2nd Rally Trial! Qualifying score!

Another Rally trial under our belts, and one more leg toward our RN title. Here's a recap of our day.

Woke up at 7:00am. Already had everything packed except the camera whose batteries were charging overnight, and the treats that were in the fridge. Got ready as usual - I wore jeans, a long sleeved shirt, and a zip up hoodie - I wanted to stay warm today! Another frigid day in the artic tundra of Michigan!

Anyway, Michelle met me at my house at 8:30am and we drove to the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit, which is about a 30 minute drive from my house. Paid $8.00 to park and carried all our luggage inside. Thankfully, we got a nice, close parking spot and it wasn't a far walk to the building.

We found an open area to set up the crate and chairs, though it was near the back door from which a healthy artic breeze was flowing (which is probably why that spot was vacant..). But we snagged it and got everything set up. I put a blanket down under the crate so the bottom of the crate didn't get dirty.

Then I took Red out back to go potty in the potty area - which was just a plowed circle of snow on the lawn, and one lone tree. He sniffed a ton of yellow spots and finally managed to squeeze out a few drops after I repeatedly told him to go potty (before my lips went numb with cold). It had now begun to snow - we are getting 4-6" today! Went back in and did a lap of the building, then played a bit with the frisbee. Then I put Red in his crate with a new meaty bone, and then went to check in and get a copy of the Novice course map.

Got my armband. There were only 3 of us in Novice A, and I was the 3rd in line to go. Dawn with her Mastiff, Atticus (which I have mentioned in other posts since we train together on Saturdays), was one of the teams in Novice A with us. I asked if I could get a copy of the Novice course map, but the table steward said there weren't any. The only copy was posted on the wall. Seriously? How am I going to spend the next 2 hours studying it if its only posted on the wall? *sigh* I went back to my bag, pulled out some extra paper, borrowed a pen from someone, walked back to the course map posted on the wall, and proceeded to draw a duplicate. It was messy, but oh well, there was nothing else for it. At one point, I heard a dog whining very loudly from somewhere in the direction of Red's crate, but I couldn't be sure it was him... though it sounded like it could've been.

After I finished my drawing, I went back to my chair to study the map and flashcards. If Red was whining before, he wasn't now. He wasn't chewing on his bone either - just quietly sitting there staring out the screen door. I went and bought a small coffee from the refreshment stand for $1.00. Added tons of sugar and then went back to my seat to drink it. Michelle always knows tons of people at these obedience shows so she was chatting with other people. Dawn arrived with Atticus and hung out with us near our set-up.

I was surprised at the number of other Dobermans there today. I counted at least 6 others - all black except for one red bitch. Most of the others were bitches too - there was only one black male that I saw. I got to chat with a few of the owners and one of the bitches was a Gorrmae dobe from Red's breeder. We got to chatting about Red's brother, Jordan, who just finished his Canadian Championship this weekend. Everyone always says such nice things about Lori and her dogs. Two black bitches were set up right in front of us, so some of the pics I took have them in the photo too. And a women who knows one of the girls I work with at the cat clinic brought her black bitch over from the conformation building to chat a bit. All the Dobes I saw were very nice-looking and very well-behaved.

After awhile, I took Red back out of the crate to run through some exercises and play. We found a long, empty corridor that I could let him off-leash to chase the frisbee. I was still very concerned about his lack of exercise this past couple weeks and how it would effect his performance today. Especially since this is a new place for him. During some warm-up, his right finishes were pretty crappy, and his attention was very limited. We have never really practiced the moving side step, which was in the course, so we practiced that a bit. The other thing we worked on was the Halt 1, 2, 3 sit exercise. After several tries, Red finally started performing it well - he tended to wander out ahead of me at first. All the other stations were fine, and I was pretty confident.

My plan was to put Red in his crate for the walkthrough, and then get him really revved up during the first team, and then do focus exercises with a handful of treats during the second team - then we'd be the third team to go. This is what worked well for our first trial - he was really focused by the time we went into the ring.

Well, it didn't work out that way... turns out, the 2nd team didn't show up. So I was just finishing playing tug with Red while the first team was finishing, and I was called to go. I was so flustered because I hadn't had time to do any focus exercises at all! I threw my treat bag to Michelle as I ran by, and Red and I were immediately ushered into ring. Red was all over the place, not understanding that it was time to focus. Then we had to start.

So I went into it in the wrong state of mind - I was flustered and unprepared, and so was my dog. Red's attention was pretty much nil throughout the entire course. We got to the Halt 1,2, 3 steps station, took 1 step forward and instead of sitting, Red went into a down. UGH! Turned around and did a redo. "There's 3 points off", I thought to myself. My legs started to shake and I started to get really nervous. He did fine the second time through. Everything else went fine, and then we were over the finish line! I didn't forget to really praise and reward Red after that!

I ran back to Michelle to ask how she thought we did. The only thing she saw worth a deduction was the retry. The posted score was 96. Whoo-hoo! One of Michelle's friends thought Red's butt might not have been down on one of the call fronts, but she wasn't sure. And I might've gotten a point off for a tight leash because I yanked up a bit on the collar in light correction when he went down on that sit. Everything else looked good.

Went back in to receive the ribbons. I ended up with 1st place, and Atticus and Dawn got second place with a score of 77. The judge announced my score as an 86. I asked him afterwards what the deductions were for. We got -3 for the retry (which I already knew), -1 for tight leash (which I'm assuming was when I accidentally corrected), and -10 for an improperly performed station on the Call Front Finish Left Forward - Red's butt wasn't completely down before I asked him to finish left. I didn't see this at the time, so I didn't retry the station. Looking back at the video of it, I can see it was very close... but I probably didn't wait long enough for him to sit. Made a mental note not to rush next time.

Michelle took some pics of me, Red, Dawn and Atticus so she can post it up at our training facility. Then took a pic of just me and Red with his ribbons. And that was it!

We decided to check out the conformation building since they have all the vendors there selling neat things, so we packed up all our stuff, and drove over to the building. Took Red in with us and made a lap. I bought a thin, snake choke chain for trialing, and Michelle bought a tug toy on a stick.

The drive home was horrendous. The roads were completely covered with snow and it was coming down pretty hard. We witnessed one spin-out crash and very narrowly avoided involvement ourselves. There were several other accidents on the way home and emergency vehicles everywhere. I just drove very slow and left a lot of run in front of me. I'm always more nervous with Red in the car too. But we made it home safe and sound =)

If you've read this whole thing - thanks! Here are some photos, and finally, the video of our trial!

Our set-up (green N2N crate) with a nice view of the Rally ring.


Red sitting by his crate




Red and two black Doberman bitches


VIDEO OF OUR TRIAL


Dawn, Atticus, and Me and Red


Red and I


One more leg to go!! =D