’t already have at least one MACH; 6 of the dogs in the final round had at least 3 MACHs! Since he was still the 2nd place dog overall after 4 rounds, we were the second to last dog to run in the finals. It was a long wait for the other dogs in the finals to run – 55 dogs to be exact, but Spirit was relaxed and calm – snoozing in his crate during the other heights. As we stepped into the ring for our run in the finals, large lights and cameras were everywhere. Spirit didn’t seem to notice or care – he was just there to play the game he loves with me. I took a deep breath and stepped into the ring for what turned out to be another clean run! It wasn’t our fastest run of the weekend, but it was a solid performance that netted us 6th place overall. The finals and maybe a portion of our interview will air on Feb. 7, 2009 8PM (ET/PT) on Animal Planet. As of Dec. 1, 2008, Spirit is currently ranked as the #1 qualifier for this event to be held in Dec. 2009. We’re looking forward to the opportunity to compete again with so many wonderful dogs!
I would like to take a moment and thank all the members of Team Spirit, we couldn’t have done this without you! · Anne Riba – for her unwavering faith in both me and Spirit, as well as for wonderful instruction over the years both on and off the field! · Barb Scalise – for a phenomenal trip to Long Beach and back. It not every day you find someone not only willing to make the drive with you, but fabulous enough to also make it really a whole lot of fun! · Ralph Scalise – for top notch entourage services at the Invitational as well as videography/photography services too! · MACH2 Hilldale If I Had A Million, JH, RE, OF, aka Penny – for being a great traveling companion and calming presence for Spirit. He’ll have dinner with you any night! · Dana Pike – for moving lawnmowers and other mousey distractions for us at camp after camp along with great instruction too! · Pat Hugart – for hand-making an awesome crate cover for Spirit – on short notice and in plenty of time for Long Beach! · My dad – for videography services and for driving so many miles to see us compete – usually 70 miles one way, even on Father’s Day you didn’t bat an eye at the effort! · Jason – aka Spirit’s Dad, thanks for putting up with the sheer enormity of the time and energy I’ve put into Spirit’s training. Even though he steals your chair, sleeps on your pillow and wipes a drippy wet face off on your leg! · My mom – for deciding that Spirit really is a pretty cool grand-dog too! · For all of our friends, both on and off the field for your support and encouragement, we’re really lucky to have so many of you! Spirit is lucky to have so many buddies and girlfriends too – he can’t wait to see you all and celebrate with wiggly tushes and playbows!