Lenny's First Agility Trial

Sun, May 11th at a park in Pickering, Lenny entered his very first Agility trial! We went in 2 classes - Steeplechase & Starter Jumpers. Many thanks to my sister for helping me set-up & tear-down as well as Heather & Joanne for their help throughout the day.

Steeplechase consists of jumps & tunnels, but there is also the frame (which is a contact element), weave poles and each class started with the tire. Jumpers consists of jumps & tunnels only. Our classes were in the afternoon, but we had to be there very early in order for Lenny to be measured. The dog has to be measured by a judge to make official which division of the height of the jumps the dog will run in. Lenny is in the 26" division.

So, it was quite a long day, but interesting to watch the other classes & competitors. Lenny was a very good boy in his crate. The weather was a mix of sun & cloud, but the highlight of the day was the gale force winds which moved in mid-morning & continued all day.

When it came time for Lenny's first class, Steeplechase, he was, needless to say, feeling quite fresh & the cool temps & wind only fueled his enthusiasm! The course for the first class was: tire, jump, weave poles, frame, jump, jump, jump, frame, jump, jump, jump, tunnel (snaked under the frame), jump, tunnel, tunnel, jump. Well . . . .Lenny missed the tire & first jump completely, missed half the weave poles, flew over the frame (read no contacts!) the first time but did a little better the second time over b/c I remembered to ask him for a contact :) , got the next jumps & tunnel & jump, missed some of the next jumps and/or knocked down rails, headed for the frame instead of the tunnel on the way to the finish but I got him back on track & finished the course. I had a very difficult time keeping up with him . . . . .he's feeling like yahooooooooooo & speeding around the course!! I don't even know what our time was in the class (the scoring is time plus faults - the course must be completed within a set time & there are faults assigned to misses, knock downs etc much like horse show jumping) but I was certainly out of breath when we finished!!

The Jumpers class was actually much easier & went a bit better in that we worked together a little better. I still had a heck of a time keeping up to Lenny, but it was a more flowing course. If I remember correctly, this course layout was: tire, jump, jump, jump, tunnel, line of 4 jumps in a row, tunnel, jump, tunnel, jump, jump, jump to the finish. Lenny missed the tire & first jump again, was ok on the next jumps & tunnel, but then got ahead of me (no surprise!) and I had a bit of trouble getting him to settle for the next line of jumps. I got frustrated & placed him in a sit - that eliminated us from the class - you are not allowed to touch the dog in the ring - but I sort of forgot about that!! By the time we got to the last tunnel & line of 3 jumps, he was so far ahead of me, I just yelled out the elements & he did them! Check out the clip - it's kind of hard to see, but that is us going around the ring in the Jumpers class. . . . .

It was a fun, interesting day. I think we'll probably try some Agility trials again . . . . stay tuned!