Wow, what a weekend. Saying I had a fantastic weekend doesn’t even come close to doing it justice. It was such an amazing few days spent with some awesome friends, having fun with pups! Gorgeous weather, agility, lure coursing, doggie socials, and so much more made this weekend one for the record books!

There is so much to process and write about but I’m sure what you are all wondering is how Rio and I did this weekend at the agility trial. In short, we had a fantastic trial. The weather was gorgeous, 82F-86F and sunny but lots of breeze and not too humid at all. I barely even used the fans and garden sprayer I brought to keep Rio cool. Heck, when out of the crate he tended to find the sunny spot to sleep in rather than under our ez-up. It was really nice weather for lounging with friends and canines.

Outside of the ring, Rio was just amazing! Even with all the hubbub happening around him, he slept beautifully in his crate during down time. He was so relaxed that he slept outside of his crate in grass for a while. He didn’t bark in the crate, even if I walked out of sight or if neighbor dogs started barking off the wall. Although the door on his crate was shut, it wasn’t latched for most of the time (only when I walked away or if one of his doggie buddies were outside of their crates in our little area). His leash manners were totally impeccable! There was virtually zero pulling on leash around all the other dogs, people, and excitement with no food or toy reinforcement.

It was a perfect weekend hanging out with friends and doggies even before stepping foot in the ring. But once in the ring it got even better!

Rio was fantastic in the ring. He only got distracted and left me twice in all of our runs (if I remember correctly) and it was to the same corner where they had extra jumps and equipment piled up just outside the ring. There were so many ‘firsts’ that Rio wasn’t bothered by at all and I was so impressed. It was the first time running a course outside, running a course with buzzers/whistles/etc going off during the run, running a course with many people in the ring (judge, scribes, timers, etc), and running with spectators and other dogs all around. I had fun with him and was just so proud of him!

The bonus was that he performed really well all weekend. 6 Q’s in 8 runs. Five 1st place runs and a 2nd place run. Some were certainly prettier than others but I really had fun with him regardless–even on our ugliest run, I couldn’t help but laugh and smile at him.

Here are the results from Day 1:
Fullhouse–30pts–Q–1st place
Standard–NQ
Jumpers–22.66sec–Q–1st
Jackpot–53pts–Q–1 st

I hope you enjoyed the video… I was so proud of him! I’ll get the videos from day 2 put together for another post!