CD!

Gidget and I participated in another AKC obedience trial this past weekend.  It was one year ago this weekend at the same trial that we got our first leg towards Gidget's CD.  Well this year I signed us up for two days at the trial, plus we went to the fun run on Fri. 

The fun run went very well.  We played with treats and her toy and got some good practice at everything.  The stays had some good distraction of the heater in the corner of the ring, almost right above Gidget, making some noises.  Thankfully she wasn't near the heater during the trial, though she nicely showed that she could handle it!

For the actual trial Gidget did very nicely both days.  She didn't lose any points on her stands for exams (I really expect no less from her at this point but always love seeing how well she handles this exercise).  She lost half a point one day and I lost us one point on Sun. in our recalls because of the finish.  Sat. I guess she just wasn't as straight as I thought.  Sun. I moved my foot in a way that looked like I was helping Gidget sit straight.

When I do fronts with both dogs I stand with my heels together and my toes facing out.  My goal being that my dogs can get closer without standing on my toes.  The judge said it looked like I was making a little chute for Gidget to help get a straight front.  I've been doing this for quite a while, she still usually sits quite crooked on fronts.  The judge didn't seem to say that standing like this was a problem (though I'm not entirely sure).  The problem came at the finish when I unconsciously straightened my left foot.  Oops!  Something else to work on.

Heeling: We lost most of our points in our heeling as usual.  10 points total on Sat. and 12 on Sun.  Gidget was pretty laggy both days.  She stuck with me better on Sat. but had more brief moments of brilliance on Sun.  You know those moments when your dog is smiling up at you and prancing, she did that a couple times Sun. and not at all (that I remember) on Sat.  However, between those moments on Sun. Gidget got very distracted.  Mostly by a barking dog.  She completely stopped walking twice to look for the source of the noise, but did catch up to me.  She may have missed a halt on Sun. too.

The stays went perfectly.  She did some sniffing and even looked a little concerned about something outside the ring Sun.  I don't really mind what she does while in position as long as she stays.  Her sniffing rarely leads to moving.  I was worried she'd move when she looked concerned, but she didn't.  She spent the majority of the time looking at me and exchanging blinks.  Good girl!

Final results: 2nd place Qs both days.  189.5 on Sat. and 187 on Sun.  That brought us up to 3 Qs and Gidget's CD!  Two different novice obedience titles in one month.  Go Gidget!

I'm not entirely sure where Gidget's obedience career is going to go from here.  We'll keep going to classes and see if we can actually get the whole dumbbell thing down, definitely our biggest challenge going forward.  In the meantime I think I'll keep entering Gidget in CDSP trials and see if we can't make our way towards her novice championship title.  That will give us a chance to work on our heeling in trials while we get ready for open. 

Just agility for the next month.  TDAA and jumping back into AKC for Gidget and a chance for Gracie to get her AX!  Happy training!

A First!

Gracie and I were in an AKC agility trial at On The Run this past weekend.  We had one not so great day and one really good day.

Sat. was our not so great day.  Standard was up first.  Gracie got the zoomies which is always a little fun and amusing, but leads to a big NQ.  After greeting the judge, Gracie did do all her weaves on the first try, and she got on the table with no issues.  Many other dogs got a wrong course on the way to the table.  So in between the zooms the run was very nice.  I did mess up the ending sending Gracie over a wrong course jump instead of into a tunnel.  I think I just needed to stand up straighter.  I was just trying to avoid the off course tunnel entry.  Here's the video:

Our jumpers run by itself went really nicely.  Gracie just missed the weave entry but got it on the second try.  What made this run not such a good memory for me, but at the same time highly on Gracie's part was the singing husky.  A very noisy husky was supposed to go after us, but the handler didn't pay attention to the run order and thought she was after the same dog she'd been after before.  She was standing in the gate and I had to loudly ask her to move (I didn't want to get too close).  She moved, but apparently not far enough away.  Gracie got very upset about the husky.  I was getting frazzled trying to get my treat bag off that I'd almost forgotten about and get Gracie's attention off the other dog all the while being yelled at to go in the ring.  Thankfully friend Sarah was leash running and came to help us out.  Not that there was much she could do at that point, but it's always good to know there's someone there to help.  I finally got Gracie in the ring, still struggling to get her attention and now to get her leash off.  The thought of not running her at all did occur to me, but when you're that frazzled your mind kind of gets stuck on one path and doesn't allow for much variation.  Thankfully I was able to get her attention on the tunnel in front of us (you can see this moment in the video).  After that neither of us thought about that husky again (well Gracie did glance at the sidelines once during the run, but opted to stay with me).  Considering how upset she was I was pretty impressed by her performance.  I was kind of emotional afterwards.  I felt bad that I had let Gracie down like that and worried that trialing wasn't worth that stress for either of us.  One thing I did take away from that run was to not try to manage these tight situations without help.  I have friends/classmates that are more than willing to help... take advantage of it!  I have to thank again Linda, Ann, and Rene for being Gracie's shields for the 3 runs I was smart enough to get someone to help me with, and Dawn and Sarah for guarding the gates during the run after the husky incident.  Anyways, here's the video of our Sat. JWW run:

Sun. went way, way better!  Jumpers was up first this time.  It was a bit of a tricky course, including a backside jump!  Gracie started out a little "la de da" but when she saw the straight away to the tunnel, she kicked it into gear.  We had a couple wide turns at worst.  It was an awesome run and Gracie earned herself 8 more MACH points! 

Then we had a good wait before out Excellent Standard run.  Gracie got her weaves and got on the table with only the tiniest sniff on the way (no refusal), and I didn't mess her up at all!  Gracie got her very first Exc Std Q!!!  First place too!  See?  Sun. was so much better than Sat!  It was such a good day I bought myself some girl scout cookies and put my concerns from the day before aside.  As long as I do everything I can to support my girlie, which includes getting help when needed, trialing is not too stressful for us.  Here's the video of most of the run:

Our next trial isn't til the end of March.  Gidget's got some big stuff coming up though: her first AKC agility trial in almost a year, a two day AKC obedience trial, and a teacup trial.  Happy agility!

CD-C!

Gidget earned her very first obedience title on Feb. 1!  It was the most beautiful performance she's ever done!  Her attitude was perfect, next to no lagging, looking off at other things, or sniffing!  She got a 190 and 1st place.  She lost no points on her moving stand and exam.  Only thing... she shouldn't have Q'd at all :(

She stood up for a second during the honor stay!  Mostly my fault of course.  I was playing with her as we were waiting for our stay, but I didn't see the working dog enter the ring.  So all of a sudden the judge was asking if we were ready and obviously we weren't.  Oops!  I quickly got Gidget in a sit and said yes.  I never actually said stay.  Lucky for us, the judge had the steward judging the honor stay (she apparently didn't remember the rule change that our last judge had specifically mentioned that the judge is supposed to judge the honor stay).  The steward apparently looked away just as she stood up and looked back just after I got her to sit back down.  He came over and mentioned this to me, saying he couldn't actually NQ us because he didn't see her get up for sure.  The judge missed a couple other honor stay rules as well.  She had us facing the gate but the rules say the honor dog should be facing into the ring (that one is pretty minor), and she started out saying she wanted all the dogs to do a sit stay.  Someone must have said something to her on that second one though since several dogs did do a down stay.

Anyways, the honor stay isn't a big deal in my mind and is something I know she can normally do.  The rest of her performance was so awesome though, she totally deserves that title!  Happy obedience!