Today Sunny participated in her first agility show 'n go at the Riverside K9 Center in Nashua, NH. She did very well, considering she's never done much more than 5 apparatus' in a row! We did 17 apparatus' in a row, with only one missed weave-pole, one minor collision with Janis (handler error!), and one bar shaken loose. All in all, I think she did VERY well for her first time out. Not the fastest on the course today, but she proved to be under control and took direction well from me, which I (personally) think is more important, especially at the beginning of her agility "career."
Both of us are completely new to agility, but if it's like music (which I do have some competition experience in), slow and steady wins the race. We're learning proper technique and will worry about speed later once we have the fundamentals mastered. While I know she's a speed-demon (she didn't earn the nicknames "Thunder-Pup" and "Wild-Child" for nothin'!), I personally would be happy with clean (but slower) runs. We don't need medals - she'd just eat them anyway (she had a therapy dog tag once... until she ate it). ;-) But to say she did the entire course correctly would show focus and control, which to me is more important, and no matter what we do, she has fun. After all, 2 steps out the door, and she's trying to drag me back into the building to do more, More, MORE!
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