Well, we did it! We got through the first trial without too much trouble, and had lots of fun as well.

We joined the Agility dog club of NSW for their Tuesday night agility trial in Castle Hill.

We were second up in the 300 height category, after one of our friends from Paws4fun was bumped up to the 300 class from 200, after being measured. The course was good. Not too easy, not too hard, and our biggest fear was missing the weaves.

So we were lined up ready to go, and I was concentrating on Jaxon, and thinking about getting him through the weaves.

“Start when you’re ready” came the call.

The first obstacle was a jump, and all of the jumps had gates on either side.

Jaxon is used to these gates, and has run them many times at Paws 4 fun. The very next obstacle was a tunnel.

Jaxon loves tunnels.

Of course success comes down to the human’s ability, not just the dog’s! And my success was based on thinking about the weaves, not the first jump.

So immediately we started, I dropped my arm and ran around the jump.

Jaxon followed my direction, came with me & headed straight for the tunnel.

My call of “Jaxon, come!” came too late, and we got the immediate DQ.

The rest of the course went well, he hit the entry, got the scramble on the second go, and cleared everything else in great time.

And at the end, we wooted and yahooed for the fun we had running the course. Jaxon has no idea he didn’t win anything, and had the best time.

He was focussed, and smiled the whole way round. I am so proud of him.

So now instead of focussing on his training, we better focus on mine before our next trial in Bathurst this weekend!

As they say – fail fast, learn fast!

We sure did 🙂