Agility Trial 7/17/2016

I've been thinking a lot about our last agility trial. We probably had our 'worst' day ribbons wise but in reality it was our best- and probably my most favorite agility trial yet. My dog was brilliant-he did everything I asked of him perfectly, there was only one time he made a mistake, and in reality that was might fault for not following through to the obstacle enough. He was just so accurate, and so so happy to be running the game, and it was truly amazing to see all our practice and hard work come together and to work as a team so well. There's really no feeling like a solid run.

His standard run was brilliant- we ran together like we were a real team. I didn't fail him and he worked so hard for me. It was awesome.

In the game wildcard the sand was pretty dry and all the fast dogs were sliding in the sand, some even falling, and indie was one of them (yay for my little poodle being one of the fast dogs!!), because of this he missed his weave entry and we had to go back to fix it- and because of that we were 3 seconds behind another dog in his class putting us in second place. I don't mind getting second, but this sparked a little healthy competition for the next run with the dog and handler that beat us. The lady's name is Holly and she runs the MOST adorable quick little english cocker. Those who know me probably even a little know that I am SUPER competitive- so I love the competition. We both decided on basically the same way to run the course and she was right before me in the running order. They ran the course FLAWLESSLY. I mean she could not have handled it more perfectly- it was amazing. I stepped up to the line, looked at my instructor Barb, who was scribe for the run and said, "oh crap!" I knew I was going to have to run it just like that to win. I set my dog up- the timer hit "GO" and we went. We did NOT run it the way Holly and Beatrix had, my blind cross was ok but the following front was too slow and indie had to make a big half circle to make up for my lateness. He was then a little slow into the tunnel because I should have done a cross- it was clean but we wasted time. I knew we were beat. She got us. It was only by .3 seconds but still. Hers was one of the best two runs of the class- and her time was the second best of all the dogs from levels 345C. All the heights. Indie's was third. I couldn't mind losing to such a beautiful and fast run. We both agreed that we couldn't wait until the next trial to go at it again! lol.

Anyway- it was so much fun- it was fun to have a friendly competition and so much fun to see my dog do so well- and also to feel that I had been a good enough handler for him when so many times I'm not. I love agility. I can't wait until our next trial, heck I can't wait until wednesday just to play with my dogs again. Photo by Joe Camp