One very muddled up competition, and why we really do agility.

We had our very first unofficial agility competition today, so I thought I’d write a bit about what it was like and my thoughts afterwards.

The competition was held at our lovely doggy school. We were the second to sign up for the beginner’s class, and first for the intermediate – I decided to pay for second goes on both up front, partly because I wanted Freija to have a good run around, and also because I wasn’t feeling too confident on how we’d perform in front of an excitable and possibly stressed out crowd of dogs and owners.
When I was doing the dry run of both the courses, I did try to think up good solutions for the trickier turns (of which there were more than plenty). These were promptly thrown out the window on our actual runs, because a. I wasn’t as focused as I could’ve been and ended up doing what felt easiest at the time, and b. some of my grand ideas were impossible to incorporate at speed.
Our first run on the beginner’s course was a complete mess. Freija decided that it was much more fun to make up her own course, and I think we were disqualified within the first few jumps and tunnels. On our second go I did concentrate more on what I was doing, but after a couple of refusals and one jump which Freija decided to go around and jump twice, we were disqualified again. She was extremely quick on both runs however, coming in at a good ten seconds under the time to beat.
The intermediate was no great success either. Our first run included several refusals and another muddled up jump amounting to a third disqualification and a seriously slow time. The second went okay-ish speed-wise up until the second to last jump, which she passed, jumped over the wrong way, and jumped back over again. So all in all four disqualifications for four runs.

Now of course I’m disappointed we weren’t magnificent and couldn’t show off just how agile and clever we can be at our best, who wouldn’t be, but in the end we did have fun, we had a bit of a run around and Freija charmed the crowd with her ridiculous looks if not her agility skills. The thing is that it doesn’t really matter how I feel about our results, because it’s not about me. It’s about spending a day out having a laugh with my dog, who doesn’t care about titles or prizes, she just wants to do tricks and be together. It’s not always easy to remember when your out there on the track, but that bond with your pooch should be the reason you’re doing agility in the first place. 

Perhaps competing isn’t really our thing in the long run, not because we didn’t do well at it, but because we get all the fun and excitement of working together we need at practice. Compared to the hours of standing around waiting your turn for just a minute or less of running, an hour or two of dedicated training each week where we’re running, jumping and climbing throughout (with breaks of course!) is a far better way for us to strengthen our teamwork and trust as dog and handler.
In any case, Freija and I will continue training here through the spring and early summer, and hopefully find a nice place in Bath to carry on as well – she’s going to need something to relieve the stress from the big move, and I need to at least attempt to keep fit! ;)