Man's Best Friend

Well, I entered the world of competitive agility with Maverick for the very first time this weekend. And I'd have to say it went well. Maverick tends to lose focus at times at class, not to mention speed, but on Friday, he really had both going for him. Jenn taught me how she wrestles and plays with him moments before entering the ring, and that worked for me, too. In fact, his quickness and enthusiasm sort of worked against me as an inexperienced handler, but I believe I can learn from my mistakes when I return to the ring in two weeks.

Case in point: the first event, jumpers with weaves. It's basically a standard course with extra jumps, a couple of tunnels, and none of the three "contact obstacles" -- namely, the dog walk, the A frame, and the seesaw. Now, the course setup is always different from meet to meet, and this one was a dramatically looping path with one challenging aspect, where I had to cross behind Maverick as he made a jump in order to change his direction for the next one. During the walk-through, I practiced that move several times, and we aced it during the actual run. What I didn't consider was a strategy to keep Maverick from getting sucked into the tunnels at the wrong time; during a tight loop of jumps, the tunnel loomed close, and tunnels have a tempting allure for agility dogs. I didn't do my job keeping Maverick's attention focused on me, so he went straight into a tunnel when he wasn't supposed to -- a fault known as a "wrong course." Later, we had some trouble on the weave poles (pictured), at which he had excelled all week in class, so go figure. Due to the faults and our time, we did not have a qualifying run, but we finished the course, and Jenn and I both felt it was a positive experience.

Next up was the standard course (pictured is my practice run through the contact obstacles, not the actual event). After this event, I was absolutely thrilled with Maverick, even though a couple of faults kept us from qualifying. They included a "fly-off" on the dog walk, which is leaping off the red portion before touching the yellow base. Then we had more weave pole trouble (oh, well). But in all my time training with Mavi in class, he has never demonstrated the combination of speed and focus he had during this run. The high speed contributed to his fly-off, certainly, but for the most part, we were in total synch, his turns were sharp, and he simply devoured the contact obstacles like a dog possessed. Based on this performance -- which clocked in at 18 seconds under the time limit, by the way, even after futzing around way too long with the weave poles -- I am extremely confident heading into the rest of the season. I'm very proud of the big guy.

I'm even more proud of Jenn, who competed on Saturday. She ran Ripley to a qualifying score in jumpers (and a second-place ribbon to boot), and then added a very positive non-qualifying run on the standard course. All in all, I'd say Mavi and Rip both seem more focused than they were at the end of last season, and they shook the rust off very well. And so did their Dad, who, by the look of the photos here, could stand to lose a little weight around the middle.