Red Deer Obedience Results

The dogs and I had a great weekend.

Wicca finished her Rally Advanced title with two perfect scores, and a High In Class. I am so proud of this dog. The course on Saturday was pretty tricky, and she nailed it- food bowls and all! We were beat out in time only for the Sundays High in Class- just one second difference! I am so happy with how she is working - she was upbeat, focused and having a good time. I remembered all the numbers (even those between 10-14) so that made me feel good!

Boone scored a 98 on the first course, and a 97 on the second. He did so well, and kept with me even though he was a little stressed. I have not done much off leash heeling with him, so it wasn't pretty but we still did good. He stayed with me- which was a big deal, and he didn't spook at the judges at all. Oh, and to top it off he even did the food bowl exercise! Anyone who knows Boone knows that he is a complete chow hound so for him to heel around bowls of food on the ground was pretty amazing. He is a great little worker- and made lots of new friends on the weekend.

I entered Wicca in one round of Open on Saturday and she was amazing. I have never felt so confident in the Obedience ring before. She nailed every single exercise. We lost a total of 6 points (out of 150) for a few sloppy sits, and crooked fronts. Wow. I even had an awful throw over the high jump and she made a conscious decision to come back over the jump. It was a great feeling to know she was that ready for the ring. The long sits and downs went better than I'd imagined. She stayed. I left the room and she didn't follow me. That is huge. She did lay down at the two minute mark though- which NQ's us- but still- SHE STAYED! She stayed perfectly for her long down too. I was so proud of her- just for the stays. This is something we've been struggling with for a long time.

I feel confident that with a little more work we'll have a rock solid Open routine. I watched the Utility dogs on Saturday and I don't think that we have much farther to go for that. I got some great ideas for teaching the Go Back so I am pretty amped about getting to work on that.

There was no signs of stiffness, although I made sure to warm her up really well and I gave her a massage each day. I don't have any immediate plans for Obedience- I had thought of going to a trial in December, but I don't want to push it with her neck. The entries close tomorrow, so I've got some thinking to do tonite. There is a trial in February aswell that might work out better...so we'll see what I decide.

Here is the token dog show photo. I always cringe at how expensive they are, but my prize money covered the photo perfectly so it wasn't to bad. I got a photo done with both dogs because the judge really liked Boone and thought he deserved to be in the photo too... :o)