11-25,27-05

First Agility Photo

When I first decided to compete in the Dog Agility Trials, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't purchase any of those $20 photographs of my dogs. So after only two entries - here it is, Caleb's first high dollar agility photo! The truth is....... Sean was the big pushover (LOL). Thanks Babe! Also, if any of you were present to see our first competition, you'd be surprised to hear that Caleb improved a thousand percent this weekend. Oh, Max is another story - what a bonehead!

I'll admit that, a couple of weeks ago at the Palmetto show, Caleb behaved like he had never even seen an agility obstacle before in his life. This past Friday, he completed every obstacle on both courses and hit all his contacts but unfortunately, knocked down a couple of bars. Double NQ! Today, on the Jumpers' course, Caleb had a clean run until the very last jump when he displaced the double bars and then, on the Standard course, he was doing excellent until about 3/4 of the way through when he ran over to the sidelines to visit with Sean. What a bummer!

Okay, well, Max's nickname is no longer "Maximus the Miraculous" but now "Mad Max" since he lost his mind and decided to make up his own agility course. The first run was actually going really well until he caught scent of the dead rabbit that was in the ring the previous day. Almost every dog stopped to smell the lingering odor before going into the weaves but Max caught a whiff just before his 3rd jump which was on the opposite side of the weaves. Once I finally regained his attention, he had a clean run other than missing that 3rd jump. From that moment on, Max's focus steadily worsened as everything else became more interesting than the agility obstacles. We'll just have to work on that.

We did have a ton of fun though and the other competitors are alot friendlier than in the conformation events. Almost everybody seems willing to give advise, lend a helping hand and cheer on each and every dog. It's not like you see on TV where all of the dogs have mostly perfect runs but rather an abundance of bloopers and antics (primarily in the Novice A class, like me). If you want to have fun with your dog and meet some real nice people then I highly recommend training/competing in agility.

Sandy, Sean & The Drool Crew