Gracie's First Trial!

Gracie and I participated in a CPE trial on Sat.  The trial was wonderfully small and we barely had to deal with other dogs, much less have Gracie react to them.  She was so good, quiet in her kennel, attentive to me as we walked outside and around the crating space.  We were pretty much the first team there so I had some time to let Gracie check out some of the building before more dogs arrived.  Gracie was very good for getting measured, she just wanted to give the judge kisses.  She came in at 19 3/4" which means she'll need a second measurement before she'll get a permanent height card.  Not that that matters much, I'm jumping her at 20" anyways.

I knew Gracie was pretty nervous as she wouldn't go potty outside, she normally pees every chance she gets!  She was still happy to visit people and work for treats though.  Our first run was standard.  I had my parents at the ready should Gracie decide to leave the ring.  We went into the ring and Gracie wouldn't even sit at the start line, very not like her.  I wanted to see what she'd do though, so off we went.  She took the first three jumps correctly but then saw the dog walk.  Gracie is what I like to call a "contact whore," she'll take a contact any chance she gets.  In class she's very good about listening/following me and only taking the contacts when told to, but obviously this wasn't class.  She did her "bottom" beautifully, but when I released her she had to go visit the judge.  I called her back to me for one more jump, but then she saw the tunnel which she just had to go do, and then the dog walk.  The course happened to end this way, so I released her to the last tunnel and called it quits.  She went to visit my mom at the gate when we were done, but never once thought about leaving the ring, a definite plus for her.  Here's the entertaining video:

Our next run was Colors.  I had to give Gracie another chance.  You can't see it in the video, but I did get her to sit for a second at the start line, one tiny improvement.  Gracie took 2 jumps and then saw the oh-so-fun tunnel and ran off to do that.  I got her to come right back to me and sit, then we were able to do 5 whole obstacles before she broke off to do some zips.  She did miss her contact this time, but knew to go back and fix it.  You can see the judge laughing as he raised a fist for an off course.  I got her back to me after her zips, but then she stopped to do some sniffing.  So I took the few good things we'd had and ran for the last obstacle, it took a second but she joined me and ended that run on a reasonably happy note.  Here's another entertaining video:

So, Gracie and I have a lot to work on.  I'm thinking I'm going to take her with to Gidget's next trial in a couple weeks to help her get used to new locations without the pressure of running a course with her.  Then when I enter Gracie in another trial at the same location as this first one (possibly in Feb.) I'll enter Gidget too and hopefully Gidget's presence will help Gracie calm down some.  We're going to have to do some more mat work and other focus activities at class and some new locations.  Any other ideas to help Gracie focus in the ring would be welcome.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to video Gracie in class this week so that I have a visual reminder of how awesome she can be, and how awesome she will eventually be at trials.  Happy agility!