Great Dane Agility Calendar
The May calendar girl is…MORGAN!
Nearly every year at the Great Dane Nationals Agility Trial we take photos of all the dogs competing, and then use those photos to create a calendar for the next year which features all of those amazing Danes! For the 2011 Calendar, Morgan was “Miss May” because it’s her birthday month.
We sell the Calendars through Cafe Press, and the proceeds we make go toward the cost of printing “Agility Dane” t-shirts for the GDCA competitors at the next year’s Agility Trial. The shirts are styled like Morgan’s original “Air Morgan” t-shirt, and have featured Mr. Bojangles, Greta, the first 6 Danes at the Invitational, and for 2011 we are featuring the third Great Dane to earn a MACH – Tilly!
To purchase a Calendar and support the 2011 Great Dane Agility National competitors, go to:
- MorganDane CafePress Store
(2 Calendars available – 2005 competitors & 2010 competitors)
The photos from the 2010 Nationals were shot and donated by my favorite Agility photographer, Amy Johnson at GreatDanePhotos.com. Also one year we had photos from Ginnie.com.
Here’s a photo from the 2005 GDCA Nationals in Phoenix…check out the shirts that the competitors are wearing! Let’s make sure that everyone at this year’s 2011 GDCA National Specialty in Phoenix also all get their red Agility Dane t-shirts. 
The shirts that the exhibitors are wearing from the 2005 Specialty feature Mr. Bojangles. And if you look closely at Marta’s shirt on the far left, she painted her shirt to be a Brindle Great Dane! Wow, custom!
You can still purchase copies of the calendar featuring the 2005 Great Dane Nationals Agility competitors.
This month (May) of the 2011 Agility Dane Calendar is particularly special because we lost two of the greatest Danes in Agility at the end of 2010, and they are featured on the May page with Morgan. Mr. Bojangles and Greta were top competitors in the sport of dog agility. Along with Morgan, they both competed at the AKC Agility National Championships, the USDAA Cynosports World Agility Championships, and the AKC Agility Invitational. Mr. Bojangles was the second Great Dane to earn the Master Agility Champion (MACH) title, and Greta was only 25 points shy of earning that title when she retired. Greta is also the first Great Dane to earn a Masters level Agility title from USDAA, the Master Jumpers title.
Below is a very special photo of Morgan with Mr. Bojangles and Greta, as well as Ali (K8′s mom) and Ross who also recently passed away.
Great Dane Agility and Flyball Training w/ Mega and Jackpot
This morning we had a great Agility and Flyball practice with the Great Danes at SmartyPaws Agility in Las Vegas. One year old Mega and three year old Jackpot started their box work training (learning to do a swimmer’s box turn for flyball racing), and also did a bit of Agility course work. Also Bootzilla the pit bull did some Agility and started her plank work for running contacts.
Normally for beginning box work for training Flyball, you’d just use the flyball box to teach the dog to jump on and off of it. But for a Great Dane, the box is a pretty small target. Tough to get all four feet on the tiny box comfortably! So for Mega and Jackpot we decided to start with the top of Agility table, and just tilt it to the side. We had done one session previous to this, about a month ago, so this was their second time trying box turns off the table. We started with a short 12″ tall table, and just had them jump on and then off…made that a fun game. Then quickly tilted the table to the point that you see in the video. Basically in this beginning step of box training you just make it fun, and try to reward the most when all four feet are hitting the table top (box), so that the dog enthusiastically pushes off with their back feet. I was very impressed with both Great Danes, they had fun and are progressing very well!
Then after doing the flyball turns, Mega also had a few runs across the dog walk. She is back to a low dog walk because of a fall off a full height dogwalk back in October at the Great Dane Nationals. So she’s finally gaining confidence again. It’s more about confidence and fun for a Great Dane in Agility, so we just focus on running fast and having a good time. If we need to figure out contacts later, well so be it. For now I’m just going to see how she does, learning to just run across through a hoop at the end, no jumping off though!
Then we had Jackpot and Mega run through a short course of A-frame, jump, tunnel, and a few jumps in a serpentine. Jackpot is much more advanced and is working on keeping things tight with more complex handling. Mega…well she’s just keeping it fun and wild right now! We also tested out using the hoop at the bottom of the A-frame, just to see what Jackpot would do with it. He’s been trained to do 2o2o, but is in the middle of re-training with Rachel Sander’s and Elicia Calhoun’s PVC box method. I would say he still needs to keep on the box work on the A-frame. Mega is just going to do a running A-frame, with a hoop at least to keep her head down so she doesn’t launch off.
And we are looking forward to Flyball practice this Sunday with Flying Colors Flyball team!