Zuma's AKC and CPE Debuts

Last Friday, Zuma had her AKC debut and on Sunday (Easter) she had her CPE debut.  Both trials went really well, I was very impressed with her ability to focus in such distracting environments!  We ran in Novice Jumpers and Novice Standard at the AKC trial with a qualifying run and 1st place in Standard (video below!).  We had a small bobble at the end because I forgot to do my front cross before the last few jumps and had to throw in a late rear cross which resulted in me almost running her over.  Our Jumpers run wasn't the best mostly because I failed to move when I needed to, so Zuma took it upon herself to figure out the course leaving me behind.  The positives were that she held her start line stay, nailed those contacts  and rocked the entry on the weaves.

The CPE trial yesterday was held at a different location than our home school.  I was a bit nervous about Zuma's ability to concentrate in a novel location but she surprised me with fantastic focus!  The floor was artificial turf which was quite slippery, Zuma took a spill right before going in the ring on the warm up jump so she was overly cautious with her turns causing her to run wider than usual (she runs wide anyways so it was very tough getting her where I needed her).  We Q'd with a 1st place in Fullhouse Level 2, Q and 1st in Level 2 Colors, and Q with a 2nd in Level 2 Standard.  We got the whistle 2 jumps in on Snooker because of an off-course.  Even though she had decent focus, I felt that she wasn't as connected with me as the previous trial which I'm figuring is because of the location.  Luckily that will come with experience.  The positives were that she held her start line stays again (YAY!) and that she was able to run decently well despite the location.   The other good thing was that she was completely relaxed in her crate between runs, huge change from when I adopted her.

As you can see, she was very happy with her ribbons!