Author: Mariah Mordecai

We’re home from Mudi Nationals in Lexington, Kentucky, and finally rested enough to share our update. The Bluegrass Cluster was a fabulous time and the Mudis of Thanagar shined all weekend.

Strix and her co-owner, Lily, competed in conformation, rally, obedience, dock diving, coursing ability tests, fast cat, and hide and seek (barnhunt). Lily and Strix absolutely KILLED it every day. Strix’s highlights:

NEW ATT (temperament test) and CA (coursing) titles, and beat her personal best in fast cat by a whole second.

Furthest jumping Lap Mudi, FOURTH place in Hide & Seek, ONLY Mudi to Q in Novice B Obedience, FIRST place Mudi for Advanced, Excellent, and Master Rally, HIGH COMBINED and HIGH TRIPLE Q for all breeds, SECOND place (by 1 point) for Most Versatile Mudi

Strix is CH Thanagar Caiman Crocodilus POA CD BN RE BCAT DS DM RATI RATN CGCU CGCA TKE VHMA VHMP CA ATT (pending AKC approval)

Crash and Puffin were handled by the Justice family for the weekend, with Puffin being handled exclusively by her owner, junior handler Harper. They competed in conformation, dock diving, fast cat, hide & seek, farm dog certification.

Crash’s highlights:

NEW Rally Intermediate Title, American Bred Class Winner, Versatility Qualifier, Juniors Versatility Qualifier, Novice Junior Showmanship 2nd place

Crash is AKC ptd Thanagar Wodan Crash Bandicoot RI DS DJ BCAT CGC TKA

Puffin:

NEW Farm Dog Title, Amateur Owner Handler Class Winner, Juniors Versatility Qualifier, Junior Mudi Versatility WINNER

Puffin is AKC ptd Sinus Paint Out Tamay (Tanus) CGC TKN FDC

Nightjar and his co-owner, Mariah, competed in dock diving and fast cat. Nightjar made HUGE strides on his dock performance and ended up with a new personal best of 18’3” and his Dock Senior title! Jar’s first jump of the weekend was just over 14’, meaning he improved more than FOUR feet in just 6 rounds over 3 days.

Nightjar is Thanagar Wodan Game Freak SSN HCT-s TKA BCAT DN DS

Our Irish import girls strutted their stuff in the conformation ring all weekend! These puppies had their *amazing* temperaments on display the whole time, and both girls handled the busy show environment and loooong days perfectly.

Nix was handled by Mariah in the conformation ring and took first in her class all three shows! This puppy is so happy and bouncy, and I just love the way she wags her tail for her exam.

Starling was handled by myself, and earned a second place in her class in the first show, then third place the next two days. As always, a big thank-you to Regerastace Mudi for these lovely girls!

Finally, Flicker showed off her amazing dock skills and earned FIRST place Senior division for the Mudi national! She was also the second-best jumping Mudi of the event. Her recent jumps bumped her season average to 19 ’11”, which puts her in a (tied) spot for 1st place NADD Senior across all breeds. Thank you Cruzyn Mudi for this crazy, sweet, talented girl!

Thanks to the organizers for their hard work on this year’s Mudi National. We’re looking forward to returning to Greeley, Colorado next year to celebrate this amazing breed!

Thanagar Mudi had a chaotic, stressful, and very SUCCESSFUL weekend at the Bluegrass Classic in Lexington, KY. My dogs were fantastic. They KILLED it.

Saturday was the Mudi Club of America specialty, and I showed Swift and Puffin. Puffin looked terrible post-puppies so no surprise we didn’t get much love, but Swift was on her game. She showed beautifully and was such a happy girl, and the judge saw what a lovely dog she is and awarded us Winner’s B for a 5 point major!! I nearly lost it but kept it together until after the show.

Flicker and Sas were on dock duty for this event, and both came out on top the days we jumped. Flicker won best jump in the Master division on Saturday, and Sas won best jump in Master (Lap) for the same day. Sas also earned an invitation to regionals (we won’t make it) but that’s now two years in a row that Sas has gotten invites.

Junco’s job for the weekend was lure coursing. With the exception of one flubbed run (he caught the lure, I was not happy), he improved his times each day and finished the weekend with a new personal best run of 7.33 seconds = 27.91 mph. This should move him to first place in the FCAT rankings for the breed if I’ve done my math correctly. Junco won 2nd fastest of the day on Saturday and fastest Mudi on Sunday.

The Thanagar home crew weren’t the only big winners in the family this weekend! Crash and Nightjar, brothers from our Gamers litter earlier this year, both attended the Mudi specialty this weekend with us.

Crash showed in conformation each day and ended the weekend with a Reserve Winners Dog in the Monday show! He also got to try playing around on the dock and gained a lot of confidence in a short time. Crash was mellow and happy all weekend and we’re super proud of him!

Nightjar did NADD dock diving and rocked it! This was his second event ever, and a completely new dock and environment. Nonetheless, Jar set a new personal best of 9‘2” and won the Novice division award for farthest jumping Mudi on Saturday.

The boys were thrilled to see each other again and played all weekend. These guys are a big part of our program’s future and we couldn’t be happier with their progress.

Thanks to everyone who supported me, the club, and the breed this weekend. It was wonderful to finally meet such great friends from around the country, and snuggle all the pups. I’m really proud of MCA and our members.

In August we competed at Teamworks in NC for the Battle of the Breeds fundraiser! Mudis had a decent showing and our crew did really well.

Sassy won the event’s Lap division with a 14’9” jump, which is also a new personal best for her! I wish more Lap dogs competed, it’s a fun division.

Flicker jumped neck and neck with her brother Rocket all day and while he won gold for the breed, it was super cool to see how consistently these two littermates performed together. They’re now ranked 3rd (Rocket) and 4th (Flicker) for the breed in dock diving!

Junco jumped great and hit a new PB of 13’ – he finished his Dock Junior title, too!

In mid-July we packed up four Mudis, a Baussie, and a border collie and drove 15+ hours to take part in the Blue 9 Pet Products Klimb Classic. In the middle of nowhere Indiana we competed in a four-day weekend’s worth of UpDog, dock diving, and fast cat! Oh yeah and we were even given a green Klimb for “swag”.

Camping with four Mudis can be challenging, especially at such a big event. A good “quiet” command comes in handy when they inevitably alert bark. My dogs have been raised going to events though so they’re really very good unless someone sneaks up on us.

We had a ton of fun, as well as some exciting results! Swift and Junco were getting tired so I pulled their jumps and gave them to Flicker and Sassy. And I’m SO glad I did – we had to have a minimum of three jumps each day to get into finals. Sas ended up winning first place in the Master (Lap) division! Though she doesn’t look thrilled in the picture, she jumped her heart out and had a blast. So proud of this girl.