MAC trial

So Jim and I just got back (well okay...we've been back for about 1.5 hours) :) We were at a trial in London this weekend.

A trial you say? Whatever did you do wrong this time Annette?!?!?!?!

Actually it was an agility trial. It was put on by MAC. If you want to know who MAC is go here. It was held as part of Agility Association of Canada. You can view their website at this location. It was a well-run trial. They have had a few trials at the Western Fairgrounds but this was our first opportunity to trial with them.

It was rather neat. As Jim and I were sitting awaiting Sassy's turn to run, I noticed some people sitting behind us laughing at some of the antics of the dogs, and how the handlers were doing things. It was fairly obvious that they were having fun AND that they knew nothing about what was going on. They were just enjoying watching the dogs. I took the opportunity to talk with them a bit about my current favourite dog sport. A couple of ladies I ended up introducing to the lady who helped train Sassy and I into the sport. One had a malamute the other a border collie. They were quite intrigued about the possiblity of doing this with their dogs. It was fun to talk with them a bit. :)

Sassy was in two events today. Starters Standard and Advanced Gamblers. She came in second in the Standard and well...a somewhat distant fifth in Gamblers. I went not expecting to do very well so was quite pleased with how we did. It was our first trial of the season, we hadn't trained a whole lot, my handling was awful...I knew this! And well... we just wanted a good warmup before a more serious trial in a couple of weeks. Okay...it's not really a more serious trial... just that I entered more events and would have a somewhat higher expectation of doing better after having one trial under our belts after one year off.

We missed out on a qualifying round in standard by four inches when Sassy got a gleam in her eye and leapt off the a-frame! BAD DOG! Bad handler...needs to reinforce proper dismount from aframe!!!! But it was a fun run! :) Sassy was FAST! If she hadn't have missed that four inches into the yellow we would have come in first!

Advanced gamblers was a higher level of competition than what we ever done before so....not getting eliminated was like...wow!!!! She didn't get the gambles but....a lot of that was handler error...boy I learned lots! And some of it was just... she didn't understand, she tried hard but just didn't get it. (just means more training on my part). Once again....stuff we learned! :) This too was a good run...if only for the lady I met who when I was walking the course said...hey...relax... have fun. Try this, it might help. So that was way cool. So nice how people help others out.

Anyways, I have a boy who is not too happy with life and should probably go check on him to see what is up. Keep well all!