Journey and I had a wonderful Sunday at the Portland Agility Club AKC Agility Trial. We arrived early, since it was Journey's first AKC trial, AKC rules that he must be measured before he runs. The exceptionally nice Judge David Nauer patiently assured Journey that there was nothing to worry about when he placed the measuring device over Journey's shoulders while he stood on the table. He measured 25-3/4" tall. I usually get 26" when I measure him, but perhaps he was not standing as tall as usual. I put Journey back in the car while I walked our first course. It was raining hard and I had not brought his crate inside. Our first event was Jumpers With Weaves (JWW). It was a nice course, smooth and flowing.
Two Afghan hounds were ahead of us. One of them got the "zoomies" about half way through the course and it seemed like they might never catch him. He was gorgeous to watch as he raced around and around the ring. Fun to watch, when it is not your dog. I was hoping Journey was not taking notes. He stood politely at my side until suddenly we were up.... I walked him out onto the course and sat him before the first jump. The rest of the story follows in the attachment below:
- so proud of my boy. He ran a "clean run", (no faults) and he qualified with a First Place.
Our only goof was at the end of the weave poles. It was my mistake. I had intended to be on the right side of the weave poles but just could not get there ahead of him. He already had his head in the weave poles, so we just went with it, with me on the left. I had to change to the right side at the end of the poles - a little awkward, but no faults. The rest of the run was just fine and he was perfect! Yea Journey!
We had a long wait between our events and I had a chance to visit with many old friends. Some I had not seen since Quest and I stopped trialing several years ago. It was so nice once again to be doing what I had missed so much. I am slower now and I worried about making the time, with a beginner dog. He does not yet know how to work out ahead of me as well as Quest did, but he is learning. I gained confidence when I saw our time on the JWW run. The standard course time was 43 seconds and Journey did it in 29.25 seconds. That was a confidence builder for me.
Our second event was the Standard Run. When I walked the course I was a little concerned to see that the first obstacle was a "chute" (a tunnel which ends with a parachute type material that lays flat on the ground). Journey does the chute just fine, but I was concerned that being the first obstacle, if I started leading out from him, he might be hesitant to go into the chute (where he could not see me) and instead, he might go around it. Anyway, I decided there was too much chance for disqualifying on the very first obstacle, so I did not lead out. I stayed with him at the start. That worked just fine, but it slowed us down. I need the lead out time to be able to stay with him. Since he got a ways in front of me, he circled a couple of times. He missed a proper entry on the teeter, then when he headed for the tunnel, I goofed and called out "chute" (guess it was still on my mind). My other dogs would probably have ignored my call and gone ahead into the tunnel, but Journey is extremely conscientious and he stopped immediately, knowing it was not a chute. I resent him with the proper direction. Then at the table I stepped in a hole and almost fell into him, causing him to jump off the table on the "4 second" count. He had to start the table - 5 second count again. He missed a proper entry onto the dog walk, as I was too far behind him to direct him. He began the last three obstacles, but decided to throw in an extra bounce on the table for fun. He finished with a perfect weave pole performance followed by the final jump. We had faults though, and we were ten seconds over standard course time. I was proud of how well he did considering all the problems. My lack of speed caused most of the faults. He was trying very hard. The videos enabled me to see many areas where we needed practice. On Tuesday, Mary, our agility instructor used the chute as the first obstacle and I led out three obstacles to start him. He went through just perfect and he probably would have done that at the trial too. We will practice beginning runs with different obstacles and be ready for the next trial. I will also practice sending him on, no matter how far behind him I may be. He is getting it - just takes time and repetition.
All afternoon at the trial, there was a tremendous storm raging outside. Since the barn had a metal roof we could barely hear each other talk. The storm continued on our 40 mile drive home.
When we reached our hilltop haven the clouds withdrew and the sun came through. The dogs greeted each other with all the love and caring they feel towards each other, as they always do. I will always treasure these moments in our lives. I am so very lucky to have such wonderful companions.
As if to mark the perfect finish of a great day, we were treated to the sight of a beautiful young buck on our lawn, outside the front windows of our house. We all just watched silently, and enjoyed.
