What a way to start!

Wow wow wow. Im still a little in shock.

At the moment there is large week long UKA agility show on fairly locally, so I decided to head down yesterday to get Finn officially measured and to do some training getting her to settle around the rings. I had said to Hilary who was also taking her cattle dogs, that I would consider putting Finn in a steeplechase class and run NFC (not for competition) if and only if she was settled & there was a course appropriate, but fully expecting to chicken out.
So first I get her measured - 483mm which puts her in standard height in UKA, of which there was never any question - but then find out they have to be 2yrs for their final measure & Finn is one week short. Bummer.

Hanging around the rings Finn was fairly relaxed, at least by her standards. Happy to tug, focused on me, no barking, and only the occasional lunge at the rings when we got very close. And then more than happy to play with Tully, her new cattle dog boyfriend, ringside without worrying about what was going on around her.
So with Hilary as our support squad I bit the bullet and entered a steeplechase class.. for real, not just NFC. The run was a blur, my little girl flew around the ring as if she owned it and had a near flawless run except for a bobble at the last jump when I was out of position & panicked and nearly pulled her off. What a superstar she was! She ended up getting 1st in 18.9 secs, more than 3 seconds faster than 2nd place!

Still in shock & on a high I decided to put her in the other steeplechase course. That one didnt go quite so smoothly - she took the first 2 jumps, and then instead of turning right to a tunnel she continued straight ahead to take an arc of 5 jumps & a tunnel around the outside of the ring while I was left standing in the centre of the ring! But she is only a baby dog and still achieved all I wanted in that run -  to be focused on the equipment, not to run out of the ring, and most importantly have fun!!

It will be some time before I do another show with her, we still have weaves and contacts to perfect, and I dont feel she is ready to cope with a KC show yet, but boy has my confidence in her shot up so much higher!