Seeing is Believing

This weekend was Ruby’s first Dog Agility match. If you are a dog lover and have not watched an agility competition, you are really missing out. This is an action sport that requires patience, timing, patience, love, patience and well, agility (for both the handler and the dog). The goal is to have a “clean run” no obstacles missed, out of order or faulted and under the course time. The result is placement, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. and (if you run clean) Qualifying points toward your Title. For example if you run clean and under time you may not place first because other dogs run faster, but if you beat the standard you can still get a “Q” toward your title.

Ruby’s First Run

Ruby’s first run was “Jumpers” all jumps, nothing else to get in her way. I love Jumpers and as you’ll see, so does Ruby. She crushed it. Remember, there is a LOT going on around the ring, 2 hours before this run Ruby was a panting distracted mess. The sites, sounds and smells of an agility match held in a rodeo arena can be overwhelming. The goal of this first match was just to familiarize Ruby with the “game”. As you’ll see in the video, she had something else in mind. Ruby finished in 1st Novice Jumpers with a Q!

Willa’s Tunnelers Run

We entered Willa in “Tunnelers”. The course is all tunnels, no jumps or other obstacles to get in the way. You can imagine it’s FAST. Willa gets a little time advantage due to her age, but you’ll see she does not need it, I had a hard time keeping up. She took 2nd and got a Q! (Listen to the crowd when Willa crosses the finish line! My heart sang!)

What a Great Day

MJ and I had such an amazing day. Back in June we never imagined we would be competing with Willa in attendance, much less with her in the ring! Ruby ran the additional events. I learned that Ruby is so fast that I have to time my direction better. Here is tunnelers.

I also learned that you can train your dog when they have a real issue in the ring. In this case Ruby had never seen a black dog walk or A-frame before. After her first run I decided to use her second for training.