Agility Trial at Grorud

This is one of the larger agility trials, as it is a Norwegian Kennel Club trial and thus gives an oportunity for points toward "Championat". Lucy, unfortunatly isn't eligible as she doesn't have a pedigree, but we aren't anywhere near that good anyway. 

It was a 2 day trial. On Day 1 I learned a valuable lesson. I had been feeling some temptation to be less careful about preparing Lucy in every way: walks for exercise, walks around the ring and the tents to get used to the environment, games of control, games of contact, games of exitement. Hose her down with water if it is hot... Lucy has seemed so much more secure at these events that I was tempted to cut back. In our second run I was almost too late for the walk through - when it was announced I was  at the near end of the venue where we had our crate between some tents, while the ring was at the far end, so I missed about a minute of the walkthrough. The jump course was quite complicated and I stood watching the first contestants trying to make sure I had the course memorized when the ring sekretary called may name saying: there are before you're up. I had nr 349 so had thought that there would be 48 before me, apparently though they started at 340. I had to run back to our crate, grab the dog and run back as fast as I could. Lucy must have thought that I was in some sort of grave danger. First chance she got she attacked the closest dog. I pulled her off, and we had 30 seconds until it was our turn. For the first few jumps Lucy kept running to the edge of the ring looking wildly around for the danger. She returned when I called but it cost us time and gave us two "refusals". Still we got through the whole course and placed # 20. Though Lucy followed me through the course she was still jumpy afterwards. I learned 3 things: 

1. I am able to learn a complicated course and remember it under stress. A big improvement from last year.
2. Lucy is able to return her focus to me in spite of the circumstances.
3. It was brought home to me how incredibly important our preparations actually are.

Below is a video of the jumpers run. It was a good run, unfortunatly my handling left something to be desired and I inadvertently led Lucy to jump back over a jump where she should have turned 180 degrees and gone around it. My fault entirely as can be seen by watching the video. We were disqualified as a result.

Day 2 I decided to learn from the mistakes of Day 1. After the agility run, I moved our crate to the area of the jump ring. I also checked the start order to make sure we weren't surprised again. I was conscientious with all our preparations and it all paid off. We finished #4, with a clean run and less than a second time penalty. Below Lucy is holding her prize: a nice rawhide bone.