Yay's first agility competition and Puppies 2013

My previous litter (the Boyz litter) was in 2011. So now my long planned Zaz litter is born and ta-da....ONE puppy......Geez...I guess the only positive note is that I won't be called a puppy farm. More about Mr. "Storm" in another post. He is gorgeous, happy and healthy and how can I be disappointed in this.

I have been neglectful about documenting Yay's  progress. She is still such a fun "puppy" to train but not really a puppy anymore! She is now 18 months and I entered her in her first competition. I am certainly not rushing Yay but this is more from sheer laziness rather than any planned schedule. I would normally have had her ready long before now but hopefully we will make up lost time during lots of winter training.

Yay and Giz-mo are such a pair. My little Yin-Yang of sheltie cuteness.

 I only entered Yay in a jumping class at Rugby as her running contacts are not finished. Dog walk is just up to full height and she hasn't started her A-frame yet. Funnily enough I worry more about the Aframe than the dog walk; I am stressing about how to start the Aframe as I have had mixed results with the buy-one-get-one free method.

  The video was edited because we stood on the start line for over a minute. I loved the chance to see her deal with the delay and hold her start line as self-control can be difficult for Yay.  It is a busy indoor show and it was great chance for me to see how Yay dealt with distractions. I would guess that most agility rings do not have judges dressed like snowmen, Christmas puddings, tigers and, my own favourite, St. Lucia.  So one run and it was all over too quickly! I knew I enjoyed it because I just wanted to do more! We were eliminated and it was totally my fault. I went into slight panic mode wondering if she could do certain moves (could she do an acute rear cross?  Could she send around a 180 degree jump sequence?). Silly really as I just should have done them as it didn't matter if we won or not but I am only human!

So here she is in all her gorgeous Yay-ness!