On November 5, Whisper and I entered into our first AKC Agility Trial.  All of the agility venues (AKC, NADAC, USDAA, CPE) are different.  They have different rules and the classes are different, have different time requirements, etc.  In AKC, the jumpers class is Jumpers with Weaves.  The course for Novice consisted of 14 obstacles: one set of six weave poles, two tunnels and twelve jumps.  My foot (bursitis in three of my metatarsals caused by working with puppies) had been killing me so I didn't have time to practice.  Whisper's weaves have either been looking brilliant or they've been completely non-existant.  I thought there would be practice weave poles at the trial but therre were not.  So we went to the trial without having practiced weaving in several weeks.  Also weaving in sequence has been hard for Whisper - adjusting her speed to get and stay in the weave poles.  So we risked hanging out an an agility trial all day for a NQ, but I thought we'd try.



The morning was clear and the weather was cold.  The trial site was at Midland Beach Sports Field in Staten Island.  I had to arrive at the trial early because the Verazano Bridge was closed due to the NYC Marathon.  I had never been to the start line of the marathon since it runs right past our house on 4th Avenue.  There was excitement in the air and lots of traffic with van and bus loads of competitors.  I wish I could have gone back to take pictures.  Maybe next year.  We had a road block trying to get onto the road that would take us to the trial site.  Luckily we were able to get through.



The trial site was beautiful on the beach.  If you want to see more pictures, I've stored them on my google Picasa page  http://picasaweb.google.com/semperfidony/2006_11_05

I found a great place to pitch my tent.  Then the waiting game began.  I spent most of the day watching people run their dogs going between being warm and freezing.  I was trying to stay off my feet so I could run with Whisper.  There was a really nice judge at the trial using lots of positive reinforcement with the competitors.  If their dog had a melt-down, she thanked them, complimented them on their lovely dog and excused them from the ring.  She cheered for the clean runs and the Q's.  It was really lovely to see.



Finally around 2 or 2:30, we were able to walk our course.  My nerves always get the best of me.  I need to learn some deep breathing exercises so I can calm down.  Both Whisper and I were tired.  She kept wondering all day when it was going to be her turn.  I think she thought it was another buzz kill.



The Novice JWW (Jumpers with Weaves) was small.    We didn't need to wait long to run.  Everything went well, until I sent her wide around a pin wheel, she was fast and ahead of me and didn't read the turn and wanted to go straight to the jump ahead of her which would have sent her off course.  She spun around to me so I could send her to the correct jump then to the weaves.  She took the jump and ran straight past the weaves *I think I forgot or was late in telling her the weaves were next.  I called her back worried I was going to loose her - Whisper does not like to be wrong.  She came back and started to not weave again.  I told her to weave again and she got in the weaves.  She did the weaves  - slowly and without confidence like she does in practice but she did them cleanly and you are allowed to re-try the weaves without incurring a fault.  Of course, I was so happy she did her poles that I forgot to cue the rear cross into the tunnel (another nemesis for us - rear crosses into the tunnel), she sniffed a bit at the tunnel entrance and took the tunnel when I gave her the cue (duh, I'm a bad handler), she read the rear cross and were able to finish the course. 



We ended up about 8 seconds under standard course time and did not have any faults which means we got a qualification and or first leg in Novice JWW Title.  In addition, when we checked the results, I found out that we got first place!!!  It was less that we were fast than that we ran clean and under time.  Yay!  This is our first, first place ribbon.   Awesome.  Even with our bobbles (now I know what I need to train), we did so well and I couldn't be happier.



Our next trial is a week from Friday at JAG.  We'll be running JWW on Friday and Sunday.  It's unfortunate that I hadn't finished training Whisper's contacts so I could compete in the regular class as well but that's okay.  On Monday, Whisper did a full height teeter.  Her contacts and teeter is brilliant.  I'm glad I'm spending time teaching her contacts because they look great.  We are going back to a 2o2o contact on the A-Frame.  We're almost at full height so that will be trained shortly and the dog walk looks good except for speed.  She's trotting over the dog walk so we need to work on that.  I think it's a confidence issue.  Once these are trained, we can add them to sequence and bring them to competition.  Soon I think.



Agility is so addicting.