We are a bit behind in our news - time to catch up! I took 2 dogs to the Medicine Hat show, to compete in obedience and rally. Lupine was entered in Utility A and it was our first time ever in the utility ring. And it showed! It was not a pretty performance, in large part due to my nerves. But we struggled through and Lupine maintained a very happy working attitude throughout. We failed right off the bat, when she needed a second command to go for the glove on the seek back exercise. At least that meant I could help her with the rest of the exercises! We had been having problems with the scent articles exercise in the 2 weeks before the trial and she brought me the correct article once and the wrong one once. It was a valuable experience, as it helped me to get a better feeling for the ring procedures and showed me a few "tricky" areas that I need to train better for.
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Cava was entered it her first ever trials - rally Novice B and obedience Novice B. In the rally ring, she did a beautiful round with great attention and focus. I messed up the "moving down", by giving her the wrong signal, so we had to re-do it and the second time was not too much better! But we came away with 95/100, 2nd place and our first rally leg. The big problem was getting into the ring - with a small crowd around the ring entrance and a ring steward sitting in a chair in the ring, Cava thought it would a fantastic opportunity to visit with everyone and I barely had her under control (she actually tried to jump into the lap of the steward). Not the entrance I wanted to make! She then spotted the judge and lunged towards her. At the start line I got her attention back on me and was very relieved that she went immediately into "work mode" after that shaky start. Because of that, I pulled her from Novice obedience, as I would like to get that under control before we go back in the ring!
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Practicing the long down stay with Pixel and Brit
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