Yay, our first Clear Round!!

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Our weekend was busy but exciting. We went to another couple of trials.

On Saturday we went to Cambridge Dog Obedience Club's Agility Ribbon Trial in Cambridge, about 140km south of Auckland. We entered three classes, Starters, Jumpers C, and Elementary B.

In the Starters class a challenge for us was again the Weave. Just before entering the Weave, Cinnamon started sniffing the ground. Although I somehow managed to bring her back on track, it took too much time. Just when Cinnamon was doing the second jump from the last, the judge called "Over time," resulting in a disqualification.



In the Jumpers C, I was worried about the Long Jump, as Cinnamon hadn't done it for a long time and, when she did it previously, she often passed by it. We made a good start without being held for a long wait like the previous week, and Cinnamon did the Long Jump beautifully. But, apparently she felt my relief and lost concentration. Just before the next jump after the long jump, Cinnamon started putting her nose to the ground again. I managed to bring her back on track, and Cinnamon did the subsequent obstacles perfectly up to the second jump from the last. I was almost feeling like 'Wow, we have completed the whole track without getting disqualified!" But, again Cinnamon sensed my relief, lost concentration, and passed the last jump. With my eyes following Cinnamon's unpredicted move, I ran into the last jump and fell over along with the jump obstacle!! So, we again got disqualified...



In the Elementary B class, Cinnamon ran well following my directions until she stopped at the Tunnel. Watching her move, I changed my course and ran on the outer side of the curved tunnel instead of the inner side. Then she somehow entered the tunnel and continued to run to the end. At first I thought that we might have got a fault by stopping at the tunnel, but I learned later that the judge didn't count it as a fault and we got our first Clear Round!! What pleased me even more was that we got the 6th place in the class!!!



It was a very long day for us, as our first competition of the day, the Starters class, started at 9am and it was after 5.30pm when we left the trial venue. We had to wait for hours between each class we entered, as there were so many dogs, and the Starters was the first program in the day and the Elementary B was the last one.

On Sunday we went to Waikato Agility Group's Agility Ribbon Trial in Hamilton, about 130km south of Auckland. We entered the Starters class only, because we didn't want to wait for a long time doing nothing.

In the Starters course, the Weave was the second obstacle. Cinnamon managed the obstacle much better than the previous times, without putting her nose to the ground. She nearly missed a pole but managed to recover. Although there was one fault by refusing the entry to the closed tunnel, we somehow completed the whole course without getting disqualified!!



After our run, our instructor pointed out that Cinnamon had refused the tunnel because she remembered she hadn't liked it when she went through it the first time (In this course, dogs had to go through the same tunnel twice). It was true. I should have noticed that, when I saw her stopping in the tunnel the first time, and I should have been more encouraging. Mmm, there are so many things that I have to learn...