Ella, Stanford,
Mark and Ann traveled to southern CO for Memorial Day to meet up with good
friends for the wives to trial in agility while the guys hiked and biked.
It was a weekend of many firsts for Ella as it was our first time to
trial in the NADAC venue. It was also our first time to trial outisde on
the wonderful scent-filled grass, first time seeing hoops and barrels in
agility, a first time trialing in a ring that wasn't fully enclosed (there was
a very long unfenced area in the back of the ring) and first time since her
first CPE trial to try to work with Mark outside the ring. I was very
proud of her performances as I was able to see huge progress in several areas
we've been working on.
Each agility
organization has its own characteristics - NADAC is focused on open, flowing
courses that require significant distance skills and plenty of speed to make
time on the courses. In our agility training we have been working on focus and
distance skills as those are our biggest struggles to overcome. Ella made
some big strides forward in her focus. In AKC I spend 5-10 minutes of
warm-up work with her before entering the ring. We do a lot of opposition
reflex work in a sit and left turns heeling to get her to calm down and
focus. I wasn't able to do that in this trial, but she showed me she
could be a big girl and teammate even without all that warm-up.
Ella does
everything in life with great enthusiasm, and even though she completed 17 runs
in 3 days she had as much energy and committment on the 17th as she did on the
1st. She was, however, a very tired girl by the end of the weekend.
Congratulations on a successful weekend Ann and Ella. Sounds like there may be more to come.
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