Obedience Fun Match

Since there haven't been any other issues in regards to the stuffie-eating incident, I decided to go ahead and go to the obedience fun match tonight. Up til yesterday, I wasn't sure if I was going to do it if he was still unwell. But today was great - no vomiting, and normal bouncy Redders! It's amazing how good puking up a 10" long stuffie arm can be! *rolls eyes*

We went for a 3 mile on-leash walk into downtown today. I normally don't take Red out for a walk the day of a trial/match because I want him to have all his energy intact, but I figured since it was on-leash instead of our normal off-leash run, it would be okay. But even though it was on-leash, I think it tired us both out! LOL

Anyway, we got to the match pretty early because I wanted to simulate the longer wait before going into the ring in a real trial. The match started at 6pm, and we got there at 5pm, while most people arrive closer to 5:30pm for these matches. We were the second team in the building, and the first team hadn't even set up their crate yet! I left Red in the car while I carried in the crate, my chair, and my bag. I set everything up, paid my fee and signed up for 3rd team in line for Novice, then went back out and took Red out to the potty area. He quickly peed a few drops to satisfy me, then we went inside.

We played tug with the frisbee for a little bit, then did a few heeling exercises. After he started to calm down a tad, I put him in his crate and I sat down in the chair next to him and pulled out a magazine. People started to trickle with their dogs, and he was moving around and whining a little, but not loudly. I ignored him.

There were three rings set up - one for each Novice, Open, and Utility. You are allowed to practice in them before the match starts if you want. I thought this would be a good time to practice jumps for Advanced Rally, since I don't have a jump at home, and we will be trialing Advanced in less than a month! Red has not had much exposure to jumps AT ALL. We just started introducing him to them at the last Saturday training session we were at. But considering we can't go every Saturday, I thought this was a good opportunity.

We went into the Utility ring, took off his leash, and started with the 8" high board. At first when I would give the command for him to go "over" and I would run by, he would run around the jump, staying next to me in heel position. So I jumped over it with him a few times while giving the "over" command, and then he got it. We did a few run-bys with him just jumping over it and receiving rewards, then we stepped it up to do some Rally exercises and heeling leading up to the jump, and then making the jump, to received the reward. Then I added an 8" board for a total of a 16" high jump (the height he must jump for Advanced). He was fine - didn't hesitate at all. Then we put it all together and did exercises before the jump, sending him "over", then coming back to heel and going into another exercise. He did AWESOME always making the jump, then coming right back to heel and staying with me. He got jackpots for those (i.e. got to stick his face in the treat pouch!).

It was funny because after we were done, I went to take the 8" board that I added back off, and Red kept jumping the jump over and over to earn treats. I think he likes the jump =) I was really happy that I thought of doing this - I think that was a really productive training step and I feel MUCH more confident about the jump in Advanced Rally now.

I put his leash back on, and went back to our chair and crate. Up til now, he hasn't really liked being in his crates at trials. He hesitates going in there and is restless and somewhat whiney when he's inside it. So I decided to play a game with him - kinda like when I first crate trained him as a puppy. I sent him in, gave a treat, waited a few seconds with the door open, then let him back out. Then sent him in, gave a treat, waited, then let him out. Then I did it with the door closed, waited a few seconds, then let him back out. Then it was a fun game and he would go in there for the next treat. We played with the frisbee again for another minute or two, then I put him in his crate again. I sat down and picked up my magazine again. This time there was no fidgeting, and no whining at all.

We had a good 30 minutes til the match started, and I just sat reading my magazine and Red sat quietly in his crate while everyone arrived with their dogs, making the building noiser and noiser as time went on. After awhile, I put down my magazine and just watch people warming up their dogs. I learn a lot, just by watching more experienced handlers interact with their dogs. And that's why I'm there - to learn as much as I can to be a better handler and help my dog be the best he can.

Open did their sits/downs first, but Novice went right into it and would be doing sits/downs last. When the first Novice team went into the ring, I got Red out of the crate and played with him some more. When the second team was halfway done, we started doing some focus exercises and getting ready to go into the ring.

Then it was our turn:

On-leash heel: Horrendous. The judge said I looked like a "drunken sailor", LOL. I seriously was all over the place and didn't walk a straight line at all. Red's attention was off in la-la land and I was paying more attention to him then to where I was going. We kept bumping into each other. It wasn't pretty.

Figure 8: Better than the on-leash heel. He lagging a bit on the outside posts so I slowed down a little and urged him to keep up. I took the inside post too tightly and Red kept bumping me as we came around. The judge said to give him more room on that inside post, and bring my knee up to push him back out if necessary. I have an arm's length allowed between me and the post, and I have long arms, so I should use that room. Then sits at the halts were pretty nice and got better/quicker the longer we went.

Stand for exam: Excellent! This is the one exercise I don't worry about with him. He is spot-on every time. The judge said "nice" when he went into his straight stand, I moved out ahead, she did a pretty long and thorough exam on him - longer and more than a judge during a real trial would probably do - and he didn't budge. The only thing wrong on this exercise was that I went too far out away from him. The rules say 6 feet and I was more like 8 feet, so I'm going to have to practice how to gauge how far 6 feet is... count my steps or something. That would be a really stupid thing to lose points for!

Heel off-leash: MUCH better than the on-leash heel according to the judge, and damn near perfect. Red's attention was much better and I was able to look up ahead of me to watch that I was walking in a straight line. I feel much more comfortable for this, and so did Red, apparently, and it showed. Now I know what everyone says about the off-leash heel being better than the on-leash! You'd think it would be the other way around but its not! My only guess is that Red felt like he needed to stay with me more since he wasn't tethered to me. That's my only guess, but even his attention was better. I was very happy with this.

Recall: Red came in pretty straight. Straighter than he has done in the past, but still not the way I would like. He kind of archs around while he's running toward me - I'm not sure why he does that. I took a couple baby steps backward to line him up when I realized he wasn't going to sit straight. By then, there was only maybe a foot between my body and the fencing (though I didn't realize it until I had him finish right). He squeezed behind me into a perfect finish. The judge was impressed that he finished so nicely having no room behind me! So anyway - yeah, still gotta work on coming in straight...

Then we were done. I had my treat pouch on, but only gave treats inbetween exercises. I did talk to him somewhat during exercises, especially for the on-leash heeling when we were doing so poorly, just to get him to focus on me. I talked a little in the figure 8, to keep him from lagging and then praising when he was with me. I can't remember how much I talked during the off-leash heel, but I don't think it was much - maybe for the turns but that was it.

Since they were doing sits and downs last, we had to wait for everyone else to go. There were 11 dogs total doing Novice. I played with Red for a couple minutes, then put him back in his crate, where he spent the next hour, completely silent and only stirring when a little miniature Schnauzer came right up to his crate screen door to sniff. I still don't know how comfortable he is in there, he spent most of the time, half-sitting. But as long as he was quiet and not fidgeting too much, I was happy. I spent the time watching the other teams' runs and taking mental notes to myself about how people train their dogs and how I might incorporate some of the things into my own training. When the last team started their run, I got Red out and played with him for the remainder of that team's run. Then finally, it was time for sits/downs.

Long Sit: Ok. He didn't break position at all, but he sorta had me uneasy at the beginning. He had his ears down and was sitting like he was really thinking about going down, or picking his butt, one of the two... but he didn't. As the time went on, he looked more solid and I relaxed a little. After the judge gave the release, I quietly praised and rewarded while he stayed in position. Usually during class I really praise after that and he sorta jumps around - but that's because we do 3 minute sits in class and I'm more happy when he doesn't break position (considering we had a really hard time with this exercise at first), and this was only the 1 minute.

Long Down: Excellent! He rolled onto a hip and stayed rock solid the whole time. Kept his head up and looking forward, and ears erect. He did great! So proud of him - he got a BIG handful of treats after that one =)

Then we were done! Took him out to the car, and then went back in to pack up the crate and everything. I think that was a really productive match - not for the Novice run, but for the other stuff. The jump - we made HUGE steps on that, and the crating for long periods. That is the good thing about these matches - it simulates trial-like environments and he can get more used to being crated and everything. So all in all, a success! Now I have one tired puppy... =D