It was a cold morning, KT and I were up before 6am. KT always gets excited when she goes out in the morning, and as I chopped the garlic sausage, filled the water bottle, and got ready to go out, KT was roaring to go.We arrived at Cheltenham Race Course just after 8am. We entered two events today, the steeple chase and a full agility course - this would be our very first full agility competition. Thought going through my mind were: will KT do the dog walk, or will she run in the opposite direction. A year ago she was refusing to go up the dog walk. At the time I wondered if she ever would do it.
Our first event was the steeple chase, just jumps and tunnels, nice and easy to start the day with. And we were lucky as it was the first event of the day. I watched a few people go, then queued for our turn. At the start line KT was really keen to go, and what a star. She jumped the large maxi jumps without a second thought, went through the tunnels. We, or rather I, made just one mistake. As KT came out of the tunnel, she had to jump a jump then come back and go through the tunnel one final time. Before she got to the jump I stopped, and stepped back ready to call her when she went over the jump, KT then stopped and went past the jump, argh! Nearly a clear round, maybe next time.
It was just after 12 as we queued for the agility event. As I lined KT up for the first jump, I could see her looking for a way out. She must of been thinking: "I don't want to do that dog walk!" But we went for it. One jump, two jumps, a sharp turn to the right and up the dog walk we went, what a star, she can do it if she wants to. Everything went well up to this point, we then jumped another jump, right, then jumped again, right, jump, the weave, what a star, she weaved with no problems at all. It was then jump, right and jump, but madam refused, it was the very same jump that led up to the dog walk, and she must of thought: "Oh no, I'm not going that way!" I then switched sides and made her jump going away from the dog walk, and she went, another jump, and I moved behind her to get back in the correct position, moved her out a bit after the jump, a tight right turn and up the dog walk. Another jump, tunnel, which was a bit off centre to the left, another jump, right, jump, go on jump, right jump, then the see-saw, what a star, she did it. It was a bit lighter than the one at training, and she kind of crouched down as she went past the pivot point, hit the contact point, then jump, jump and were there.
So far we have done 5 events at competition. No clear rounds yet. No disqualifications either. I have no idea what position we came in, wouldn't surprise me if we have been consistently last. But that doesn't really matter.
I haven't yet seen another Irish Setter doing agility. I suppose the only fair way to compete with an Irish would be only Irish Setters competing together. Which will probably never happen. I'm just happy now, that KT, at nearly four years of age is finally coming to grips with agility. She loves it, apart from the dog walk! I can hear her excitement as we go round the course. People have told me she seems to really enjoy it.
