Wed., July 13, 2011 - No top 5 for Hardee

We knew this day was coming, but it is still hard now that it is here.  As of today, Hardee is no longer in the top 5 agility PWDs (Portuguese Water Dogs).  He has fallen out by 2 points, and there are still more trials to be reported up til the end of June.  Points have been reported through June 17th so far.

For those that don't know, agility points are tallied for each year from July 1st through the end of June, and the top 5 dogs are invited to the Agility Invitational in December.  Hardee is our first performance dog, so we really didn't know about the standings.  We never thought about checking the stats before a friend sent us the standings last December.  Back then, Hardee would go back and forth between the 6th and 7th spot.  Finally in February, Hardee broke into the top 5 and eventually went to the #4 position.  He stayed there fairly consistently until just lately where he dropped to #5, and now to #6.

Last August when we got Hardee's nasal cancer diagnosis, the top 5 wasn't even on our radar, let alone something we thought Hardee could ever attain.  We trialed when we could in between Hardee's other performance events that he does, when Hardee felt up to it in between hospitalizations, radiation and chemo and their side effects, and Jim's job that requires him to work some weekends each month.  Also, it is hard to have a top agility dog and live in Las Vegas.  Except for the 4-5 local trials in Las Vegas each year, we have to travel out of state for trials (CA, AZ, UT) which is at a minimum 600 miles in a weekend, and up to 850 miles if we go to Utah.

What killed Jim and Hardee's chances at the last minute of staying in the top 5 were we had 2 trials cancel on us after entries closed for other trials.  One trial canceled the end of May and the other in June.  Jim had to work one weekend in June, plus Hardee had a chemo reaction one weekend and was sick.  It is what it is, and we can't control it, but I wish the results were different.  Hardee and Jim worked so hard despite all the challenges that Hardee was faced with.  It would have been nice if they could have stayed in the top 5.

There are many more important things to be disappointed over, and better yet many more important things to be grateful for.  Number one on the gratitude list is that we still have our boy, and his quality of life is still pretty good right now.  Being invited to the Invitational would have just been an extra perk that we can live without.  Who needs extra perks when we still have our boy!  It is and always will be all about joy and all about Hardee!