Cypher's First Trial

Well today was the day...16 months I've been waiting for this day, and boy was it great fun!! I am just so proud of my little man - all grown up and still such a puppy head he managed to do us both proud by winning his first ever trial. Novice Jumping - he did absolutely everything I asked of him and I am chuffed to say I handled it exactly the way I wanted to. It was a lovely course (thanks Judge Yvonne) and he ran round it in 21 seconds. Old enough by 2 days to start trialling making him the youngest dog in the class he didn't put a paw wrong.

When we lined up for the Novice Agility course I gave him a quick pat on the head on purpose after the judge said "Go" and then ran that course like we meant it. I had deliberately accrued the penalty for touching my dog as I was out there getting ring practice for him. I want to compete in Novice at the Nationals in June so that was our plan. He ran this course really well too - and started getting some distance on me towards the end - this caught him a bit by surprise I think so we gained a refusal anyway on the last bar. I didn't care I was just grinning at the way he'd run - there's some real speed in this boy that I caught a glimpse of today.

He also ran in the new distance challenge classes Open Agility and Open Jumping - these classes are set at an Excellent level of difficulty and so I mainly just put him in it for the ring experience. The agility was definitely too difficult for him but he managed to pull off a clear in Open Jumping instead. What a star! His big sister Raven redeemed herself in this class too - going clear for a 3rd place. Her Masters runs however are probably best forgotten *lol* Oh well there's always the next trial...which happily for us is tomorrow.

We got some good shots today, great to have these memories.