Our first agility show!!

First blog, and what better to blog about than Finn and Willow's first agility show?!

So, lets set the scene! We set off at 6am for Evesham on Easter Sunday with a little anxiety in our hearts; this was to be our first agility show for over 5 years, and Finn and Willow's first ever show! We weren't really sure how our two youngsters were going to cope with the show environment and all the other excited dogs as they both have 'issues' of their own - Willow has anxiety issues over the proximity of other dogs and people, and Finn gets easily overaroused and stressed out by lots of movement around him - but we went along happy enough with the idea of running all our rounds as training rounds or just walking them around the periphery of the show ground and scrapping the rounds if necessary; we had no intentions of forcing them to do anything beyond their comfort zone. We arrived nice and early on a dry but hazy morning and had a quick look around to see where the rings were and when our particular classes might be on. We'd chosen this show as our first as there were 3 Beginners Steeplechase classes we could enter, and this seemed a brilliant way to start them off - Steeplechase classes consist purely of jumps and tunnels and at the Beginner level tend to be beautiful flowing courses, just right for giving youngsters confidence.

It appeared that one of our classes would be on first, so we set about walking the course and planning our strategy. It was a lovely flowing course right up until the last 2 jumps where there was a bit of a nasty twist, and we decided that as this was to be their first ever run in this sort of environment, if they looked happy enough around the edge of the ring then we'd put them in the class but run it as a training round, not for competition, with a toy in hand and stop and reward them both after they'd completed a few obstacles so that we didn't ask too much of them and we had a toy there to reward them in the face of huge distractions. The Maxi dogs were to run first, and Finn and Willow both fit into the next height category down, so we watched a few rounds to see how the course went, and then went to 'check in' with the ring manager on the ring mum had volunteered to help on and let them know we'd be free to help in the afternoon once all our runs were done. Slight mistake - they were desperately short of people to run the ring, so we ended up being launched straight into helping! It was quite fun being involved though! We were trying to keep an eye on the progress of the class we were due to run in while helping, and in the end were freed from our duties just in time to go and get our two colliewobbles and go straight to the ring for their height category. We had to join the queue straight away and didn't have much time to see how they were coping around the ring, but they seemed calm enough, so we took them into the ring with their toys to run our rounds as training rounds. Finn was first up, and after coming around the first jump with me because I didn't set him up properly, he then took off like a rocket around the ring, flowing beautifully and working really well, not even noticing the presence of the toy! He was going so well that there didn't seem to be any point in trying to stop him to get him to play, so I let him carry on going. He even got the slightly tricky turn at the end of the course! Apart from the slight run-by on the first jump, and the fact that the run was not-for-competition, it was a lovely Clear Round! And so up came Willow, again mum with toy in hand, and off she went, again flowing well and looking fairly confident. Mum tried to stop her to reward her with her tuggy several times, but she was very much of the opinion 'why do I need a tuggy when there's a jump there I could be doing?'!! All in all a pretty confident display from both of them, and we left the ringside grinning like fools! Really not bad for a first effort!!

And so to the second class. An absolutely beautiful Steeplechase class that we were certain they could both manage now we were feeling more confident! Finn ran first, just knocking a jump pole and missing a jump, but again a beautiful flowing round, with him working miles ahead of me, confidently and independently. And then came Willow. Managed to get this round on film, and as I'm filming it I'm thinking 'blimey, she's going well, she might go clear', and clear she does!! A Clear Round at her first show!! By any standard this is a pretty impressive feat, but made all the more impressive by the fact that only several hours earlier we weren't even sure if we'd be able to risk letting her off the lead to run!! Mum and I were just over the moon; we've been through so much with that little dog, and she did us so proud! I know of people who've waited 6 years to get a clear round at a show, and Willow did it at her first event (although if it takes 6 years to get a clear round then maybe an evaluation of training methods might be needed!)! So very, very proud! And she got the most beautiful Clear Round rosette to take home and pin on the board!

A lunch break then ensued, and we chilled with our two by the car, enjoying the bit of sunshine that had finally managed to break through the haze. Our third class of the day started immediately after lunch, and so we took them straight to the ring while it was nice and quiet before all the other rings commenced. A slightly trickier course, but again Finn was flying! He just knocked a jump down (and I slightly forgot where the course went!), but all in all another confident performance. And blimey is he fast! He's gonna be a little star! And Willow had another good round, just missing a jump somewhere, but again looked happy and confident. We then volunteered to help on one of the rings for the rest of the afternoon, and had a lovely time helping out.

The journey home didn't seem quite so long as we floated happily along! So very very proud of our two, we couldn't really have asked for more from them for their first show! Bring on the next! We don't have too long to wait, we've decided to do a late entry to a show on 3rd May, so only a couple of weeks to wait!! And in the meanwhile we'll keep working on perfecting our weave and contact performance; we're trying to build a completely independent and reliable performance of these pieces of equipment so that we don't have to always be there with them doing the 'cookie dance' or ever have to worry about missed contacts points! I think all the Foundation work we've been doing has certainly paid off, and I hope this idea catches on more and more with agility trainers - it's certainly the way forward, and I hope in the future will be how everyone trains!

Shelley x