Since they were doing Obedience AND Rally on Saturday, we didn't have to get there til later in the afternoon since they always do Obedience first. The Rally Excellent walkthrough was set to start at 3:30pm, so we got there about 2:15pm or so.
It was packed - I spend a couple minutes wandering around aimlessly looking for a spot to set up the crate. Finally someone was nice enough to let me squeeze in next to them. There wasn't any room to set up a chair next to the crate, so I ended up just putting the chair in front of it.
They weren't checking in for Rally yet (or giving out course maps), so I went out and got Red out of the car once I had everything set up. There was pretty much no room to play or do any warming up, and it was raining outside, so it was difficult to manage...
Sam was there, though not with Mally - just to watch Jeff and his rott, Sam, for their Open run. And they Qualified! Very happy for them - especially since it was their first leg.
They didn't let anyone check in for Rally or get their maps until Open was finished. This was at about 3:15pm, so we only had 15 minutes to get about 30 people checked in and get familiarized with the course map before the walkthrough. It was really poorly organized. They weren't checking in people out of the line like they were supposed to - just taking random people crowded around them. Then they were checking in Excellent B first, which was not smart considering Excellent A was the first group to go! Everyone was getting really irritated and pissed off. I just stood there waiting until someone finally told the stewards that I had been waiting the longest and they finally checked me in and gave me the map.
It was the hardest course I'd ever seen! The judge had all the hardest Excellent signs - the back up 3 steps, moving stand/walk around, and moving down/walk around. Plus it was a very tight and confusing course. And a very challenging set up too - for example he had the back up 3 steps right after one of the jumps. I was not confident at all about doing well. I haven't been practicing the moving stands or downs at all, and the back up 3 steps was still iffy. And I was nervous about the honor now too since he blew it yesterday...
The judge called both Excellent classes into the ring and gave a very stern briefing. He was like a Nazi - saying the moving stand/down was the Utility exercise and he will IP anyone who hesitates even the slightest, and the 1 step to the right should be done this specific way, and on and on. We were all terrified by the end of it.
After the briefing, I got Red out of the crate. We were the 3rd or 4th team into the ring so we had some time to chill for a few - which I've found works better than getting him out when the team ahead of us is in the ring.
We entered the ring and the very first exercise was a jump, which Red LOVES, so he was all into it. He did really well! We redid the 3 steps backwards exercise (as did everyone else in our class) since it was right after the jump and the dog was charging forward by the time we got to the sign. The moving stand was good! The moving down was decent, and he held the Honor down/stay.
We ended up with a score of 86. We got 3 points off for redoing the 3 steps back, 1 point for a crooked front, and 10 points for the moving down (which apparently I hesitated on..). But we got 1st place!! I was utterly shocked. That tells you how hard of a course it was when the high score was an 86!
We got a 1st place and Qualifying ribbon, plus a coffee mug. Though I spoke with the trial secretary about how we were in the wrong class and they redistributed the ribbons, but I got to keep my mug and Qualifying ribbon =)
After the ribbon ceremony, I gave Red a special squirrel stuffy that I'd been saving for after his run, and we took it outside since it had a squeaker and I didn't want to disturb the other dogs who were trialing. Red was in stuffy heaven!
As we were outside, someone came out the door behind us and introduced herself as someone off DT! She had recognized us and came over to say hi =) It was so cool to meet someone off DT! She doesn't post much but lurks a lot and knew all about Red's photo scandel and everything! She was there for Rally Novice with her pit bull. I really wanted to stay and watch, but still I had't eaten lunch, and wasn't sure what James' dinner plans were, I couldn't stay. It was a good thing we didn't, eiher, because she said later that they didn't go into the ring til about 7pm! But they got 3rd place in their class and Qualified! I'm really glad I got to meet her. She lives in the Grand Rapids area and may come to othe shows in the area sometime.
I'm really bummed none of these shows are counting toward our title, but it's been a lot of fun, and the pressure as sort of been off knowing it won't count anyway. Red has been so awesome, and I'm very proud of my boy - whether it counts or not! =)
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Rally Excellent trial
We had our first Rally Excellent trial today. We have another one a little later on tomorrow afternoon.
But neither of them are going to count toward our title =( I accidentally registered for A instead of B, but now that we have our CD title, we have to be in the B classes. And you can't do a lateral move from A to B classes, only a move up from Novice to Advanced, or Advanced to Excellent. I guess they are changing the rules in January 2010 but that doesn't do me any good now.
I wasn't too upset though, because I haven't trained with Red in a long time, since I was sick and we've been working on the house. We haven't really done any Excellent Rally training at all, so I was a little nervous about it. But since it doesn't count, the pressure was off to Qualify, so I can just treat it like a fun match.
I forgot how much easier Rally is! You can talk to the dog, lure them into position, etc. A lot more fun that strict Obedience where you can't talk to the dog and have to hold your arms in a certain position, and only use certain commands/signals.
The other good thing about being in a high level of Rally, is you know what time they start in the morning (they start with high levels and down go to Novice). So we got there 1 hour before the walkthrough was set to start.
I did the walkthrough, which was a pretty straight forward pattern, not difficult to navigate. But the judge had the "3 steps back" exercise there, which we still aren't great on yet... I wasn't worried about anything else really.
After the walkthrough, I asked someone if they could video with my camera, and she said she wasn't good and volunteered someone else to do it. I recognized him as the judge of 2 of my past rally trials. Turns out he didn't know what he was doing either, even after I explained to him how simple it is, and he forgot to push the button to record...
Anyway, we were th 4th in the ring, and I got Red out of the crate right after the walkthrough. We played some tug, then I just fed treats for focus. We went into the ring and started.
His jumps were beautiful. It was nice I could talk to him so I could remind him to sit at the halts, which he has a hard time remembering to do when we're in the ring for some reason... We messed up one sign that called for a sit, stand, then down. But he sat before he went down which I knew to be an IP, but I didn't care and didn't feel like redoing the sign so we just went ahead. The 3 steps back was actually pretty good! I wasn't sure at the time if we took enough steps back but I think we did. After we finished, there is an honor exercise which means the dog is in a sit/stay in the corner of the ring while the next team is doing their run. I never worry about Red's sit/down/stays because he hasn't had any problems in a long time. But since this one is done on-leash instead of off-leash like he's used to, I'm not sure if that threw him off or not. Right at the very end, he went down on the sit!! WTF!!! Apparently its not an NQ though, its just 10 points off.
So figuring in the 20 points we lost for the IP sign and the down on the sit/stay, we ended up with a score of 78. We we lost only 2 points on th entire rest of the course, which is great. I was still happy with how he did, though I was really disappointed about the honor station. oh well... he still got hi usual jackpot and special prize afterwards =)
Looking forward to tomorrow!
But neither of them are going to count toward our title =( I accidentally registered for A instead of B, but now that we have our CD title, we have to be in the B classes. And you can't do a lateral move from A to B classes, only a move up from Novice to Advanced, or Advanced to Excellent. I guess they are changing the rules in January 2010 but that doesn't do me any good now.
I wasn't too upset though, because I haven't trained with Red in a long time, since I was sick and we've been working on the house. We haven't really done any Excellent Rally training at all, so I was a little nervous about it. But since it doesn't count, the pressure was off to Qualify, so I can just treat it like a fun match.
I forgot how much easier Rally is! You can talk to the dog, lure them into position, etc. A lot more fun that strict Obedience where you can't talk to the dog and have to hold your arms in a certain position, and only use certain commands/signals.
The other good thing about being in a high level of Rally, is you know what time they start in the morning (they start with high levels and down go to Novice). So we got there 1 hour before the walkthrough was set to start.
I did the walkthrough, which was a pretty straight forward pattern, not difficult to navigate. But the judge had the "3 steps back" exercise there, which we still aren't great on yet... I wasn't worried about anything else really.
After the walkthrough, I asked someone if they could video with my camera, and she said she wasn't good and volunteered someone else to do it. I recognized him as the judge of 2 of my past rally trials. Turns out he didn't know what he was doing either, even after I explained to him how simple it is, and he forgot to push the button to record...
Anyway, we were th 4th in the ring, and I got Red out of the crate right after the walkthrough. We played some tug, then I just fed treats for focus. We went into the ring and started.
His jumps were beautiful. It was nice I could talk to him so I could remind him to sit at the halts, which he has a hard time remembering to do when we're in the ring for some reason... We messed up one sign that called for a sit, stand, then down. But he sat before he went down which I knew to be an IP, but I didn't care and didn't feel like redoing the sign so we just went ahead. The 3 steps back was actually pretty good! I wasn't sure at the time if we took enough steps back but I think we did. After we finished, there is an honor exercise which means the dog is in a sit/stay in the corner of the ring while the next team is doing their run. I never worry about Red's sit/down/stays because he hasn't had any problems in a long time. But since this one is done on-leash instead of off-leash like he's used to, I'm not sure if that threw him off or not. Right at the very end, he went down on the sit!! WTF!!! Apparently its not an NQ though, its just 10 points off.
So figuring in the 20 points we lost for the IP sign and the down on the sit/stay, we ended up with a score of 78. We we lost only 2 points on th entire rest of the course, which is great. I was still happy with how he did, though I was really disappointed about the honor station. oh well... he still got hi usual jackpot and special prize afterwards =)
Looking forward to tomorrow!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Michigan Renaissance Festival 2009
Just got home from a long day with Redders :) First, we went to training at 9am this morning where we started working on Open exercises for CDX, then for a nice walk in the damp woods, then onto our annual visit to the Michigan Renaissance Festival! We were there for about 4 hours, and Red and hubby are both passed out on the floor sleeping, lol
As usual, we couldn't make it 10 feet without someone either commenting on Red, stopping us to admire him, or asking if they can take a picture of him! He's my little celebrity :) All very nice comments from everyone, and Red was very well-behaved and accepted pets from adults and children, and even met a few other pups too. It was the perfect day for it - overcast, a little rainy, and about 60 degrees - sets the mood nicely and not super-packed with people.
Here are some pics (behold the watermarking debut... *sigh*)... click to enlarge
Me and Redders
We went to a show which featured birds of prey. Here you can see one of the falcons, and Red watched the one on the peak of the roof very closely...
Dad lets Redders finish the last drops of his Guinness beer..
Red with the living statue
The Guinness Pub is where all the serious Renaissance folk hang out - you get to see some of the most elaborate costumes and get-up here.
Very fun :) We look forward to this every year. Michigan has one of the best Renaissance Festivals in the country, rivaled only by Texas and Maryland. It's fun to go, have some drinks, browse the shops, and people watch. I always end up buying a trinket or two as well... This year I bought a delicate silver puzzle ring with Celtic knotwork :)
Red has been coming to the Ren Fest since he was 6 months old, so I think he finally knows what its all about now and enjoys himself :)
As usual, we couldn't make it 10 feet without someone either commenting on Red, stopping us to admire him, or asking if they can take a picture of him! He's my little celebrity :) All very nice comments from everyone, and Red was very well-behaved and accepted pets from adults and children, and even met a few other pups too. It was the perfect day for it - overcast, a little rainy, and about 60 degrees - sets the mood nicely and not super-packed with people.
Here are some pics (behold the watermarking debut... *sigh*)... click to enlarge
Me and Redders
We went to a show which featured birds of prey. Here you can see one of the falcons, and Red watched the one on the peak of the roof very closely...
Dad lets Redders finish the last drops of his Guinness beer..
Red with the living statue
The Guinness Pub is where all the serious Renaissance folk hang out - you get to see some of the most elaborate costumes and get-up here.
Very fun :) We look forward to this every year. Michigan has one of the best Renaissance Festivals in the country, rivaled only by Texas and Maryland. It's fun to go, have some drinks, browse the shops, and people watch. I always end up buying a trinket or two as well... This year I bought a delicate silver puzzle ring with Celtic knotwork :)
Red has been coming to the Ren Fest since he was 6 months old, so I think he finally knows what its all about now and enjoys himself :)
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Stolen Puppy
The other night, just before bed, I received a PM from a member on the doberman forum. She said she was searching for red doberman photos online and came across some on a website called The Daily Puppy and there were some pics that looked a lot like Red.
I went to the link she provided, and such enough, there were about 10 photos of Red that I have taken over the last year or so, posted up under the name "Bueno the Doberman" - complete with made-up lifestory and everything! There were a ton of comments about what nice photos and a great dog Bueno is, all dating back from July of this year.
I stared at the photos that I took of MY dog, and my mouth fell open. My heart started pounding as if I had just sprinted a mile. The blood rushed to my face and I felt sick. My cherished photos of my Redders - stolen and posted by someone else with a made-up name and story. I couldn't believe it.
The first thing I did was create an account on The Daily Puppy, and commented on "Bueno's" page - how dare they use my pics, that is NOT their dog and are stolen photos and to remove them immediately. Then I reported the page to the site administrators.
The next thing I did was create a thread on DT (Dobermantalk.com - my doberman haven!) and announce that Red's photos have been stolen and posted the link. Within 5 minutes, many more people had created accounts on The Daily Puppy and comments on the page about how this person stole photos and they need to be removed. Within 10 minutes, people were posting contact information to the copyright department for me, had found 2 more pages that have been using stolen photos of Red (one as a water rescue dog who rescues people from the water! as he's pictured wearing his lifejacket on my dad's boat), and even more people had signed up to raise hell on The Daily Puppy.
By about 2am, my thread had swelled to 3 pages of 40 replies each, and I couldn't take looking at Red's pics on that site anymore and I went to bed. I had to work in the afternoon the next day, so my plan was to get up and call the copyright department first thing in the morning.
The next day, I tried calling - and of course, they are located in California on Pacific time so the offices weren't open yet. I tried calling the other offices, but the phone system would not route me to a person, and would not let me leave a message. Instead, I contented my self with re-reporting the offending pages, emailing the copyright division, and emailing The Daily Puppy a very colorful email. I also called my brother-in-law who is a lawyer about it and sent him the links. He said if the site didn't taken them down after a few days, he would send them a letter.
As hard as it was to handle knowing that someone had stolen all these pics from me, having all my DT friends stand behind me like that meant everything to me and made it so much easier to deal with. They had continued posting throughout the night on The Daily Puppy and were continuing to stand behind me in my thread on DT. As the day went on and more people saw what had been going on all night, more people registered on The Daily Puppy and commented and reported the stolen pics.
Due to the immense response and persistence of the DT crew, the photos were removed by about 3pm that day. I truly think the pics would not have been removed as quickly or no-questions-asked if the DT people hadn't been there the whole time, commenting and posting and raising the alarm.
Since then, I have deleted all my photos in my DT gallery and am in the process of watermarking all my photos and re-uploading them to photobucket, which is extremely daunting considering the sheer number of photos I have shared on that site, but I can't risk having my puppers' pics stolen again. It was such a slap in the face and a violation of my personal possessions, that I never want to relive it again.
Most importantly, I can't express how much what everyone on DT did meant to me - having all of them come together to support Red and I. We are a very tight-knit community and this proves that you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And Doberman owners are not people you really want to fuck with.
I went to the link she provided, and such enough, there were about 10 photos of Red that I have taken over the last year or so, posted up under the name "Bueno the Doberman" - complete with made-up lifestory and everything! There were a ton of comments about what nice photos and a great dog Bueno is, all dating back from July of this year.
I stared at the photos that I took of MY dog, and my mouth fell open. My heart started pounding as if I had just sprinted a mile. The blood rushed to my face and I felt sick. My cherished photos of my Redders - stolen and posted by someone else with a made-up name and story. I couldn't believe it.
The first thing I did was create an account on The Daily Puppy, and commented on "Bueno's" page - how dare they use my pics, that is NOT their dog and are stolen photos and to remove them immediately. Then I reported the page to the site administrators.
The next thing I did was create a thread on DT (Dobermantalk.com - my doberman haven!) and announce that Red's photos have been stolen and posted the link. Within 5 minutes, many more people had created accounts on The Daily Puppy and comments on the page about how this person stole photos and they need to be removed. Within 10 minutes, people were posting contact information to the copyright department for me, had found 2 more pages that have been using stolen photos of Red (one as a water rescue dog who rescues people from the water! as he's pictured wearing his lifejacket on my dad's boat), and even more people had signed up to raise hell on The Daily Puppy.
By about 2am, my thread had swelled to 3 pages of 40 replies each, and I couldn't take looking at Red's pics on that site anymore and I went to bed. I had to work in the afternoon the next day, so my plan was to get up and call the copyright department first thing in the morning.
The next day, I tried calling - and of course, they are located in California on Pacific time so the offices weren't open yet. I tried calling the other offices, but the phone system would not route me to a person, and would not let me leave a message. Instead, I contented my self with re-reporting the offending pages, emailing the copyright division, and emailing The Daily Puppy a very colorful email. I also called my brother-in-law who is a lawyer about it and sent him the links. He said if the site didn't taken them down after a few days, he would send them a letter.
As hard as it was to handle knowing that someone had stolen all these pics from me, having all my DT friends stand behind me like that meant everything to me and made it so much easier to deal with. They had continued posting throughout the night on The Daily Puppy and were continuing to stand behind me in my thread on DT. As the day went on and more people saw what had been going on all night, more people registered on The Daily Puppy and commented and reported the stolen pics.
Due to the immense response and persistence of the DT crew, the photos were removed by about 3pm that day. I truly think the pics would not have been removed as quickly or no-questions-asked if the DT people hadn't been there the whole time, commenting and posting and raising the alarm.
Since then, I have deleted all my photos in my DT gallery and am in the process of watermarking all my photos and re-uploading them to photobucket, which is extremely daunting considering the sheer number of photos I have shared on that site, but I can't risk having my puppers' pics stolen again. It was such a slap in the face and a violation of my personal possessions, that I never want to relive it again.
Most importantly, I can't express how much what everyone on DT did meant to me - having all of them come together to support Red and I. We are a very tight-knit community and this proves that you mess with one of us, you mess with all of us. And Doberman owners are not people you really want to fuck with.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Obedience Novice A Trial - our 3rd leg and CD title!
Everything started an hour earlier today, but I didn't want it to be as long of a day as yesterday, so we got there at 11:30am today. I had left our crate and chair overnight so it was waiting for us when we got there. There were considerably less people today than yesterday though.
They had just finished Utility in our ring, and were taking a lunch break before starting Open. So we had about 20 minutes before they started Open, then to wait for the 7 or so dogs to go. I kept Red out for awhile, playing and doing some exercises for treats, and took him out on the grounds to sniff around and play a little. After that, I put him in his crate and watched the Open dogs.
I figured I would try something a little different and get him out more in advance to hang out. Normally I get him out while the dog before us is going because that's what worked before, but since he's been tarting out on off-leash halt/sits (and I'm not sure if he's distracted or what) that I'd try something different. So I got him out while Open were doing their sits/downs. We played with the rope and practiced halt/sits.
I had a good feelig about today. I wasn't near as nervous as I was yesterday, which is strange because it all came down to today to get our title. But I wasn't cold, it was a nicer day, and I felt more comfortable and calm. I promised Red if he did good today, I would buy him TWO hamburgers from McDonald's instead of his usual one! =)
There were only 3 people registered for Novice A, but only 2 signed in including me. We were second in line to go. The team in front of us was a young girl and a large German Shepherd. After the judge's briefing/walkthrough, the first team went. I wasn't really watching because I was focusing on Red, but the part I did see was once the dog was off leash during the heel, he jumped the fence into the next ring! Thankfully no one was trialing in the next ring, but that is an automatic NQ and dismissal, so their run was cut short. Red and I were up!
The on leash heeling was great. He sat at all the halts and kept up with me. The figure 8 was good, and sat at all the halts. The stand for exam was great, no problems. The off leash heeling was sloppy. He lagged and went wide on one of the about turns, and didn't sit at the halts. What is up with that?? He came in crooked for the front on recall and didn't sit for the finish. But I didn't care because all that are just poin deductions.
Since we were the only qualifying team, the judge had us go right into sits/downs. Which was kind of a bummer because I usually jackpot him after his run. But we had to stay in the ring and do sits/downs alone... I was nervous about that because usually there is a line of dogs which is normal. It's harded for a dog when they are the only one.
The 1 minute sit/stay was fine. But the down/stay was the longest 3 minutes of my life! There were flies in the building and they kept landing on him and he kept snapping at them, sniffing around, and shooing them off him. But he STAYED! Even the judge said afterwards that she couldn't believe he made it through that with all the flies harassing him!
We Qualified for our 3rd leg, and got our CD title!!! w00t!!
Here's the video:
On the way home, I kept my promise and stopped at McDonald's to get Red his two hamburgers... (click to enlarge pics)
"omg is that for me??"
"I can haz cheezburger?"
"om nom nom"
And Redders showing off his gold and silver medallions and title ribbon! =)
I just received an email from the photographer with a sneak peek of our win photos. We did a couple different poses, but here is one of them.
They had just finished Utility in our ring, and were taking a lunch break before starting Open. So we had about 20 minutes before they started Open, then to wait for the 7 or so dogs to go. I kept Red out for awhile, playing and doing some exercises for treats, and took him out on the grounds to sniff around and play a little. After that, I put him in his crate and watched the Open dogs.
I figured I would try something a little different and get him out more in advance to hang out. Normally I get him out while the dog before us is going because that's what worked before, but since he's been tarting out on off-leash halt/sits (and I'm not sure if he's distracted or what) that I'd try something different. So I got him out while Open were doing their sits/downs. We played with the rope and practiced halt/sits.
I had a good feelig about today. I wasn't near as nervous as I was yesterday, which is strange because it all came down to today to get our title. But I wasn't cold, it was a nicer day, and I felt more comfortable and calm. I promised Red if he did good today, I would buy him TWO hamburgers from McDonald's instead of his usual one! =)
There were only 3 people registered for Novice A, but only 2 signed in including me. We were second in line to go. The team in front of us was a young girl and a large German Shepherd. After the judge's briefing/walkthrough, the first team went. I wasn't really watching because I was focusing on Red, but the part I did see was once the dog was off leash during the heel, he jumped the fence into the next ring! Thankfully no one was trialing in the next ring, but that is an automatic NQ and dismissal, so their run was cut short. Red and I were up!
The on leash heeling was great. He sat at all the halts and kept up with me. The figure 8 was good, and sat at all the halts. The stand for exam was great, no problems. The off leash heeling was sloppy. He lagged and went wide on one of the about turns, and didn't sit at the halts. What is up with that?? He came in crooked for the front on recall and didn't sit for the finish. But I didn't care because all that are just poin deductions.
Since we were the only qualifying team, the judge had us go right into sits/downs. Which was kind of a bummer because I usually jackpot him after his run. But we had to stay in the ring and do sits/downs alone... I was nervous about that because usually there is a line of dogs which is normal. It's harded for a dog when they are the only one.
The 1 minute sit/stay was fine. But the down/stay was the longest 3 minutes of my life! There were flies in the building and they kept landing on him and he kept snapping at them, sniffing around, and shooing them off him. But he STAYED! Even the judge said afterwards that she couldn't believe he made it through that with all the flies harassing him!
We Qualified for our 3rd leg, and got our CD title!!! w00t!!
Here's the video:
On the way home, I kept my promise and stopped at McDonald's to get Red his two hamburgers... (click to enlarge pics)
"omg is that for me??"
"I can haz cheezburger?"
"om nom nom"
And Redders showing off his gold and silver medallions and title ribbon! =)
I just received an email from the photographer with a sneak peek of our win photos. We did a couple different poses, but here is one of them.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Obedience Novice A Trial - for our 2nd leg
I wasn't sure what time to go there today, since they were splitting everything up into 2 rings, and since I'd rather be early than late, I decided to play it safe and go early.
We got there at 11am and the place was a mad house. There was no where to put our crate and I circled around for awhile before I was told a spot to put it. Sam and Mally and Glee and Maximus were able to set up pretty close to us, so that was good. Michelle wasn't there yet because she decided not to show Maisy, but was still going to come to watch us.
They were still doing Utility in our ring when we got there, so we had a long time to wait. I couldn't even check in yet. After Utility, the judge took a 30 minute break, then went into Open, which was another hour as least. We didn't end up going into the ring til after 3pm. Waaay too long for Redders to be in his crate.
I was really nervous today because he did not do well at the fun match this week. I didn't make a blog post about it because I didn't want to relive it. Basically, I yelled at him for chewing up hs crate mat just before we went into the ring, and during heeling he was off in left field and didn't sit at any of the halts. So I was extra nervous today just hoping to god he wouldn't repeat the performance. Plus I was a little cold, so I was uncomfortable which didn't help.
Anyway, there were only 2 people in Novice A. The 3rd person who was supposed to be there didn't show up. So it was just me and my friend Glee and her Doberman, Maximus. It was pretty cool to see the 2 dobes together. The judge gave us our briefing and showed us the heeling pattern - really nice guy and just stressed to us to have fun and don't worry! He even let us take a 5 minute break after the walk through to prepare our dogs, and waited til the awards ceremony in the next ring was finished so we didn't have to try to run during all the clapping. I thought that was really cool of him.
Once Glee and Max went into the ring, I went and got Red out of the crate. I fed him treats and did some focusing. I really wanted to watch Glee and Max, but I had to concentrate on not freaking out and getting Red focused! I fed the last piece of hotdog well before we went into the ring and made sure he wasn't going to choke it back up!
We were called into the ring and started our heeling pattern. The sits were ok, though a little slow. During the figure 8, I messed up my footwork on the halt and after that, he wouldn't sit at the halts anymore! gah! Th stand for exam was good, but th off-leash heeling was frustrating due to his lack of sitting at the halts. The recall was a very crooked front and didn't sit on the finish! grrr... At least the sits/downs were ok, though I was starting to worry on the down because he was very restless and was fidgeting a lot. It seemed like A LOT longer than 3 minutes... I just kept praying the judge would tell us to go back so I could release before he did something stupid! But it was fine and we qualified for our 2nd leg!
Here's the video:
We got a really nice silver medallion plus the usual green qualifying ribbon and red second plac ribbon. Here's Redders modeling his medallion (click to enlarge):
The score was 186.5, and the judge told me it was because of all the sits - which I already knew. I'm just so confused on why he would stop sitting all of a sudden?? He does it great during practice, but the fun matches and trials... who knows... Definitely something I'm going to have to grill into him. But no time now because our last trial is tomorrow to (hopefully!) finish our CD title!
I am going to be a basket case tomorrow...
We got there at 11am and the place was a mad house. There was no where to put our crate and I circled around for awhile before I was told a spot to put it. Sam and Mally and Glee and Maximus were able to set up pretty close to us, so that was good. Michelle wasn't there yet because she decided not to show Maisy, but was still going to come to watch us.
They were still doing Utility in our ring when we got there, so we had a long time to wait. I couldn't even check in yet. After Utility, the judge took a 30 minute break, then went into Open, which was another hour as least. We didn't end up going into the ring til after 3pm. Waaay too long for Redders to be in his crate.
I was really nervous today because he did not do well at the fun match this week. I didn't make a blog post about it because I didn't want to relive it. Basically, I yelled at him for chewing up hs crate mat just before we went into the ring, and during heeling he was off in left field and didn't sit at any of the halts. So I was extra nervous today just hoping to god he wouldn't repeat the performance. Plus I was a little cold, so I was uncomfortable which didn't help.
Anyway, there were only 2 people in Novice A. The 3rd person who was supposed to be there didn't show up. So it was just me and my friend Glee and her Doberman, Maximus. It was pretty cool to see the 2 dobes together. The judge gave us our briefing and showed us the heeling pattern - really nice guy and just stressed to us to have fun and don't worry! He even let us take a 5 minute break after the walk through to prepare our dogs, and waited til the awards ceremony in the next ring was finished so we didn't have to try to run during all the clapping. I thought that was really cool of him.
Once Glee and Max went into the ring, I went and got Red out of the crate. I fed him treats and did some focusing. I really wanted to watch Glee and Max, but I had to concentrate on not freaking out and getting Red focused! I fed the last piece of hotdog well before we went into the ring and made sure he wasn't going to choke it back up!
We were called into the ring and started our heeling pattern. The sits were ok, though a little slow. During the figure 8, I messed up my footwork on the halt and after that, he wouldn't sit at the halts anymore! gah! Th stand for exam was good, but th off-leash heeling was frustrating due to his lack of sitting at the halts. The recall was a very crooked front and didn't sit on the finish! grrr... At least the sits/downs were ok, though I was starting to worry on the down because he was very restless and was fidgeting a lot. It seemed like A LOT longer than 3 minutes... I just kept praying the judge would tell us to go back so I could release before he did something stupid! But it was fine and we qualified for our 2nd leg!
Here's the video:
We got a really nice silver medallion plus the usual green qualifying ribbon and red second plac ribbon. Here's Redders modeling his medallion (click to enlarge):
The score was 186.5, and the judge told me it was because of all the sits - which I already knew. I'm just so confused on why he would stop sitting all of a sudden?? He does it great during practice, but the fun matches and trials... who knows... Definitely something I'm going to have to grill into him. But no time now because our last trial is tomorrow to (hopefully!) finish our CD title!
I am going to be a basket case tomorrow...
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Fun Match
Up and at 'em early for a fun match today! It's about 30 minutes away and we got there at 9am.
Did our usual, left Red in the car while I carried in and set up the crate and all our stuff, then got him out of the car, took him around to the potty area (he never goes though), then went inside. We did a few warm ups, played some tug, then put him in the crate so I could get a coffee =)
I signed us up for one Novice Obedience run and one Rally Excellent run, since we're going to be going for our RE next month and neither one of us has done Rally in a long time!
Novice Obedience:
On-leash heel: Started out normal pace, then went into a slow pace. He bumped me a few times and the "judge" had us stop and start again. The second time he was better and didn't bump, but I requested not stopping us in the middle of a heeling pattern again because it throws him off. We went through it and he was fine.
On-leash figure 8: Very good! He's getting much better at not bumping as we go around the posts. Very happy with this.
Stand for exam: Great, no problem.
Off-leash heel: No problem, the same as the on-leash. Stayed with me fine. I think I told him to sit once at a halt because he was not paying attention and was distracted by what was going on in the next ring. But he was fine.
Recall: Great! Came in nice and fast and had a nice front - still a little crooked, but it was better than what he's done in the past, so I'll take it!
It was a qualifying run if it were a real trial, so that's all the matters! I do think he is bored with the exercises though, which is why he can get distracted during the heeling. He's been through it a million times!
Rally Excellent: He did fine. It's been awhile since we've done Rally so I hadto walk through it to make sure I knew what all the signs were. It was a tight course, but it was better than they usually have which is why I chose to do it. I hate it when they cram 25 signs in a little tiny ring - its difficult to manuever and easy to get lost. But we did fine - I think we would've qualified for that too.
I've been teaching Red the backing up heeling and its going quite well! At first I started to see if he would do it in front of me, but he kept backing up and out of my way as I stepped toward him, so we did it in heel position. At first I started from a sit and went backwards, but he'd just scoot backwards on his butt. But then I started heeling forward, then going backwards and he got it! I can't believe how fast he learns - its really neat to watch. And he was so excited to be learning something new too =) It's been awhile since he learned anything new. It's like I'm afraid to teach him anything else because I'm afraid I'm going to teach it wrong and then be stuck. He's the type of dog that is hard to fix once you've already taught it incorrectly. I'm going to have to start training for Open, though so I'll definitely need some help!
Did our usual, left Red in the car while I carried in and set up the crate and all our stuff, then got him out of the car, took him around to the potty area (he never goes though), then went inside. We did a few warm ups, played some tug, then put him in the crate so I could get a coffee =)
I signed us up for one Novice Obedience run and one Rally Excellent run, since we're going to be going for our RE next month and neither one of us has done Rally in a long time!
Novice Obedience:
On-leash heel: Started out normal pace, then went into a slow pace. He bumped me a few times and the "judge" had us stop and start again. The second time he was better and didn't bump, but I requested not stopping us in the middle of a heeling pattern again because it throws him off. We went through it and he was fine.
On-leash figure 8: Very good! He's getting much better at not bumping as we go around the posts. Very happy with this.
Stand for exam: Great, no problem.
Off-leash heel: No problem, the same as the on-leash. Stayed with me fine. I think I told him to sit once at a halt because he was not paying attention and was distracted by what was going on in the next ring. But he was fine.
Recall: Great! Came in nice and fast and had a nice front - still a little crooked, but it was better than what he's done in the past, so I'll take it!
It was a qualifying run if it were a real trial, so that's all the matters! I do think he is bored with the exercises though, which is why he can get distracted during the heeling. He's been through it a million times!
Rally Excellent: He did fine. It's been awhile since we've done Rally so I hadto walk through it to make sure I knew what all the signs were. It was a tight course, but it was better than they usually have which is why I chose to do it. I hate it when they cram 25 signs in a little tiny ring - its difficult to manuever and easy to get lost. But we did fine - I think we would've qualified for that too.
I've been teaching Red the backing up heeling and its going quite well! At first I started to see if he would do it in front of me, but he kept backing up and out of my way as I stepped toward him, so we did it in heel position. At first I started from a sit and went backwards, but he'd just scoot backwards on his butt. But then I started heeling forward, then going backwards and he got it! I can't believe how fast he learns - its really neat to watch. And he was so excited to be learning something new too =) It's been awhile since he learned anything new. It's like I'm afraid to teach him anything else because I'm afraid I'm going to teach it wrong and then be stuck. He's the type of dog that is hard to fix once you've already taught it incorrectly. I'm going to have to start training for Open, though so I'll definitely need some help!
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