Sunday, April 14, 2013

Something New

The girls and I tried something new today.  Gidget tried a CDSP Obedience trial, and Gracie tried a WCRL (formerly APDT) Rally trial.  Both dogs had one turn and both did really well!

Gracie had rally first.  I chose to do WCRL instead of AKC because it'd be a much smaller trial and you can give treats after stationary exercises.  Both were good things for Gracie.  This was her first non-agility trial and she rocked it!  She got 207 points out of a possible 210 (200 for the main rally course and 10 for the bonus).  We lost one point because of a slightly crooked front sit, one because Gracie looked away for a second right when we needed to turn left so I bumped into her, and one for a second of tight leash at a right turn - again Gracie looked away for a second right at the turn.  Gracie was happy and attentive for the majority of the run and I couldn't have been more pleased!  She qualified and took 2nd place (out of 4 or 5 dogs)!

Gidget had her obedience run a couple hours later.  CDSP also allows treats between exercises and encourages some praise while working together.  I thought Gidget would appreciate this change from AKC.  CDSP runs their Novice class differently than AKC too.  First there's on-leash heeling, followed by off-leash figure 8 (no general off-leash heeling), then a moving stand for exam, a recall over a jump, and finally an honor stay.  No group stays so Gracie could do this eventually!  Gidget's heeling looks a lot nicer than it felt, but only 1.5 points off for forging.  The figure 8 wasn't pretty, but we'd never done it off-leash at a trial or walk through and she only got 2 points off for lagging.  Gidget was distracted and forgot to move with me for the moving stand, so 3 points off for asking her to heel again.  The recall was the best she'd ever done in a trial and no points off for the stay either!  She qualified with a 2nd place (out of 2 dogs)!

We had a good time and I hope to do WCRL and CDSP many times in the future! 

1 comment:

  1. Wow, Gracie looks awesome! Very focused for her first time in an obedience/rally ring!

    Obedience is harder :) but Gidget looks pretty good too!

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