Whisper and I are starting our fall trial season.  This is the first month, we've been trailing in agility seriously.  In August, we attended a couple of trials.  It was so hot at both trials, we didn't fair to well, but I finally was enlightened to what agility is all about.  Yes, it actually is fun.  Or trialing is actually fun.  On Labor Day, I attended an AKC trial in Granby, MA.  We had a long time to wait between our standard and jumpers run.  I spent the day watching excellent jumpers and standard.  Some runs were beautiful and some were disasterous.  I watched some accomplished agility competitors Q and win with their dogs and I saw them NQ with their dogs.  It happens to the best of them.  I realized I should relax and enjoy a day with my puppy.  It really hit home with me.   Then I found this video from the world team competiton and it made me realize that even the best of them make mistakes.  I'm taking this way too seriously.  



Last weekend, we attended a USDAA trial hosted by Contact Agility Club.  The weather was gorgeous.  I had my goals for the weekend.  Have fun, have fun, have fun.  But also there were some criteria I needed to practice in trials - confident lead outs and nailing weave poles, entries and confidence both with Whisper and with me.  Elise has really helped us with her weave poles and she's brialliant in practice.  I've added some slight motivation into our training by repeating softly "get it, get it, etc." while weaving.  I've also been working on the weave cue, playing stimulus control games - asking Whisper to weave and lavishing her with food several repetitions of this and then taking her away from the weaves and asking her to do other behaviors, sit, down, spin, weave through my legs, walk backwards, etc. and not rewarding her - just praise,  all the time she's quivering with anticipation that I'm going to give her the weave cue so she can run and get them and get a meatball.    I played this game with Whisper when I had to re-train the chute after she had her tumble.  She's been getting sassy and excited to weave.  Adding the 'get it' in the poles was simply for trials.  I don't think she wants to think at  trials and if she gets her entry wrong, she stresses but if she gets it right, I don't want her to pop out of the poles.  This is a means to tell her she's correct and to keep going through the poles.  I really expect this will increase her confidence at trials.  This weekend, she did her weaves - not confidently in the beginning but giving her the 'get it' bridge made her very happy and she sped up towards the end.  You can see the video of our Standard Run from Saturday on the video page of my web site.  We were also able to do some confident lead outs at this trial.  She's blowing her contacts in trials - so we'll add that to our criteria this weekend.



I can't say that I didn't start to get nervous.  I did, on the way to the trial, my stomach started to do flips.  It didn't help that we almost got into a head on collision with a car going the wrong way down the West Side Highway, on the way to the trial and that I couldn't find my height card when I got there.  I think I must have left it in the copy machine at Staples.  Luckily, the club had a copy so it wasn't an issue.  But I was so good at telling myself it doesn't matter, it'l like going to a class or private lesson and we'll work on what we need to work on and have a good time.  It worked.  Whisper ended up placing in each of her runs and we got two standard legs and another jumpers leg.



Speaking of jumpers, I think our run was brilliant - me, a not so good handler but getting so much better.  Whisper was fast and just great.  I made a couple of flubs and know where I could have shaved off time - thanks again to Elise for her wonderful coaching.  We crossed the finish line to major applause.  That's never happened to us before.  I think the applause was most of the friends that we met at the trial cheering us on, but it didn't matter.  It was a clean run and I think pretty to watch.  I'll post a video when Matt comes back from France (he's got my laptop and video transfer cord).  In Snooker, we had a gorgeous run but NQed at the end and the whole crowd groaned and told us it was great and they were rooting for us.  Actually, amazing for me, I just didn't care that we didn't Q.  It was a great run and we had fun and got second place anyway.



Here's our upcoming trial schedule:

Sunday, October 7 - Ladie's Kennel Club, Westbury, NY  See Fast Times web site for details

October 13 - 14 Keysone Agility Club - USDAA trial in PA

Sunday, October 21 Skyline Agility Club - FDR State Park - see above Fast Times site for details.

November 3 - 4 Staten Island - also on Fast Times.



If you want to come and watch, we'd love to see you.  We might not look great or we might not be looking for a Q - just working on contacts or weaves or handling, but Whisper loves to have visitors.