Such a lovely, positive day today at a sunny Scunthorpe agility show. It was our first outdoor show of the season (& only did a couple end of last year) and it felt very different to running indoors – some serious running to do!
Maisie was such a super happy girly – absolutely buzzing – sun on her back and wind through her tail. First round was awful, but kind of in a positive way!.. She was sooooo up for it. Other rounds were nice and positive too with just odd poles down but solid contacts, great weaves, fast(ish!), responsive, and some working ahead, sending to tunnels and down straight lines of jumps.
The nicest thing out of the day though was just observing how much Maisie’s confidence around people has grown recently. She wasn’t too bothered by any of the judges, just odd suspicious glances, and out of the rings she was amazing – approaching several people for cuddles, ear rubs and tummy tickles. At one point I caught her sprawling against ‘Auntie Helen’ and gazing up at her with those bright trusting eyes I’ve only ever seen fully switched on to me before. Awwww, bless!!
So no big results, not even a rosette to bring home, and all our gang had a bit of a “nearly” day, but it was one of those days when that just did not matter at all. Really looking forward to all the other shows we have coming up now ……….
Oh & Billy got a handsome new collar for being a superb support act. He never makes me feel bad about dragging him along for the ride, and always has himself a fun day out even though he doesn’t play agility.
And thank you for looking after my 3 dogs so well while I was judging - don't know how far you walked them, but they all slept through from getting home to this morning! How did you manage to squeeze so much into one day?
ReplyDelete& yet we seemed to spend most of the day relaxing on the grass in the sunshine!
ReplyDeleteBryn may have exhausted himself laughing at the Mollie sausage incident he witnessed. :o)
Sounds like a great day Kirsty. Its great when dogs start showing confidence like that. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI have a 9 month old rough collie and am thinking about agility. It sounds like fun!
ReplyDeleteGo for it Wendy. I'd have thought a young rough collie would be a lovely dog to start agility with. Find yourself a good trainer/club soon as they may have a waiting list. agilitybits.co.uk is a great beginner's agility forum and you'll find all sorts of info and advice there if you're interested. Kirsty
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