What a weekend with highs and lows! Did a combined obedience (Solei & Elton) & breed (Elton & Ria) show on Saturday and an agility show on Sunday (yes, I am insane. It was my birthday on Friday, this was what I decided I'd like to do.) Nothing major results wise, but some really positive aspects to take from every discipline. All 3 dogs have given me at least one fantastic moment this weekend in different ways, very proud of them.

Breed show - Elton got BOB, Ria was the baby and unplaced in her AVNSC Post Grad class but won Best Rare Breed under a different judge. The positives - both Elton & Ria showed well, and Ria stood like a rock to be gone over. The negatives - Ria's AVNSC (lack of) placement, and the fact the toy group judge saw fit to not move a single dog again!

Obedience show / Solei - It was quite cold and windy and I was based miles from the obedience ground but Solei was drawn 10th and you don't know if they're all going to turn up, so I thought I'd better be ringside for 9:30am, when judging started. It was gone 10am when we got in the ring and Solei had been waiting, too long for him! His brain wasn't switched on for HOL, his recall was lovely and his HF was...not. I started off and he sat there and stared at me. I did 3/4 of the HF on my own, then he thought he'd join me for the last leg and finished quite well!
He also did a special class in which we were given a list of exercises worth either 5, 10 (the majority) or 15pts, and could pick whatever we liked as long as they added up to 100pts. You needed the majority of the list to make the points and I struggled to find enough, particularly as I wanted to avoid retrieve if possible, which counted for 3 of the options. In the end I opted for heelwork (10pts), recall (5pts), recall over 1 hurdle (10pts), recall over 2 hurdles (15pts), recall through tunnel (10pts), stand stay (10pts), down stay (5pts), questions (5pts), send away (10pts), temp test (10pts), A Recall (10pts).

Well...what can I say, other than he devised a new method for the A Recall and it went downhill from there :-) The A Recall (leave dog as normal but keep walking and call dog into heel position when told, then continue for a short stretch of hw before halting) was on a diagonal towards the tunnel. I called him, he ran straight past me, through the tunnel and then back to heel! He had the judge and steward in hysterics. That set the tone for the class really - he decided to see how many of the exercises he could incorporate the tunnel into, and a couple between exercises just because! Everything he did "correctly" was sloppy (except the recall through tunnel - strangely enough he did that very well :-)), but that was just because he was excited, he had so much fun which was the point!

Send away took a couple of attempts, but he did a quite nice one in the end. He went over all the hurdles, and did the stays ok. Positives - he made everyone laugh, had a lot of fun, and did the special class quite well except for all the tunnel deviations and general excitement! Negatives - the heelwork, esp HF in that first class!


Obedience show / Elton - Very much an "if only" day! He wasn't concentrating properly for HOL, his recall was fine til I tried to finish him when he refused to because there was a group of dogs (inc whippet) standing outside the ring (quite a few metres away) and he was worried and didn't want to turn his back. Then his HF was not his usual standard and, for him, especially laggy on turns. The recall made the difference between a place or not :-(

For the special class with him I picked largely the same as Solei - substitued distant control for send away, and more heelwork for the recall through tunnel (he doesn't like tunnels atm, they remind him of being attacked). So that left heelwork (10pts), recall (5pts), recall over 1 hurdle (10pts), recall over 2 hurdles (15pts), heelwork weaving through cones (10pts), stand stay (10pts), down stay (5pts), questions (5pts), distant control (10pts), temp test (10pts), A Recall (10pts).

I wasn't entirely happy with the list, but I had no options left without falling back on retrieve - which I didn't want to do in his current lack of confidence state.

Normal heelwork was the first exercise and improved as he tuned in. Then the weaving through the cones had to be done twice - first time at normal pace, then again at slow pace. Apparently that was stunning, though I was terrified I'd run him over cos I couldn't see him!! A Recall was lovely except I had to call him multiple times cos we haven't practiced that particular approach (when I've done A Recall practice with him I've made it harder!) and he didn't believe me! Normal recall just had a slightly crooked present, 1 hurdle recall was perfect, then he totally buggered up the 2 hurdle recall by going round them both :-(

Stand stay was clear, down stay wasn't - it had poured with rain and he decided he couldn't possibly stay lying in the wet :-P quite funny, he broke (sat up) and when I told him to go back down he sort of stretched his front legs out whilst trying to keep his body off the ground (think cartoon cat when they've got all four legs outstretched trying not to go in a bath or something). Temp test & questions clear.

His Distant Control was stunning....so, so proud. It's something I've practiced at home but never taken it "on the road" and he often misses the down position - I'd chosen it purely cos I'd run out of alternatives, without choosing a retrieve! Can't remember the order of the positions, it was leave in a sit then I think it was down, stand, sit, stand, down, sit? It was definitely 6 positions - 2 of each. He missed the first position (down) but did it on the second command, then the rest was faultless...he hardly crept forward either.

Final marks (gained, not lost) was 8.5/10 HW, 10/10 weave, 8/10 A Recall, 9.5/10 Distant Control, 4.5/5 recall, 10/10 1 hurdle, 4/15 2 hurdles, 10/10 stand stay, 10/10 temp test, 1/5 down stay, 5/5 questions - even allowing for the down "stay", without that 2 hurdle recall he'd have been comfortably in 2nd, and definitely in the placings. (Without the broken down he'd have won) - if only! He did seem more comfortable in the class (it had run very late, everyone else had gone home!) and seemed to enjoy it, so was well worth doing.

Finally - Agility Show - Took all 3 dogs but had nobody entered, I just wanted to play..etc round the rings, and I was intending to get Ria measured - that didn't work as they decided to measure really early, but luckily it wasn't important :-P Will get her done another time.

Nothing major to report, except they had a practice ring - fully fenced, slightly out of the way, food & toys allowed with a short tunnel, jumps, aframe, teeter. Pay £1 a minute and use it how you like :-)

So I took Ria in. I did jump, tunnel and she was really switched on so I decided she could cope with more....there was a pin wheel in front of the jump, and she used to love them, but recently (prior to season so a couple months ago now) I was finding she was going round at least one (usually the middle). So I put her in front of this first jump....and she did the 3 jumps of the pin wheel, tunnel, jump! I only had the poles on small but she was fast, accurate, confident and I wasn't "baby sitting" her - and she drove into the tunnel beautifully from a distance :-) It felt amazing, if this is what she's gonna feel like to run when we get that far I can't wait :-X