Giz-mo the dude

Giz-mo has not gotten much attention on the blog but, rest assured, he is still here!  My little dude is just the cutest boy in the world; not that I am biased or anything.

Giz started his agility career in April and won his first class at his first show. I think he will take a little while to mature but that is OK with me.  I do find the girls easier to train and compete with but Giz is so darn cute that anything he does is fine with me! He now has about 5 weekends of competition under his belt and I am enjoying him so much.

Here is Giz in his first ever competition run.



And here he was two weeks later at his second show. Already we are both looking more sure of each other!



My goal for Giz this year is to move up to Grade 5 before the KC International Festival, get into the Novice final and qualify for Crufts. 

Two weeks ago I brought Giz and Zaz over to Jersey (Channel Islands) to compete. I was excited to have 3 days of competitions with Giz to start feeling more like a team with him. Unfortunately I was disappointed to find out that they would only have wood/sand contacts at their show. Giz has really only been trained on rubber contacts so I decided to only compete in the jumping classes rather than confuse him.

Luckily the team and pairs competitions were jumping only. I think Giz will be a great team dog as I can actually control him on the start!   Giz ran clean in both his team runs and in his pairs. His pairing with his brother Fuze came 2nd only to Zaz and her partner Smudge! Unfortunately no video of the pairs just a photo of four gorgeous shelties: Fuze, Smudge, Zaz and Giz-mo.

Giz-mo and I ran for the "Rest of the World" team as there were not enough small/medium English dogs to make up a second England team.  Giz and I were paired with two French competitors. Both girls were worried and kept telling me not to expect anything. I just smiled as they didn't realize how inexperienced Giz really was and how relaxed I am about teams.  Giz surprised me and was a little star who ran fast and clear in both the semi and the final. We were lucky that even with many faults in the semi-final our team scraped through to make it to the final on the last day. Then in the final our team ran 3 clears to WIN the final! Giz has now won his first Jersey Festival Teddy Bear!

The "Rest of The World" small/medium team Final run.



Happy team!