Friday, April 29, 2011

First Agility Trial

So yeah, today we went to our first agility trial - ever.  Just to watch, of course.  It was interesting.  Lots of standing around and waiting.  The people were nice.  I had like 10+ people come up to me and talk.  Or they just said what kind of dog is that? or cute dog.  It was nice.  I don't like going up to people that I don't know, so it was really nice that they said 'Hi'.  Yes, I am shy.
One guy asked if Tibby was a Cavalier King Charles.  There was a Cavalier running in the trial - it was like 1/4 Tibby's size.  I thought that was funny. 

At one point 2 women were telling me that 4-H has a great agility program that I should check out.  ???  I'm way too old for 4-H so I'm not sure what they meant.  I did bring a friend along with me that is younger than me, but not young enough to be my daughter .  I was confused. 
They also said I could take Tibby over the practice jump if I wanted to.  I said we haven't started jumping yet.  They seemed surprised. 

Tibby.....yeah.  She is very tired.  Loose leash walking is not her thing.  She enjoys lunging and jumping.  It was very windy today.  There were lots of tents flapping around, including the one we sat underneath.  It worried her a little at first, but she forgot about it eventually.  She was fine watching dogs do agility.  BUT when some dogs started barking she wanted to bark.  Normal.  Except Tibby's bark is not normal.  It is very high pitched.  Imagine you step on your dog's foot - that's how she barks.  And really, really, really loud. 
She also doesn't like it when other dogs get to play tug or fetch. 
She was able to do tricks and eat treats though.  Positive thinking.  She also jumped up on the skinny wooden bench and sat next to me when I asked her to. 
Mostly I tried to keep Tibby out of every one's way.  I didn't want her to distract the other dogs with her crazy behavior.

People seemed to think Tibby was cute though.  Yay.
I saw some people there that I recognized from their blogs.  Actually I recognized the dogs - Crackers and The Pup and The Dog.  There were some other people/dogs that looked familiar, but I wasn't sure.

I wish I could have asked someone: 'Is it Ok if we sit here?'  'Is it Ok that Tibby is barking?' 'How long does the walk through take?' 'What is this layout/series of obstacles called?' 'Is it Ok to talk to you or are you getting ready to run?' 

It was very, very cold and very, very, very windy.  We went hiking/geocaching after we left the trial site.  To calm Tibby down a little bit and warm ourselves up.  There are some very nice hiking trails and parks in St. Cloud.

6 comments:

Adien Crafts said...

Oooh that sounds fun, and great to see another Cavalier running. We're not too keen on people coming up to us unannounced either, unless they have treats of course! Dex & Lou x

Laura and The Corgi, Toller, & Duck said...

I'm glad you took Tibby to a trial! Definitely continue to do so so that she gets used to the environment. Really not that big of a deal, just keep her from going up to the other dogs and make sure you're not in the way of the warm up dogs. Vito got to tag along with me to Lance's trial as a pup and it was a great way to get him used to the places and practice tugging and shadow handling. If you feel comfortable, you could even volunteer to work some trials so you can see what's going on first hand and get paid in vouchers (certain clubs give vouchers, usually not AKC trials). You could even volunteer at different organizations trials to see which venue you really like the best!

Anonymous said...

Sounds good. Can't wait to see Tibby run it.

Loretta Mueller said...

Awwww! When were you there?? I didn't see you :( You'll have to come back to their August trial and say HI!!!

I was even looking for you! :(

Kiyi Kiyi said...

Hey Loretta! We were there around 3pm Friday. We went again this afternoon, but didn't go into the trial site, because it was so muddy. What happened?!? The sheriff was there and 2 tow trucks were blocking the very, very muddy road. Also, it was 3:30pm and we had already had a long day.
I saw your husband and Crackers, but I didn't see you either. I thought maybe you weren't there. Maybe next time :(

Loretta Mueller said...

Yeah...cars were stuck, most had to be towed due to the mud. The sheriff was there because I guess there was property damage to the neighbors property (don't know all the details). So yeah, it was a bit of a crazy day!

I was there, bummer :( It would have been fun to meet you! Oh well, come next time! :)