Makin's Agility Debut

Today was a very exciting day. Makin entered her first agility trial! We did a jumpers and a tunnelers run at the Act-Up Trial in Wrentham. Registration was at 7:30am, so Neil went early to scope the scene while I stayed at home to do some housework. At 9:30, I got a call telling me to jump in the car, we'd be up soon. So, I arrived at ~10:15... and we had our turn at 2:30. I have a new appreciation for my mom's attendance at my swimmeets growing up....

I got to run Makin in the jumpers, which basically consisted of 14 jumps, with only 1 rear cross. I nervously awaited my turn, trying to keep Makin and me warm by trotting around. We thought it would be best if Neil was out of site, but Makin kept searching for him- and for Tessa. There were two other Vizslas there (who did a great job)- and Makin also kept looking over at them- I'm guessing looking for Tessa. When it was our turn, the starter women said something to us- honestly, I thought I was in Nicaragua again and someone was speaking spanish to me- I wanted to understand, but I had no idea what she meant. She understood my blank stare as a lack of understanding and translated her agility speak: "go thru the starter gate and wait for the current jumper to finish"... duh- can you tell I was nervous? Makin certainly sensed my anxiety; when I took her up to the first jump and took off the leash, she turned her back on the jump and tucked her tail bigtime. Oh boy. After a little coaxing, she went over the jumps- not quite like I had envisioned, or like she was capable, but she did it. We got to the rear cross and I thought- this was my small goal, something we'd be practicing. But... didn't quite get it right, so as we continued through the next jumps I remembered what my actual goal was: to just complete the run, which she did. So I was very happy. Not the best run, but a start! And to make us feel better, Makin won a second place ribbon :)



Then, Neil and Makin did the tunnelers course. What a difference! She was on fire! They worked very well together. Neil said his trick was keeping Makin distracted until right up to the when they had to start, then he jumped out on the course. There was only one time when Makin started to jump the tunnel, but after she put her front paws up, she remember to run through the tunnel, not on top of it. She did fabulously and seemed to have fun. Very proud of her!



Looking forward to working more in class and entering another trial soon!