Raven and I entered the Greater Miami Dog Club Agility Trial.  It was held on December 5 and 6, 2009.  We ran on Saturday, the 5th.

Here is Raven running, er running around the Novice JWW course.  This was our first time in the ring at her standard height of 24 inches.  She prefers to jump 20 inches, but she can jump 24.   She’s my little buddy with a streak of self-serving creativity.  I adore her.  Look at how much fun she’s having!

Below is our Novice A Standard run.  This happened hours later.  We sat under a tent in the afternoon for about 60 minutes while a thunder storm took control of the site. By the time we ran, it was 5:30 pm and the cold front had just arrived.  We were the third dog in the ring after the cold front came in.  The first dog was a white Standard Poodle.  Her owner brought her all the way over from the Bahamas for this cluster trial.  There was obedience and rally Wed through Sun, too.  While the Poodle was running, the cold front arrived.  It knocked over all the gates, the jumps, cones, and this poor handler was excused because she stopped!  I would have stopped too.  Here we are Novice handlers and what a lesson to learn.  Someone told me later that in a case like that, you keep running your dog, and they will not get penalized for the jumps being down.  But if the numbers are down and you lose your way, too bad.  I don’t like that rule.  It’s not very handler friendly.  But it is what it is.

They set the gates up again along with the jumps, but before the handler before me got to enter the ring, the gates were knocked down again.  This time, they stayed down, so we ran with a missing perimeter.  I held onto Raven’s collar as we waited for the dog before us to finish.  Raven was shaking.  I almost felt sorry for her, but for the fact that I knew her shaking was  the little devil in her preparing to escape!   The ring help had to hold the shoot till we took it. We got timed out when all was said and done. What an experience!

I led her right into that tunnel after the tire jump. And right off the table. I love these videos. They show you what you don’t see when you’re running.

On the top of my New Year’s Resolutions list is to teach Raven obedience and rally.  It’s time, as she’s had no obedience training, and that will help her focus.  She’s a blast, but needs some work on realizing only one partner can lead.  And it ain’t her!

Thanks to Bow-Wow Video for taping our runs. Leissl’s turn is next on 12/31/09 and 1/01/10 at West Palm Beach.