Morgan
| Full Name | Morgan “Danger” Powers |  |
| Titles | MACH NATCH CD NJP NAP OF MAD TM O-EAC O-ECC O-EJC TN-E TG-E WV-E FGDCh-40k NAFA-HOF TFE-I GDCA-HOF | |
| Breed | Great Dane | |
| D.O.B. | 5/20/99 | |
| Breeder | Patti & Lee Petersen, Colorado | |
| Owner | Keri Caraher | |
| Claim to Fame | Highest titled Great Dane in Agility and Flyball. GDCA and NAFA Hall of Fame Inductee. | |
| Activities | Agility, Flyball |
“Wow, I have never seen a Great Dane that fast!” he exclaimed.
“Well actually, she is the top Great Dane in Agility in the U.S.” I answered.
“No, I’m sure she is the best Great Dane in Agility the WORLD!” replied one of the top European Agility competitors, Dave Blackshaw, who had come to the U.S. to teach at an Agility seminar.
Morgan is the one who opened my world to dog sports. She was your average puppy from an average classified ad from average AKC bloodlines. I didn’t even know that Agility and Flyball existed when I got her. Then she shattered that average expectation of being a normal Great Dane, and she became the greatest athlete in Great Dane history.
She had her own website before she was four months old, called MorganDane.com. When her puppy photo made PetSmart.com’s “Smart Pet of the Day” front-page feature, I knew she’d be a star. Morgan’s training and early career was documented weekly on her site. Eventually it turned into a website about all the Great Danes doing Agility, with biographies, statistics, scores, rankings, photos and videos of over 100 Great Danes across the world.
Morgan was the first Great Dane to earn the Master Agility Champion (MACH) title from the AKC, and also the first and only Great Dane to earn the NADAC Agility Trial Champion (NATCH) title. She was the first and only Great Dane to earn the Master Agility Dog title in USDAA Agility. She is the highest titled Great Dane in NAFA and U-FLI Flyball, with her career fastest time of 4.2 seconds. She also has the honor of being inducted into the NAFA Flyball Hall of Fame.
Competing in Championship events was always the highlight of each year for us. Morgan competed in four AKC National Championships, winning 3rd place in a class and making it to the Challenger’s Round. She also ran in the first four AKC Invitational Championships, placing 3rd-5th in several classes. Morgan competed in six Cynosports World Championships, and was a Grand Prix Finalist. She won the Western Regional Agility Championships for the Agility Association of Canada, and won multiple rounds at the NADAC National Championships. One year she even qualified to compete in the AKC’s World Team Try-outs. In 2010, she competed at the DOCNA National Championships in the Grand Veterans class.
While Morgan was extremely successful in the reguar all-breed classes, it was always exciting to annually attend the Great Dane Club of America’s National Specialty Agility Trial, for Great Danes only. Her first GDCA National was in 2000, where she earned her very first Agility title at 1 year old. She has competed in 10 National Specialties, and has dozens of GDCA trohpies from her successes there – including two first place trophies from the 2010 Nationals when she was 11 years old.
Morgan also had a very exciting performing career. Besides television appearances in the Agility National Championships, her first major show was the “Miss Dog Beauty Pageant” special airing on FOX, where she was a top-10 Finalist. As Miss Colorado, she went to Hollywood and performed Agility in the talent round and she strutted her stuff in a red-sequined dress in the evening gown competition. Morgan also appeared in an episode of TLC’s “A Makeover Story” with some Flyball teammates…but the dogs were not the ones in need of the actual makeovers!
Of all of the events that Morgan and I have done together, competing in the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge “Outdoor Adventure” was the most fun. This was an hour-long television show with teams of 4 people with their 4 dogs competing in different outdoor events. Morgan was amazing running an Agility course through the woods with me handling from a mountain bike, she beat all the other dogs by swimming across a lake the fastest, she retrieved 2 bumpers at once in the Speed Retrieve event, and she dragged my slow ass up a mountain to help our team win the Gold Medal.
It was very early on that Morgan learned that the faster she went, the more the crowd would cheer. Performing in front of a huge crowd was her absolute favorite. When she had the opportunity to join the Superdogs team at a show in Denver, she was an instant hit. Her weaving performances were unmatched, and she had the crowds in awe with the speed she could run the obstacle courses with tunnels. She performed with the Superdogs for five years, including shows in Denver, California, and Canada. Morgan also performed at Denver’s Elitch Gardens Theme Park for a summer with K9s in Flight along with Chris Sexton and Lourdes Edlin.
Agility, Flyball, Obedience, Frisbee Disc Dog, Dock Diving, Water Retrieving, National and World Championships, Incredible Dog Challenge, Entertainment Performances, and even a Beauty Pageant. You name it, she’s done it. And she rocked it.
Now Morgan is 12 years old and retired. She spends her days sleeping on the couch and laying out in the sun. She loves to swim in the pool and in lakes, go for hikes, and she still enjoys barking at the other dogs: “Back in my day, I would have whooped you at that!”
