AKC National Agility Championship - Masher the 8" Papillon

THE WINNERS:
BACK ROW:  8" Masher & Daneen Fox,
12" Sketcher & Barb Davis, 16" Karma & Cheryl Morris,
FRONT ROW:  20" Sweet & Dudley Fontaine,
24" Roo & Stacey Campbell, 26" Pace & Desiree Snelleman

I didn't go to Nationals, but I followed along as best I could with scoresheets posted on AKC's website and Agilityvision.com's broadcast of the Final Round.  I naturally followed the 8" dogs and especially the Papillons since I train and run Papillons.  So I thought I'd share what I learned about how the Paps fared, and how I discovered the astounding Masher!

In the final round, all the dogs ran the same identical course. In the 8" class, there were 11 dogs - 7 of them Papillons.  1st place went to Masher, a fiesty little Black & White owned by Daneen Fox, who ran the course almost 5 seconds faster than the 2nd place 8", a Toy Fox Terrier.  That was thrill enough to levitate me out of my seat, but further analysis revealed much, much more.

There were 18 12" dogs competing, and 18 16" dogs.  Neither 1st place winners in either class beat Masher's time.

In the 20" class, with 31 dogs competing, only one beat Masher's time, by only 4 100ths of a second.  And a border collie at that.

In the 24" class, with 11 dogs competing, nobody beat Masher.

In the 26" class, with 6 dogs competing, one border collie beat Masher's time by only .786 seconds.

95 dogs competing in the Final Round, and only 2 beat Masher!!!!!!!!! This is one fast little Papillon.

Here's the chart of 1st place wins, comparing their times:
30.550 -  8" Masher ( Papillon)
31.608 - 12" Skecher (Sheltie)
30.848 - 16" Karma (Border Collie)
30.512 - 20" Sweet (Border Collie)
33.267 - 24" Roo (AMD)
29.754 - 26" Pace (Border Collie)

Despite the dog's sizes, there's a spread of only 3.513 seconds between them.  Incredibly close race.

Here's Masher's Final Round: .

Here's the link to the course map for this round, for those who want to try their hand at it:  http://images.akc.org/agility_nationals/2013/courses/Round5_Course.pdf

I felt compelled to go online to find out more about this amazing Masher, and his handler Daneen.  So far I've found out:

• Masher has won many, many medals both in the USA and abroad. 
• He's about 5 years old, and lives in California. 
• His full name is: MACH4 Livewire Its All Gravy MXB2 MJG2 XF T2B 
• His average YPS in AKC jumpers in 2012 was 6.12 yards per second.  His average in Standard was 4.85 YPS. 
• He competes at 12" in some venues, and wins regularly. 

But it wasn't always so.  I found an engagingly different blog, Easy To Spot, written by Daneen's traveling companion and assistant, relating many of Daneen's challenges becoming the handler she is today.  It's a fresh look at the ups and downs -- the spills, the nerves, the injuries, the venues -- the many challenges of agility competition.  It's honest, and gets at the truth. It's a dream of mine to have such a supportive agility friend by my side, and to be one in return.

Probably I'll post more on Masher as I get the time to dig it up, but this is enough for now.  First, Tigger, AKC's top agility dog, now Masher.  Ahhh!  I'm so inspired.  Gotta go hug my little boys.

Upwards and onward!