Gracie was signed up for Level 1 A in two trials on Sat. The course itself was nothing tricky, I just had a few things I needed to remember: talk to Gracie and get her attention before turns, keep the leash loose, and have fun! Our first run was wonderful! I remembered everything and we only lost one point when Gracie stopped to sniff something (a fuzzy?) on the floor. WCRL scores runs out of 200 points with an optional bonus exercise worth 10 points, so we got a 209. So did another team! In the A level they don't use time as a tie-breaker, they do a run-off. A run-off consists of the first 6 signs of the course. I liked the nice short positive experience for Gracie in the ring. We went second and won! So Gracie got a first place Q! The judge had some very nice things to say about us while handing out ribbons. She said we were a good example for handlers with stressy dogs. Her comments meant a lot to me, since it's still amazing to me that Gracie can even be in a building full of dogs like that! The picture is the comments on our score sheet.Our second run didn't start quite as smoothly. Maybe because I didn't give her a treat at the start line before we set off. We lost 3 points for a tight leash in the first few signs. Oops! Guess I forgot one of the things I was supposed to remember. I do choke up on the leash some as we go, I know at half the signs I would pause and pull some of the leash out of my hands. There was one point in the course that I had to stop and untangle Gracie before continuing. I had no idea if we'd lose points for that or not (we didn't) and Gracie was good and held her down while I got the leash out from under her. Didn't want to continue with a tangled dog. We got a 207 and another 1st place for Gracie RL1 title! WCRL also has an Award of Excellence for the A level. The rule book says "Requires 1st 3 Q's of 190 or higher from 1A class." To me that sounds like any teams first three clean runs, not 1st place runs so I think we earned that (Gracie's first Q back in Apr. was another 207 but a 2nd place). Not sure how that looks as a title either. Just another way to show that Gracie is awesome and I'm so proud of her!
I decided to give CDSP obedience another try with Gidget for several reasons. One, CDSP is a fun, relaxed, small organization that would be easier for us to be calm and have fun in. Two, they allow treats in the ring. Three, Gidget and I have been having tons of fun in our obedience class. Four, I wanted to try something to see how we're doing as far as trialing goes.
Gidget seemed to being doing well in our warm ups. I was pretty darn nervous though. I tried really hard to calm myself down. Gidget was also wearing an Adaptil (good doggy pheromones) collar. We got in the ring, the judge asked us if we were ready, I made extra certain that I had Gidget's attention, and then we were off. I was in awe! Gidget was right there with me, keeping eye contact, looking happy, and prancing! I couldn't believe it! The on leash heeling went wonderfully, though the judge just about ran us into the ring gate. We lost a few points for lagging/wide heeling, but nothing horrible and nothing I care about right now. Next was the off leash figure 8. Our last time doing this exercise was not pretty, and even in class we've been struggling the most with this. No problems this time! Once again I couldn't believe that this was my dog working with me! She did so well! Only lost one point. We started messing up a little after this. The moving stand for exam started well, but Gidget spotted something on the floor just as I went to tell her to stand. So I said used two commands and she was really crooked (lost 4 points), but she stayed perfectly for the exam as usual. Last up was our recall, and boy was she having a good time by this point! She was so excited that she got up and started towards me as soon as I turned around. Oops! NQ for the anticipated recall. She also jumped up on me before sitting in a crooked front costing us a few more points. Oh well, I'll take the my dog is too happy problem over our past stress issues any day! I'm very proud of my pup and happy with how I handled the day as well. There will definitely be more obedience in our future and hopefully we'll get back to agility again soon too! Happy training!
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