This is good. Oh yeah, this is real good...

I went to an agility trial last weekend, and a wonderful thing happened. But first, some backstory.....

I haven't been very successful lately in agility. It seems like one little thing keeps me from Q'ing (qualifying) on every run. A knocked bar, running around a jump, missing a weavepole - I've done it all. Then mom took Arnie to our last few trials, and he banged out the Q's. Since then, I've overheard mom saying scary things like "maybe I should concentrate on getting Arnie more titles. Maybe I should try and qualify for the Nationals with Arnie. Maybe Arnie should go for his MACH". What the heck? I'M the agility dog.

So off we went, alone, to our show. I show in the 12" Excellent B class, which means I'm competing against all sorts of really great dogs. A lot of these dogs already have their championships, and have been competing for years and years. This is the height that Shelties compete in. And Shelties are usually big winners.

But not that day! Not only did I rock the course, but I was one of only 2 dogs that actually did everything right. And I won first place!!!!

There were lots of hard parts on this course. The big one was the yellow tunnel under dogwalk, which TERRIFIES me for some reason. Can't explain it, but I get really scared when I have to walk over the tunnel. But I dug deep, and kept on walking (mom made sure to encourage me the whole way). Then I kept every bar up, even the dreaded double. I went through every weave pole. I didn't skip the last jump. I got right onto the table. It was perfection. No really, I got a perfect score.

And in the end, the course ate up all the Shelties and other dogs that usually kick my butt. Mom never takes placement ribbons, but she took this one. She says she may never get another one of those again. LOL

I also picked up my first MACH points (a MACH is an agility championship). She's never had a dog get points before, so she was pretty excited about that too.

All in all, a great day. And we get to try again next weekend. Without Arnie. Hopefully all this talk of taking him more often stops now.

The photographer wasn't taking any pictures in the ring I rocked, but here's some from our Jumpers run. I knocked a bar, but mom had told me before we went in that it was OK to screw up, since I'd done so good in my first run.

Notice the flying start - all four OFF the floor

Putting on the afterburners

Driving through the poles

Getting some lift over the triple