First agility trial

Well, we did it... went to our first agility trial with son's dog Jesse, i have been training her since January 2007, got brave and entered in our first trial, well we screwed up majorly our first run... she wouldn't do anything, wouldn't go over the A frame, the tetter, or the dog walk, things that she has never missed on... I was nervous and i know she pick up on it... we messed up so badly on the first run i wanted to quit, but my instructor was yelling at me, "ya paid your money, finish it" so i did... we got a 3rd place, only because there were only 3 dogs..the time for the run was 65 seconds, and we took 175 seconds... so that shows how bad we were... couple of hours later we ran the second run, and she did much better this time, i was calmer and she was calmer... so this time she got a FIRST...made some mistakes, but we did finish in much better time... the fellow handed me my leash as i left the ring, and congratulated me with a " much better run this time"... and my friends were all there cheering me on... what a great bunch they are... so supportive..we had one more run to do, and i almost scratched her from it, but they all talked me into trying, and we did well, got a 3rd out of 9 dogs... didn't get home till 9 pm... it was past Kamloops, 1 .5 hour drive... and we stopped for supper..just to relax and get some energy back... but i am still recovering today... if you ever get the chance to see an agility trial, go watch, it is so much fun to watch the dogs... there was a little and i mean little, poodle, i bet she didn't weight any more than 5 pounds and was hardly 6 inches tall, and she ran like a little trooper.. going as hard as she could... she was so little she had to sit on the end of the tetter and wait for it to go down..she is 10 years old..her handle was an elderly man about 6 feet tall,what a sight they were and she did everything he asked... then there were the border collies, and most of them get what they call "the zoomies" and that is just what it is... they zoom all over the ring taking anything that they like the look of..it is so funny to watch them..and then there are the barkers... who bark so much that they can't hear the handlers.. it was a great day, and i plan on doing another the middle of March, there is one the first of March, but i want to go to Fibre fest the next weekend, so that is pushing it to go away two weekends in a row... thought i might go down a day early and visit my Mom..haven't seen her since Sept ... I have finished the green merino for my next shawl... will take a picture of the skein before i start knitting it... now have to make the final decision about what pattern to use.... Guild meeting this week...they are off to a 'fancy yarn workshop' in Cache Creek with Louise Smith from Lumby on Friday...i'm not going... don't feel i can leave Larry for that long yet... i still stoke the fire during the day and at night..and this place is like a skating rink..i went to gas up this morning and slide right past the gas tank...even the dogs are slipping and sliding around.. better go get supper started.... hugs