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"Pistil"
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• Pedigree •
AGILITY HOME PAGE |
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 Hi
Löwchenaires -
If you were to just look at Pistil (13 1/2 inches tall, 15 1/2 pounds of solid muscle, lion trim hairdo), you would not think he would be particularly fast. Looks, however, can be deceiving, and speed is
Pistil's stock in trade. Pistil, who routinely runs AKC Excellent JWW courses at 5+ yards per second, ran his first Tunnelers course - a new game where the course consists solely of tunnels - at the NADAC trial in Ft. Worth, Texas, yesterday. There were 8 tunnels on the 163 yard Novice course, arranged so the dog had to run through them multiple times with multiple changes of direction. When the judge wheeled the course, she assigned it a course time of 48 seconds, which meant to qualify, a dog had to run clean (no mistakes at all) at a minimum of 3.4 yards per second. There were 95 dogs entered in Novice Tunnelers, including some of the fastest Border Collies in this part of the country.
When the dust settled, 1st place and the fastest of the 95 dogs was (drum roll, please!) a Löwchen!
Pistil ran the course in 24 seconds, an astounding 6.79 yards per second!!
I have no idea how he is capable of doing this. I am in awe of my best buddy.
Barbara Cecil and Pistil - 7th April, 2003
TayWil's Aerien Pistil Pete, MX, MXJ, EAC, EJC, OGC, RS-E, JS-E, GS-O
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Hi
Löwchen Lovers -
Pistol wowed 'em at the huge Reliant Center agility trial yesterday...not exactly in the way I wanted, but in true
Löwchen fashion, I guess. ;-} First I should say that Pistol is a fantastic agility dog, more than halfway to his AKC Master Agility Championship (MACH); he always places, and usually wins the 12" Excellent B classes which around here (Texas) means besting at least 40+ other 12" class dogs.
By the time Pistol ran the Excellent B Standard class yesterday afternoon, there were probably 1000 people - almost all general public - standing around the huge carpeted ring. The carpet provided very poor footing, and the agility dogs had been sliding around on it for 4 days; Pistol probably being the only dog there who thinks sliding is fun. Sure enough, Pistol overestimated his takeoff point for the 4th obstacle - the triple jump - and crashed right into it, sending bars flying everywhere as he slid practically out of the ring.
"Oh, no!" the crowd cried, "that little dog is hurt!" Nah. What they didn't know is that Pistol has the pain threshold of a pit bull...he scrambled to his feet and attacked the rest of the course with a vengeance. The crowd cheered in appreciation of his bravery; he had them in his pocket. ;-}
When he got to the difficult entrance on the 12 weave poles, he was going so fast that he entered airborne between the first and second poles, pivoted in the air to land between the second and third poles, jumped through the third and fourth, found his rhythm and finished the poles in a nanosecond. The crowd went wild. Actually, so did I...I've been doing agility for 10 years, and I have never, ever, seen an act of such pure athleticism.
Now I have to set up the ending by telling you that I've taught Pistol to run and grab his leash off the leash stand (a coat rack looking thing made out of PVC) after completing the last obstacle. He then has to run back to me with the leash as I'm usually still on the course, huffing and puffing to get to the finish line.
So, Pistol clears the last jump, runs the 20 feet to the leash stand and grabs his leash, just as he's been trained to do. Only then do I see, from the middle of the ring, that the steward has actually attached the leash to the stand, rather than just laying it across a bar. So here comes Pistol, running back to me, dragging the leash which is dragging the leash stand! He did pause for a moment to see what was chasing him, realized it was no big deal, and came running on. At this point, the crowd was on their feet, cheering!
It was no small feat to unattach the leash at one end while Pistol was playing tug with it on the other end, but I finally succeed and exited the ring with the leash stand in one hand, and Pistol tugging as hard as he could on the leash in the other hand.
Well... Thanks goodness the judge had a sense of humor! When I apologized later, she said, "I don't care what he does, that is one hot dog!" Or as one of my friends said, "If you can't win a ribbon, wow 'em with personality!" Pistol does that, a lot.
Barbara Cecil - 20th July, 2003
TayWil's Aerien Pistil Pete, MX, MXJ, EAC, EJC, EGC, RS-E, JS-E, GS-E, TN-N
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| TA-DA!!! Trumpets and Drum Roll, Please!! |
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 Pistol, the fastest Löwchen on 4 feet, and I are delighted to announce that today, April 10, 2004, in Houston, Texas, Pistol became the first
Löwchen in history, and one of very few dogs, indeed, to earn the coveted NADAC NATCH title (NADAC = North American Dog Agility Council and NATCH = NADAC Agility Trial Champion).
Only the fastest dogs compete in NADAC and only the best of those ever attain the NATCH. First a dog has to earn his Novice, Open, and Elite titles in Standard, Jumpers, and Gamblers, then has to have 20 more perfect Elite Standard runs, 10 perfect Elite Jumpers runs (at about 5 yards per second), and 10 perfect Elite Gamblers runs (where the dog has to complete the last part of each course at least 20 feet away from but under his handler's direction and control). Pistol achieved all this in a minimum number of trials in just 20 months of competition. (Pistol is only 3 1/2 years old!)
I want to share this, too: Two weeks ago Pistol ran a 151 yard NADAC Tunneler's course (a circuitous course of 8 tunnels, some of which are taken several times), at 6.06 yards per second. That's hard even to imagine...pace out 18 feet and try running that 18 feet in one second...then try running/turning/running/turning 453 feet in and out of tunnels on a course you've never seen before and under someone else's direction...and do it in 24 seconds. I think my boy is just incredible!
So, please welcome to the record books, on the occasion of his 35th agility title and first Agility Championship: NATCH ATCH TayWil's Aerien Pistil Pete, MX, MXJ, TN-N, WV-N
Barbara Cecil - 10th April, 2004
Houston, Texas
NATCH ATCH TayWil's Aerien Pistil Pete, MX, MXJ, TN-N, WV-N
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