Emmy finished her MACH today (August 12, 2001) at the Miami Obedience Club Agility trial and I am still riding on cloud nine. I thought I would share the thrill with my boxer friends while the feelings and memories are still fresh.
     We had 33 DQ's and needed only 23 points to finish our MACH. Although I had only told a few people, word got around the trial crowd and people were telling me that they were all hoping to have the opportunity to congratulate me this weekend.
     Our first run was Standard and Emmy ran a beautiful course, 12 seconds under course time, placing second and earning 18 MACH points. We only had 5 points to go! At the warm up jump before our Jumpers with Weaves run, Emmy slipped
on the mats (the trial was indoors on mats) and got a little spooked, but fortunately was not injured. Consequently, the beginning of her run was cautious, but she picked up her usual speed when she realized that the footing was safe. She was only 3 seconds under course time, but placed second again and picked up 4 more MACH points. We needed ONLY 1 POINT!   
      That night we went to dinner with the judge and she learned how close we were to our MACH. She cut up her leftover steak into small pieces, put it in a box, and told me that this was going to be Emmy's "lucky MACH steak". She waved one of the candles from table over it and said she was giving it
the "judge's blessing". She said to give some of it to Emmy before her run and tell her she would get the rest after she qualified. This would make sure she got her MACH. :-))
      The next morning was electric, people were wishing me luck, putting things in my pockets for good luck, telling me they knew I could do it, some people were saying they didn't want to hex me. I was desperately trying to remain calm, we only needed 1 POINT, Emmy could ace the course as long as I
didn't get spastic. All weekend, the gym became silent when Emmy and I stepped to the start line, but this time you could hear a pin drop. As soon as I started running, I forgot everything and concentrated on having fun with my dog and focusing on each obstacle at a time. My job was to give clear signals to my partner and to make the run as smooth as possible for her.
Emmy's problems are always the contacts and I worked those very carefully.  I did not let my guard down until we crossed that finish line, and then the whole gym exploded!     
      There were lots of hugs, tears, and the judge brought me one of the bars for everybody to sign. We did  our victory lap around the ring. Emmy didn't know what was going on, but she sure was having a lot of fun! she leaped, twisted in mid air, jumped out of the ring to get her steak,  jumped back in when I called her, and figured out it must be some sort of special
occasion. She loved the applause and all the attention. When I returned to my crates, there was a poster on the wall with Emmy's picture on it. It said "MACH Emmy, congratulations from all your friends"  We finally did it, and I was proud of myself for getting a grip of my emotions and not letting my best
friend down. It's been a long road, but it sure was fun getting there!

Ileana