Agility Boy

Well, Beckett is now an agility boy with his first trial under his belt. He did wonderfully although there definitely is room for much improvement for both of us.

Our first run was a Starters Jumpers.  The first obstacle was a chute. I've only just started practicing lead-outs with a tunnel and so far we haven't had much success so I didn't want to try leading out at the trial. Otherwise I would have led out to jump 2 and run with Beckett on my left, instead I had him on my right and had to try a rear cross at the first tunnel.  Beckett doesn't like rear crosses to tunnels and so got a little spinny before the tunnel. That incurred us 5 faults; something that's changed since I began with Ceilidh and Tucker is that now there are refusals in Starters on jumps and tunnels. The rest of the run was beautiful and we finished in 35.5 seconds on a course that had a standard course time of 54 seconds. 

Starter Jumpers

Our next run was a Gamblers class.  I wanted to put Beckett through the weaves as they were going to be in the same place for the Standard and they were also the four point obstacle.  We messed around far too long on the weaves and I didn't get him to do them off-side, but we did get them done twice.  The main Gamble was two jumps and a chute. There looked like there was a nice line from the tunnel into the Gamble and that's the way I walked the course too. But after having seen a few dogs curl back into their handler after the tunnel I decided to try and just send Beckett out to the jump. He did that part just fine but didn't stay out between jump 2 and the chute. He did finally get out to the chute. I'll have to remember to take a bit of time to get into the right position before sending him back. Without electronic timing, we didn't know if we got the Gamble in time. 

Starter Gamblers

Beckett's First Starters Gamblers

Our next and last run was a Starter Standard. Beckett had nice contacts but he was slow on the frame and he was slow going down on the table. He also didn't collect enough to get the weave entry but once in them he did them beautifully.  The scary part was a spin he did between the tire and the next jump. I was sure it would be called as a refusal but friends who were watching said the judge didn't call it. After watching the video, she may have given him the benefit of the doubt as the spin was early and he seemed to be moving forward in the last third of the distance between the obstacles. 

Starter Standard

Beckett's First Starter Standard

Turns out we did get the Gamble with the minimum number of opening points and only 2 seconds to spare on the Main Gamble so we finished the trial with two Q's (qualifying scores); a great start to Beckett's agility career.  I was very glad to be back in the ring competing. Beckett's runs had flashes of Ceilidh so I'm sure she was with us in spirit. Tucker was there too as Beckett's big brother, cheerleader and coach. The weather, while very cold, was sunny so the drive to the trial arena and the drive home were nice. Next up is another fun trial in February then two official trials in March. You never know I might have a Advanced Agility boy by the spring.

Go Beckett Go!!!