Madison began her agility career on Saturday at a NADAC trial just a few miles from home. She started with puppy agility eighteen months ago. Mom thought about quitting a lot until this spring when Madison seemed to finally “get it.” Team Pink plans to mostly run in AKC trials, but this trial was a perfect test to see how things would go outside agility school. She might be the first GBGV to run in NADAC as the breed was not on the list when she registered, it had to be added.
The trial was held at Soccer Blast, an indoor, climate controlled venue, used for soccer. Mom had never even thought about all the new challenges from spectators, artificial turn, people in the ring and more. It was an ideal place to test out Madison’s abilities.
When Madison had just started puppy agility, Mom broke her ankle. This gave her career a disadvantage from the start, but she is not a quitter, and neither is Mom, so they stuck with it. Jumps and weaves had to wait until last August to come into play for Madison because of her young age, but she picked both items up quickly. Madison was often the joke of the class being super slow, stopping at every jump, climbing over jumps one leg at a time, getting to the top of the A-Frame and refusing to come down, running off course to visit friends, and once she even peed in a tunnel! Despite all that, Mom kept going and was determined to see Team Pink be successful.
Even though Mom plans for Madison to run AKC agility, NADAC offers an intro option without weaves or teeters which is what she wanted. Madison does weaves, but needs more work with them in the middle of a course, and she has a bit of a teeter fear. Her first run on Saturday was contacts. She did have a clean run, but in the beginning, she thought the walk it was a teeter and took to much time before finally going over. No Q because she was too slow. Her second run she visited a course helper which caused her to run the wrong way through a hoop, meaning no Q.
Next up was two rounds of Jumpers. Madison did amazing on both of these runs where she earned Q’s.
She placed fifth on the first run, and second on the second run.
Her last two runs were on the Regular Course. By the time she ran these, she was getting tired and had slowed down considerably. The first run, she stopped to visit the judge, photographer, and course helper. To help keep her focused, Mom ran on the outside in the second run to create a barrier between Madison and the distracting people, and it worked.
Madison Q’d on both runs, earning second place on the first run, and a first place on the second run!
What about Bailie? She was along to be Madison’s cheerleader, but I don’t think she did much of that. I found this photograph of her back in a corner somewhere getting a full body massage! That girl sure knows how to live the good life!
Madison will be working hard on her teeter and weave skills, and hopes to enter an AKC trial in the coming months. Depending on timing, they will probably do some more NADAC trials now and then too. For now, Mom and Madison are super proud of their first attempt at an agility trial! They had a ton of fun, and success to boot! Little Madison continues to be the family over achiever, a job she does well!
Way to go sweet Madison, you sure did good and we’re darn proud of you too!
Mom was really happy about their agility day.
Sounds like a great day! I’ve found a lot of comfort in watching the Excellent/Masters dogs at AKC trials and seeing that even the really good dogs still occasionally go visit judges or get distracted by other things going on. It’s great that Madison had a chance to try out the turf! One of our classmates is going through a phase where she flops on the ground and rolls around to get a good back scratch in before going on with the rest of the course. As you know, Rye has had plenty of struggles in our early trials, but now that we’ve done eight trials (and most of those have been two day trials), she’s really starting to get the hang of it, so I’m sure that Madison will eventually ignore all those new potential friends 😉
She was really bad in class with the socializing during runs but has almost completely eliminated that, but now she will need to learn that in the competitive environment. Always something to work on. She doesn’t want to be rude and ignore anyone, LOL!
ooooh we screamed and rooted as we saw you at that ramp… YAY for you, Madison!!! we think that is a super kind of sports… you get eggs-ercising and da humans too and it is a mental training and a team-thing … all in one including the fun!!
It is a lot of fun now that Madison really runs around. Good teamwork opportunity.
Well done Madison!!!
Thank you.
Great Job Team Pink!!!! We are all proud of you!! Looks like great fun, too!
It wasn’t a lot of fun until Madison recently started to really run and enjoy the courses. Now they both love it.
Madison looks great! We love how social she is–but it looks like mom figured out how to manage that! What fun. Her tail is going the entire time! Up on that bridge thing she looks so calm, like she was just taking a walk…And how about that Bailie! She knows how to live the good life! Have a great day, your doodle friend Dash
Madison loves the dog walk, but if she thinks it is a teeter, she will be real careful at first. Bailie is the laziest of us three. Madison and I are both hard workers, but Bailie always looks for the easy way out. Different personality, but we love her for that.
How fun!! She is sporty dog for sure!!
She is really good at sports and seems to enjoy all the ones she participates in.
What an all-around amazing athlete Madison is turning out to be! We are so proud of y’all. ♥
She is a little sports machine!
Great job Madison! We bet with practice, you will do a great job with your teeter and weaving skills!!
xoxo,
Jakey, Arty & Rosy
She does great on the weaves in the practice room but has trouble on the course. Last night for the first time, she got them down on the course.
Madison does great, some things are scary at first but she learns so fast and enjoys what she’s doing. My Tyler loved Agility but we did it just for fun, he was always careful on the teeter too.
She is pretty brave and adventurous. Overcoming the teeter will not be easy, but she will get used to it.
Yay Madison! Way to persevere and do great things!
We are not quitters around here. Practice makes perfect, so we keep working on all out sports.
She is doing very well for such a young girl, it looks like both mom and she are enjoying it.
Madison is like me and takes her sports seriously. She has a lot of fun in agility these days and since she has started getting faster, Mom is enjoying it too.
What a great weekend! Great job and congrats on a job well done!
Mom and Madison has a great time!
Nice job, Madison!! We have no doubt that with more practice, that little girl will become a star in the agility ring! ♥
Mom is going to try to sign her up for an agility trial in September when it opens tomorrow. We have no idea how AKC registration works, so it will be a project! Last night she was amazing at class I heard!