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.