Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Performance Frenchie - not an oxymoron!

Dax and I (and Ceilidh and Fran) went to our first Agility Fun Match yesterday evening. There's probably some ordinance, somewhere, that makes it against the law to have as much fun as we did! Nice site, great people, well-behaved dogs, well-organized, a pleasure!
Of course, it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun if Dax hadn't been terrific! Everybody had two runs. On the first one I tried to follow the course, but that didn't work out quite as expected. When I faltered (my first time, too) Dax took off! She saw the jump-setters sitting in the corner and went dashing off to say "Hello!" I took two steps toward her and then heard a niggling little voice in the back of my head saying "Run away! Run away!" Which I did and Dax came dashing after me! The voice in the back of my head was Dee, my instructor. It turns out I heard it in stereo - she was outside the ring saying the same thing! It's a wonderful thing when you actually absorb, learn and apply! I think Dee was pretty pleased to witness her lessons learned.
On the second run I decided to "do my own thing" and make sure Dax was exposed to all the obstacles. She'd only seen the teeters at class, as well as the dog walk, A-frame, etc. So we tried them all. Dax didn't hesitate to take any of them. That girl has no fear! It was beautiful - especially since she stayed with me the whole way. I was so proud of her. And I'm tickled to finally feel like I belong - part of the All Fours Agility Team!
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1 comment:

Johann The Dog said...

Big, big, big congrats on your first agility trial type of experience! Bet you are hooked now! And great job running BTW - bet you are a natural, Dax too!

Woofs, Johann