Breeze Debut in Open Agility

We have been so busy I have had no time to update the blog. Between training all the dogs, competing, and working I am having a hard time keeping current.

On the Aug 23 weekend Breeze made her debut in Open Agility as well as competing in Rally. After running back and forth between rings, I was exhausted by the end of the weekend. She had a three day trial and earned two Open Jumpers and two Open Standard legs that weekend. Not bad for a baby dog.
However as the levels get higher the skills needed get more difficult.

Weavepole entrances is what caused our initial failure in the course on both NQs. Definitely something to work on. Another problem encountered the first day in Standard was her apprehension of going into the chute. The first day we never did succeed.  After the trial was over I borrowed a chute without the tunnel portion and got her through finally with enthusiasm. But you can see my nervousness as the chute approaches in the course. Luckily she went through although not as quickly and willingly as I would have liked. I suspect the lightening of the arena was the cause.

The first run of the weekend was Open Jumpers. She had an awesome course with a speed of 5.95 yds/sec. My goal is to someday break 6 yds/sec. So close and of course no video! The rest of the runs that weekend were not as spectacular. In agility success is based on teamwork. The dog and handler have to read each others cues and know what each other is saying. This takes a long time and many many runs together. She is doing fabulous but I still need to remember she doesn't read me well and I don't read her well yet either.

The below videos are our first weekend together at this level. I apologize for the first Open Std video. If I only knew how to edit videos......I got into the ring too early and should have walked out but I stayed and started playing with her in the ring. I was nervous about starting with the chute so was trying to make her happy and excited. The run starts well into that video.