Sherlock and I had our very first agility trial on Valentine's Day! It was a fun match, which means your runs don't actually count for anything, but it's great practice. There is less enforcement of rules, meaning you're allowed to have treats, toys, leashes, etc. in the ring. It's more-so designed as great practice and exposure for both you and your dog, without the stress of a "real" trial.
I just registered for this trial last week and was pretty nervous about it. Sherlock has been "distractoid" (as I like to call him) lately in class. Running all about, sniffing away, paying no attention to me. Needless to say, I had low expectations for perfection.
This picture below is a shot of the schedule for the day. I ran in all the "Starter" courses as well as the Tunnelers. This makes for a VERY long day. We arrived at 7:45 to get our spot set up, and then at 8:00 was familiarization. During familiarization you can take your dog into the ring one at a time and do each of the "contact" obstacles twice. Contact obstacles are the dog walk, teeter, and the A-frame. We didn't get out of there until just after 6:00 pm. I was EXHAUSTED - as was Sherlock.
Our first run of the day (and our first run ever in a ring, and our first full run ever) was Starter Jumpers 1. Below is a map of the course. We start at 1 {bottom left jump} and finish at 13 {tunnel on the bottom right}. The actual course varied a little bit. There were actually 15 obstacles in the real one; not sure why that is.
As I mentioned before, I had very low expectations for Sherlock and I; I was nervous, he was over-stimulated... Well... then this happened! (See video)
Sorry the video is so small. I have to figure out a better system for this.
Aced it! Perfect run! Qualifying score! No dropped bars, no refusals... no anything! I could NOT believe it! At the end of the run you see me throw my arms up like, "Who is this dog?!"
I ran to the finish line where I knew David was waiting/filming and then it turns out my Aunty Sonya and Uncle Anthony were waiting at the finish line too! They were hiding before the run so I wouldn't panic having extra spectators (good move I'd say). It was very exciting to see them and be able to share that moment with all of them. Sonya took me to my first agility trial where she was running her dog 13 years ago.
We got 2nd place in our height category (22" Regular), And 4th place over-all! Well isn't that just the best way to start our first trial together?! So surprised and thrilled about that.
After all that excitement, I was pumped and ready to run our Starter Gamblers run. In Gamblers you get to make up your own course to get points for the first 40 seconds. Every obstacle is worth points, and there are "mini-gambles" worth extra points in the ring. Once the buzzer goes off after the 40 seconds, you have to make your way to complete your "main gamble" within the next 18 second time limit. The "gamble" is that you have to stand behind the tape (marked by dotted lines in the map below) and have the dog do the set of obstacles on the other side while you're at at a distance.
For Starters, the main gamble in the below map is at the bottom right. Jump A, Tunnel B, and then back around into the tunnel again at C. And I have to stand behind that dotted line to the right the whole time.
Sonya helped me figure out a whole plan for how to get points and get back to the gamble when the 40 second buzzer goes. We had it all mapped out and I was feeling pretty good after the walk-through.
A few more friends/family came to watch this one so maybe I was a little extra nervous? Needless to say it was a complete disaster. Sherlock didn't take the first obstacle and decided it would be more fun to go visit all the volunteers in the ring. Such a social guy! Nothing went according to plan at all, but that's okay. He had fun, and we tried. Despite all these blunders we didn't even come in last (not that that's what it's about...). We came in 7th out of 9 dogs in our category.
No video for this one because...well... nobody needs to see that mess!
For our third run of the day many people came to watch us. We had my parents; David's parents; our agility instructor, Sherry; Sherlock's breeder and our friend, Shel... Enough to get my knees knocking!
This run is called Starters Standard. Basically, you have to run the obstacles in the order on the map (1-16) and not have any refusals, knocked bars, off-courses, etc. We had a good plan for this one. I was nervous, but thought we could manage it...
{Course starts at tunnel on bottom right and ends at jump on bottom left}
Sherlock had another plan. He went through the first tunnel and took off on a sniffing tour/mission throughout the rest of the course. He ran all around and I awkwardly chased after him trying to get his attention. Finally he decided to take the A frame near the top (obstacle 6) and I knew he would stop at the bottom to do his "contact". I met him there and carried on with the course at obstacle 3, just skipping obstacle 2 (the dog walk). I got a refusal for missing that, and an off-course for taking the A frame.
The rest of the course was... okay. He got his entry for the weaves and did them all except one, so I was happy enough with that to move on. He completed the rest of the course with a lot of energy from me to keep him on task.
At the finish line everyone was very encouraging and pointing out all the things that went well. How I remained calm and got him back on task to complete the course. Felt like a mess to me, but I'm neurotic...
Sherlock having a rest in his pen we set up for him. He was so delightfully calm and relaxed while he was in there.
We met a friend, Kobe the Great Pyrenees. Such a love-able beast!
The people that had come just to watch me all left after the Standard run. David's sister Allana came to watch my next one though! She is very into agility and is quite successful with her Border Collie, Fynn. We will never compete with them though... he's way to fast!
Our 4th run of the day was another Jumpers run. This one was pretty straight forward except for the tunnel section at the back.
For those into agility: I started on the left side of tunnel #1 and kept the dog on my right all the way to tunnel #6. I did a front-cross after #6 to send him into #7, and then did a blind cross to get him on my right and into tunnel #8. Then it was a sprint to the finish!
We had another perfect run. Had so much fun this run! We ran fast and hard and clean. Both of us were exhausted by the end.
Here's another poor quality video of our run for this Jumpers course.
You can see on the score-sheet below that we scored FIRST PLACE in our height category for this run!
Our final run of the day was called "Tunnelers". It is literally just a series of tunnels you make your way through (hopefully as fast as possible). This one is just for fun; you'd never come across a Tunnelers course in an actual trial.
The blog won't let me upload the video for this one unfortunately, but we did well! Sherlock was a champ although he was SO exhausted. We only had two moments of "oops" in this one. I mixed up my footwork between tunnels 2 and 3 causing him to pop back out of tunnel 3. And the other "oops" was that there was a tool box on the ground against the back wall that wasn't there before! It was apparently a scary tool box as Sherlock stopped dead in his tracks going into tunnel 9 and stared at it, started taking the tunnel, and then popped back out to check on it again. I just had to laugh.
We completed the rest of the course no problem, and everyone clapped at the end.
I am so glad I signed us up for this fun match. We had a blast, and bonded over our triumphs and blunders.
Also, thank you to David for being there all day with me supporting me and filming my runs!
There is only one first time for everything, so I cherished every moment of this day.
Sherlock was konked right out by the time we got home. I ran downstairs to grab something and he didn't even move. Typically he'll chase me down as fast as he can. Not a peep from him over-night either!
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