Trial Updates – Agility and Rally

Two days after our first AKC obedience trial, Griffin and I were up in Minnesota and did agility. Griffin has not been to an agility trial for about 18 months – at the last event he did a total of 3 jumps all day (and a few months after that we found out that he had been injured for a long, long time).

Our plan to get him back to the agility ring was to enter a trial at the facility where we take lessons. There are trials almost every weekend – but due to closing dates, events filling, etc – we didn’t get into anything until August!  Instead we did  our first UKI agility trial.

We ended up with three great runs – he did a little running away on each one, but came back and completed every part of every course. We had non qualifying scores due to off courses and a few new training skills to work on – but this is so much better than where we left off 1.5 years ago! And especially for being in such a new, big, open environment. He liked the footing (no slipping) and didn’t even think about leaving to see one of his favorite human friends.

Viktor got to go and watch his first agility trial and enjoyed that.

WCRL Rally:  Last weekend we hosted a rally trial. I did judging for levels 2 and 3 and was only able to participate in Level 1 (Blaze and Griffin) and Puppy (Viktor).

Blaze is (mostly) so easy. He didn’t like to walk towards the front or back doors – he thought we would be leaving and he does NOT like it when his turn ends!  I’m never quite sure if I should participate with him – he’s now well over 14 and his mobility is decreasing. He’s in better shape than a year ago (rehab vet!) and does very much want his turn. I don’t want to make him do more than he should – and there’s always a concern about perception and working older dogs, etc. (Here’s a set of blog posts by other people on the topic).  Most of the time when I go to the dog room he stays curled up on his bed, sometimes lifting his head. But on trial days, after his first turn, he tries to push his way out to get another turn and he puts on the breaks when it’s time to go back (and when we enter the room he pounces on a toy). He would be just as happy coming out for a minute or two to do some training outside the ring, but it’s also nice to have a structured challenge of a new and different course to run. So I don’t know. We’ll see how he’s feeling at the next trial.

Griffin did well. Handler errors, one minor training issue (down to a sit) and one ongoing challenge (calm heeling).

Viktor did the Puppy level – 10 signs, on leash, reward as much as you want. Our first run showed me that we did not do the trial prep we should have (he had never seen rally signs before. We knocked a few over). He also somehow grabbed a toy that was outside the ring. It was hilarious and adorable and did create good feelings for the ring – but not the calm focused feelings we want!  His second run was much, much better. He has a lot of trouble containing himself and sometimes almost trots in place.  Once we got moving things got easier and we saw pieces of the beautiful heeling we have started. We’ll be much more prepared for the next trial!