And that pretty much sums up how my day at our club’s agility trial went.
Despite pretty good runs in my novice ring we just had some basics that didn’t quite go to plan. Mum… Need more room to get my speed up before the 1st jump. Yep the 1st 2 runs today I knocked the 1st bar off as we started. Opps. Need more of a run up! And in Novice Jumping that was the only thing that was between us and a clean run / qualie.
Good news… Mum learnt. The 3 runs later in the day mum had me start back a bit further and I didn’t knock the 1st jump. Problem solved.
So the tough stuff I’m really proud of (and mum pretty excited too):
– RQH Jumping: place on the course where I went over a jump and had the shute tunnel directly in front of me. Actual course was to hang a right into another tunnel. Yep listened to mum and hung a right.
– Open Agility: a run of jumps where I got to get up a bit of speed but before going over the last one (which was also the starting jump I had been over from the other direction early and hence had the timing gate) I instead had to hang a right and go back around another jump and a bit further around the course. Woohoo. Listened to mum, slowed down and did the tight turn and we continued around the course.
– Open Jumping: this one had mum doing a brief happy dance mid course. When she walked the course earlier she thought this was a long shot… Ha Mum. I nailed it. There was an exclusion zone which mum had to send me out over a jump with her standing back behind a line. I then had to run around the jump (not back over it) and then back to mum via an earlier jump. Oh yeah! I did it!!! (In the words of the ‘big eyed Spanish speaking one that toddler likes aka Dora… ‘We did it. We did it. We did it yeah. We did it’).
Oh and apart from Open Jumping, I was a bit over weaves by then, I got my weaves right all day. Go 1st World Dog!!!
I’m a bit tired now and looking forward to a sleep….
And here is a picturing of me jumping in a trial a couple of weeks ago (thanks Badger Photographer).
1st World Dog 
Yay! Pic1 is so sweet, Pic2 is awesome. You are one smart dog to make the human proud 🙂
Thanks Donna. Mum pretty chuffed and we had a fun day together.
Joey and I tried agility for a little while, but he is not built for endurance. Joey is a Lab/Great Pyrenees mix. I am hoping to find a dock jumping club in my area. He loves jumping and he loves water, so I think this could be a great fit.
Hi Lynn – Good luck finding the dock jumping. I have watched it and it looks like fun. For the record, when we started out in agility I was well overweight. Mum was something like 36 weeks pregnant when we did our 1st agility class and when toddler was a baby food was often used to keep me out of trouble and quiet. Credit to mum she stuck with the agility and also as toddler has grown and she kinda has a bit more time (well easier to share toddler around with dad and other families members) we have done a lot more to keep me fit (plus managing my food intake… that I like less). Means I am trim and lean on the agility field and we are also doing an Endurance Trial this coming weekend. If you had seen me 18-24mths ago I wasn’t looking much like a lean and fit dog. Agility has been a great motivation to get me fit…. just remember to do lower bars when you are learning and until you get fit (and get the weight off if you need to) so you don’t put as much pressure on your joints. It is a great sport so if you enjoyed it don’t be afraid to give it another go…. all sorts of shapes and sizes do it.
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