Border collies take early leads in AKC Nationals!

Well, looks like the border collies are dominating in the early rounds at the AKC Nationals in four of the six heights this year. All 1st-4th place finishes in 16", 20", 24" and 26" in today's Round 1 Standard results are taken by border collies. The 12" 1st-4th places are all taken by Shelties. Then there are a couple of paps, a corgi, and a PRT in the 8" category.

In round 2, not much changes in the breed mix, but in the 16" height class the shelties aren't far behind the 1st - 4th placements. The 20" is again dominated by BCs in round 2 with a few Goldens hot on their heels.

Pretty excited about the 24" class. One of my friends, Jean Hood with her young BC Tanner is in 3rd place going into round 3. So cool - they are on fire! You'll recognize many of the top place holders from the 24" class going into round 3 tomorrow - Marcus Topps, Jen Pinder, Daisy Peel, Terry Smorch, Carrie Jones, Nancy Gyes, Linda Mechlenburg, and more.

There's been a lot of consistency in the 26" class, with only slight movement in placements from 1st through 13th place in round 1 to round 2. You'll recognize a lot of those names too. Geri Hernandez, Gerry Brown, Linda Mechlenburg, and more, with Deb Joseph's Lab Joey right in there.

From Friday:

Cumulative winners of the International Sweepstakes Class, both Standard and Jumpers with Weaves, were crowned Friday afternoon. The first place winners automatically qualify for the World Team Try-outs in early May in Minnesota.

Winners were:

14-inch
1st – NAC MACH3 Strathspey Sapphire Rock-it MXF – Shetland Sheepdog – Barb Davis
2nd – MACH 2 Waldenwood It’s All in the Mix XF – Shetland Sheepdog – Kate Conn
3rd – Topflite’s Galiko Spike-Omite MX MXF OF – Papillon – Anne Timson

18-inch
1st – MACH Bare Cove Blue Lite Special – Shetland Sheepdog – Paulette Swartzendruber
2nd – MACH2 Dylan MXF – Rat Terrier – Angie Benacquisto
3rd – MACH5 Romayne’s Prairie Skye VCD1 TDX XF – Shetland Sheepdog – Alice Michaels

26-inch
1st – MACH Hob Nob Cult Classic MXF – Border Collie – Channan Fosty
2nd – NAC MACH5 Jumpstart Maladjusted Jester XF – Border Collie – Daisy Peel
3rd – MACH4 Hillcrest Zest XF – Barb Davis

Team Finals Results:

1st - Northwestern States
2nd - Pennsylvania
3rd - Massachusetts
4th - California
5th - Wisconsin

You can see all the results and course maps from Saturday's Round 1 and 2 here. And you can see Friday's results here.

One of the vendors - DDGraphix - is blogging live from the event and has a little play by play as the day goes on. A couple of other bloggers: Melanie Miller, Agile Minds, is also blogging while attending the Nationals; Melissa Frye, SkyrocketDogSports, is also blogging, and here is a nice link to some vids - including Ali Roukas, Linda Mechlenburg, Carrie Jones and more.

Will most certainly be interesting to see how this all shakes out in the end. Continued good luck to everyone competing!