Maddie's Agility Debut

Maddie had a very successful agility trial debut a few weeks ago! I entered her in Novice Jumpers two days a row. No zoomies and she did her job like a pro! I could not be happier with how she did.

In her first run, Maddie knocked a bar, but otherwise was perfect. In her second run, she had a refusal at the weave poles. In Novice we are allowed 3 attempts at the weave poles and she did great on her second attempt. Here is the video.

In preparation to Maddie's runs, we walked, biked, played fetch, and dug holes. I also let her play with her friends and hug her favorite people. She just has so much energy that I wanted to make sure I took the edge off and then some.

I don't think we are quite ready for an 8 AM run time on day 1 of a trial. It is just so exciting, but hopefully by the time we get to Masters level we will be.  For now, I plan to keep entering her in one class per day. It is expensive and busy to run 3 dogs in a trial so I will pick classes for Maddie that do not interfere with Riley and Seven's schedule.

Photos were taken by my good friends, Beth Bradshaw and Maggie Fan.