Finally our first Agility trial, Wow!

[Mutt]

Blaze and I finally competed in our first agility trial and had a ball. 2 years ago when I had Pride(My first BC.) I started to take beginner agility classes. 4 weeks in Pride died suddenly and I fiqured that would be the end of agility for me. I then got Blaze and from the time he was a puppy I knew that agility was going to be something we could do together but we would have to wait for him to get older.

Finally Blazes turns a year old in May (2004) and I approch the club to start taking classes. Because of things that were going on they told me that they would not be having classes till September but I was welcome to come to their open practices and intoduce Blaze to the equipment. Finally September comes and we get to take a beginner class, Blaze took to it like a duck to water. I couldn't beleive the difference that agility made for him, finally he had a job. Anyway after our beginner class I was told that they would be shutting down till febuary when they would start inside. So I made a few jumps and a set of weave polls and practiced what I could and waited for Febuary.

Febuary finally comes, first night of practice inside the barn and the first time the main teacher has seen Blaze run. To say the least she was impressed with what she saw but was concerned that she did not have the knowledge of the breed to help me with my handling. I did learn alot from her but took a 5 week classes with a handler who was used to working with BC's. I had been getting dicouraged a little with Blaze as he was so fast and I was having trouble getting to were I needed to be. 5 weeks later what a difference.

After a couple months of training I wanted to test the waters, the first trial that was avaiable I couldn't go because of a prior comintment. So the next availabe trial was the New Brunswick regionals. When it was explained how this worked I wasn't sure if I was ready for it. To compete at the regionals every one runs a the masters level. 2 days of running to accumulate enough points to go to the National out west. Both of my trainers encouraged me to compete for the experience and get a feel for what Blaze would do as this was a regional and for a starter dog to compete would be fun but would probably get eaten up in the masters coarses. The one bright light was that I would be able to run one starters course each day before the regional courses started. Both trainers told me not to get my hopes up as these coarses would be tough and with Blazes spead I would most likley get frustrated, I was told to go into this trial and have fun but don't expect miracles.

Ok Saturday morning comes, my first trial, not sure how my dog is going to react and about 3 nights without sleep and nervous as hell. When I registared every one seemed to have hearded of us before. Apparently Blazes speed had got there before we did. My first run was a starters gambler which I just learned to play the weekend before. 40 sec to play, 20 sec to get the main gamble. 60 seconds later we walked off the feild with 88 points and a Q. I have never been so proud of Blaze, it was a great feeling to know all our hard work had paid off. Blaze even did well for the regionals. We walked away with a first place and a Q in starters gamplers and a first place for starters jumpers and placed 4th in his class for the weekend, not bad for a starter dog on a master courses. We missed qulifying for the nationals by 20 pts. If I hadn't self distructed on one run and got a 0 we would have made it. All I can say is can't wait till the next trial. I'm hooked.

[zenotri]

That is such a nice story. Well done to you & Blaze. It sounds like the 2 of you are in for quite a ride.

 

Vickie

[airbear]

Originally posted by Mutt:

We walked away with a first place and a Q in starters gamplers and a first place for starters jumpers and placed 4th in his class for the weekend, not bad for a starter dog on a master courses. We missed qulifying for the nationals by 20 pts. If I hadn't self distructed on one run and got a 0 we would have made it.

That is so cool! Congratulations! My Wicked made her AAC debut at Regionals last year and we had some good moments (I think) and a lot of train wrecks. We got 7 in a run - that was about the funnest run still! Nothing went right, it was like we were there forever. She was screaming, I was laughing, the judge was laughing - I still smile just thinking about it.

 

This year, I made all the mistakes and she was the good one. Still qualified, and even came 3rd in one of the Jumpers. Ain't agility fun?

[Mutt]

Agility is amazing Blaze loves it and so do I. All the people that I have met that are involved in the sport are great. Can't wait to do his next trial.

[MrSnappy]

Last year Tweed and I missed qualifying for Nationals by something like 4.5 points. Talk about cruel cruel world! This year we Q'd with 411 points and I was awfully proud of my boy! He may not be the brightest dog out there, but he's mine and I like him (I think) nonetheless.

 

Welcome to the big time!

 

RDM

[Mutt]

411, that's awsome cosidering 300 is the mark. I am definatly doing the regional again next year it was so much fun. I can't wait till the next trial so we can spend the day having fun and meeting great people.