Lance's Open Obedience Debut!
Saturday- Rally Excellent:
I entered Lance in rally today and was happy to find out that it would occur before we went into open. This meant Lance would have a positive experience in the ring and with getting super yummy treats before going into the formal obedience stuff. I was very very happy with Lance's performance in Rally Excellent. Lance qualified with a 99 and took 1st! He lost a point in the halt-call front-finish right exercise when Lance didn't come all the way to front on my first cue, but straightened his butt out when asked again.
Saturday- Open A Obedience:
Heel off leash/fig 8- 1.5pts for some wide turns and then a forge on the first turn of the fig 8
Drop on recall- 3pts for no front
Retrieve on flat- NQ for needing a double command
Retrieve over High- 1pt for nicking the jump and a crooked sit
Broad Jump- .5pt for ticking the jump
Sit stay- good
Down stay- NQ for standing up right as I went out of sight, he then layed back down after a bit.
I am estatic! Lance's heelwork was amazing. Super attentive corgi! I must say that I was glad that the slow time was done at the moment it occurred since Lance just took his eyes off of me when the judge said slow and my change of pace regathered the little corgi's attention. Lance really did great and except for the first turn in the figure 8 where Lance was totally not ready, he pulled himself back together and really had some nice heelwork.
The no front on the drop on recall is new. It happened for the first time in the ring time on Friday night and repeated itself today. Let's hope Lance doesn't start a trend. Really I'm shocked since I very rarely ask Lance to finish after a front and almost never have him do the around finish to do it.
I'll take some blame for the retrieve on the flat. Lance was looking at the judge when I sent him and clearly had no clue what I wanted without a second command. On the return he stopped several feet away from me and I gave a second command for him to come to front. I think he was very unsure of himself and didn't know if I actually wanted the dumbbell or not! Not too worried about this happening again.
Retrieve over the high was amazing. I threw the dumbbell pretty far and Lance ended up going around a pole on his way back. It's hard to tell from the angle of the video, but really it was shocking that Lance actually took the jump on the way back. The crowd gasped as Lance took the jump. The judge even commented that she wished she could give us bonus points for how Lance pulled through on this exercise! Way to save my butt Lance!!!
I was also really happy with Lance's broad jump. I haven't done a ton of practice with this exercise and I'm still at the point where I throw a treat for Lance to target 99% of the time in practice so he won't cut the corner. Lance wasn't exactly perfect with this, but he didn't walk over the boards like I was afraid might happen!
His sit stay was fabulous. The Down stay Lance stood up right as I went out of sight but then laid back down after a little bit. I couldn't even tell that he had gotten up when I came back in. I think this was my fault since I looked at Lance right before I went out of sight. I should have just kept going since my eye contact could have easily confused Lance into thinking I wanted him to come. Stupid handler!
So we didn't qualify but I am more than happy with how Lance did today. In make believe world, Lance would have gotten a 193 if he had done the down stay and didn't need a second cue on the retrieve. And if I really dream, this would have been a 196 if Lance had actually fronted on the drop on recall :P
Heel Free/ fig 8- 4pts off for forging
Drop on Recall- 2pts for standing as I left him and crooked front and finish
Retrieve on Flat- 1pt for crooked front and finish
Retrieve over High- .5pt for crooked front
Broad Jump- .5 for crooked front
Long Sit- NQ for downing at 2mn 45sec
Long Down- NQ for standing at 16sec and then went back into a down
I was very happy with Lance's performance again today. Actually I was kind've astounded that Lance lost 4pts in the heeling since I knew he was forging in the beginning but thought he did a really good job. Oh well! And actually I am much more happy that Lance was forging instead of lagging like he used to do. This means I have a happy, confident dog!
His drop on recall was pretty good too. I have no idea why he stood but at least he didn't skip the front this time! I was much happier about his retrieve over the flat although I gave quite the pause between throwing and actually sending him since I wasn't sure Lance was focused. He still came in a bit slow with the dumbbell but looked more confident then yesterday and came to front without stopping today.
For the Retrieve over the high jump I actually lowered his jump height to 8in today. He still qualifies to jump 8 and I thought he might be more confident than yesterday when Lance jumped 10. So his broad jump was also adjusted to 16in (instead of 20). The little stinker looked at the crowd right as I was setting up, but I thought his performance was nice.
Stays sucked. I can't believe that Lance laid down on the sit stay. He has such awesome stays that I really wasn't worried at all about them. And then he goes and also pulls standing up as I leave him on the down again! I'm not entirely sure how I can work out this issue since he never gets up on stays in class. Even when we're working on distractions Lance still doesn't break. I think it's just the overall atmosphere of the show where his nerves are high that is causing Lance to fail the stay. Maybe if I can get some more run throughs in it'll help him out.
So our first weekend of Open Obedience was a failure on paper but I think it was a huge success! I met my goal of having an attentive dog in the ring. I know I need to work on some things even though it may be hard to get Lance to replicate his failures in class. I think I entered one day of a trial in a few weeks and then after that I will take a break and try to iron out some things.
Wow!! I don't think I could do competitive obedience! Too complicated! I never knew how picky the judges were because I've never seen the point deductions like that. Jackal and I would totally fail lol! He likes learning new things, but doesn't like performing what he already knows. He would get so bored and distracted in obedience. I think Lance did wonderful!!!!
Great showing! I had to hold my breath on the retrieve over the jump. I thought for sure the little guy was going to go wide, but he made it!
Slobbers,
mango
LOL about the ferrets. Have you tried things like granola, sunflower seeds or raisins (if they aren't poisonous? My goats are picky too, but they love sunflower seeds. Good luck finding something. :)
What is his height that he qualifies to jump 8? He's under 9"? Most corgis jump either 10 or 12, 8 is surprising!
WOW!! I am very impressed Laura. You have done an amazing job with Lance. Congrats!
huh you're right. my old akc rule book (2006) says that dogs under 12.5in can jump 8, but now I just checked online and it says Lance has to jump 12in since he's 11.5in tall! the judge apparently didn't care. actually i have no idea why cardigan corgis have a 3/4 rule but not pembrokes...
The judge's job isn't to make sure you're in the right class, it's to judge. If you had Q'd and it had been caught at the AKC, you would have gotten a letter saying return any awards to the club and your leg would be revoked. I once entered the wrong class (Novice rally after we had gotten an advanced leg) and realized it just in time to save myself the embarassment of having to arrange for return of any awards!
Pembrokes pride themselves on their healthy dogs and I think a lot of people would find the 3/4 rule a diss to that reputation.
Sully is just at 11" so we jump 8 in rally and 10 in obedience. I wish we could jump 8 in obedience, no more ticks!
well thanks for alerting me that the rule book has changed for the jump heights. but i wasn't in the wrong class, just the wrong jump height. it is the judge's job to check and make sure the dogs are jumping at least their minimum required height (it's in the current rulebook). If he did Q he wouldn't have been revoked since nowhere in AKC obedience are jump heights recorded and rarely are dogs ever measured. even if they get questioned at a show, their official height doesn't get recorded at AKC so no one will know in the future. I will jump Lance legally from now on, I just didn't know that jump heights had changed since my 2006 rule book.
Amusingly, the judge in Lance's rally excellent accidently set our jumps at 4in even though we were recorded at 8. he never noticed and I didn't even notice until Lance was actually going over the very small jump. we placed 1st and this won't count against us since AKC won't even know he didn't jump 8 and it wasn't our fault anyway.
I'm not really upset that Pembrokes don't get to jump 3/4 but I still don't understand your comment. Both corgis are a very healthy breed and should be able to jump 10 or 12 but I don't see a reason for it. It simply has to do with structure and while pembrokes are very active dogs that can do great in agility, I don't see the reason for stressing their joints more then they need to, for any breed really. Cardigans are no less healthy and while they could easily jump 10 or 12 too, they don't need to. Bernese mountain dogs are exempted and while they are big, I see less of a reason for them to be exempted then pembrokes. I just don't understand how AKC picked the breeds to be under 3/4. And I don't understand how anyone could possibly be insulted that their breed is listed as being exempted even if they are physically capable of doing it. It doesn't mean less training is needed for the exercise, it just means less stress on our dogs body.
Hey Laura!
Congrats on the great runs! Sounds like things are going well for you. We're still taking a break from obedience and, as much as I like OB, I am having tons of fun right now with tricks, disc, and random shaping work. Hoping to get back to obedience this winter though. Jun has pretty much forgotten all of hers! Hope you and the pups are well, and maybe we will see you sometime soon!