I am so proud of Elton. Last Sunday was the Semi Final of the Special Pre-Beginner Obedience Stakes. What with the events of the last few months I was rather anxious. I had no expectations, I just wanted Elton to cope with it ok - I was really concerned that he would just shut down in the ring and that would be no fun for either of us!

We went into town most days for about 10 days before the semis, so I could get us both used to working in a busy environment. We had our final session the Friday before, and he was superb. He was even showing some interest in a toy, though aided with food and rather hit and miss.

The first exercise is play/motivate your dog - this left me with a dilemma! As Elton hasn't been playing away from home since May I've mostly been doing things like spins, walking backwards..etc but 30 seconds is a surprisingly long time when doing that sort of thing as a constant quick stream with no reward - and I often start to lose him near the end. I knew if he could play with a toy he would be much happier, BUT if I showed him it and he decided he couldn't that would really stress him and would probably spell disaster for the whole thing.

We arrived at Discover Dogs early. I found a quiet corner with him and I was actually really impressed - he felt good, much happier and more comfortable than I was expecting :-) Admittedly there was still almost no-one about and he wasn't in the ring, but even in that situation earlier this year he'd have been unhappy. We even had some pretty good toy play! At that point I'd sort of decided to risk the toy, which was then confirmed when we all went in for our briefing - the judge said she wasn't a fan of just using tricks, so had I done that we'd have almost certainly been out of the running anyway - I decided there was not a lot to lose.

Elton was drawn 5th (of 16), which I was pleased with - long enough to settle and see a couple of others go, but not long to wait around! So the time came, we waited nervously in the collecting ring as I tried to judge the timing and completely messed it up! Thus when we were called I hadn't done as much warming up as I wanted to. We both entered the ring, told to commence the play/motivate and we both went a bit rabbit in headlights! I offered him the toy, and he went "can't!"...I had all sorts flying through my head (including oh sh!t here we go :P) but somehow I kept calm, tried again and he started playing!! That ropey start cost us the win, but I was so, so proud of him - can't believe he played in that situation :-) The rest of his round wasn't bad either! He was a little bit on edge and jumpy, but also seemed relatively comfortable - it's hard to explain, but he was pretty focused and his finish on the recall was very revealing - he did it quickly and confidently, when he's worried he does it very slowly.

He went into the lead but there were still 11 dogs to work. The stay was the longest minute of my life - we had to go by our markers, and Elton was between a Labrador and a GSD. I wasn't at all convinced he wouldn't get worried and get up to come to me, but bless him he stayed. Actually every dog was clear in the stay. In the end, he only lost ¼ mark more than 1st (despite losing 1 on his play), had the best heelwork mark of the day and then ended up on the same overall score as another dog so had to do the heelwork yet again for a run off for 2nd/3rd, which he won! (No thanks to his handler who almost went the wrong way)


He was an absolute star, and has now qualified for the Finals to be held at CRUFTS 2013!! What a day. Results aside the whole thing was an amazing experience, I'm so glad we got the chance to compete. Now we're going to have a much deserved couple of weeks off, then not think about obedience til after Christmas but continuing working on building up his confidence with toys away from home. Go Rocket Man!