We tried another agility trial with Mocha this weekend. This was a NADAC trial that had an intro level which is even below the novice level. This was a three day trial, there were fewer people, and Mocha got two tries at every run. My hope was just to improve a little bit - baby steps. Friday my goal was to get two jumps. We didn't quite get there, but we did get the initial jump and she didn't go completely crazy or jump on the judge (although she did go say hi to the pole setters), and I didn't have to chase her down around the ring, so that counts as some pretty big improvement. Saturday's goal was to get the initial jump and the first contact. Then I had extra stretch goals that I didn't think were likely, but I was still hoping to try. She still went a little off-course, and we didn't come anywhere close to qualifying, but she hit every one of the stretch goals that I didn't think were possible! I was so proud I was in tears! One of the other competitors thought I was upset with her performance and tried to be encouraging, telling us that she would improve and we'd get it, not realizing that this was actually already a huge improvement and they were happy tears. Lol. Sunday's track was the opposite of Saturday's so I added a jump to our goals, and she did that, too. Overall, we didn't officially qualify or win, but she improved so much she won the whole thing in my opinion! I'm so proud of her.
(The last picture in this series is meant to be funny - the black thing in the picture is the rack where you hang the ribbons your dog won at the trial over the weekend. I thought it was funny to leave it in the picture empty. Someday she will have a ton of ribbons on the rack!)
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