TWANG Trial

I certainly was anxious to see how Annie responded in a trial situation after a summer's hard work...so we eagerly set off to the labor day weekend trial at Watt's arena. We left at the wee hour of 4:50 am...with Annie meeting me outside our front gate after hurdling over the fence in the dark. She was eager too...

Our first run was a novice jumpers run and it wasn't the easiest of novice runs. Annie worked well but got sucked into the wrong end of a tunnel. I was very very happy with her and she payed attention to me the whole way around -we got a bit discombobulated in a couple of turns but all in all a very respectable run.

Her next jumpers class Annie just flew....she knocked a bar but with a time of 4.65 yps I now know I have an AGILITY DOG! Yippee! And do you know? She didn't even look like she was going fast...

Next came a gamblers class -it was an ugly gamble. The dog had to do an out blind to the handler therefore relying solely on voice cue - Annie wasn't ready for that but we used the time to practice our contacts and such and she did them nicely.

On to our standard runs. I think Annie was getting a bit stressed by this time. When we walked into the arena she started looking all about ...I had a sinking feeling...oh oh...is she going to take off? Happily...once started she stuck with me. A couple of times I thought I was going to loose her when her attention strayed but she stuck with me the whole way through...even when she stopped at the end of a tunnel with her head up in the air like a giraffe looking across the ring at the other ring...when I called her name her attention came back to me. Happiness! And our first half cue of the weekend (we knocked a bar along the way)

The next run was even better and we got our 1st full cue of the weekend and a good time -10 seconds less than course time, and our first title Novice Standard! Way to Go Annie.

Sunday I was flat out exhausted. Getting up early, fighting allergies or cold or whatever the krud was, working, driving etc. had really taken its toll on me. Annie seemed a bit different too..in her crate she made a commotion at another dog and while walking outside her attention was wondering to the other dogs...I was worried I might have trouble.

Happily Annie was a good dog ALL DAY. We earned 2 more regular legs with great times (averaging almost 10 seconds less than course time). Her gamble she went out to the tunnel, but came back out to me around the jump. I was able to send her back out to the chute but out she came after the shoot again. We'll have to work on keeping her out and sending her out after tunnels.

She gained 2 more standard legs on Sunday and had what I thought was a faultless jumpers run but somehow got 5 points so no cue.

All in all - a huge success!