Saturday's Attempt at Open A

Today I headed to Saint Paul for another attempt at Open A. I hate this place since the rings are always so distracting for the dogs, but it is where Lance got his first Q in Open.

Heel free/figure 8 - 1.5pts lost:
Right off the bat Lance forged and almost came across my body like he was going to trip me! But he quickly fixed himself and after that first left turn he was actually heeling in decent postiton. Instead of forging by almost a body length as he tends to do in the ring, Lance did really well! Of course he still went wide on the about turn, but since he wasn't crazy forged going into it we didn't get a lag coming out of it! Lance was attentive almost the entire heel pattern too! I thought our figure 8 was really nice as well.

Drop on Recall- 0 pts lost:
Right as I called out the down Lance turned his head to the adjacent ring to look at the other dog standing right there. I had a slight panic, but Lance still managed to go down and did so in a decent amount of time.

Retrieve on Flat- 0 pts lost
I love how his little bunny butt almost hops towards the dumbbell. He did a really great front with it and a good finish too!

Retrieve Over High- .5pt lost
My throw bounced way over to the left, practically landed right next to the broad jump so the judge very nicely had me rethrow. I realized that I actually hadn't practiced releasing Lance and setting him back up but he happily did a rollover and seemed to have no problem with it. Once I threw properly Lance did it great but lost 1/2pt on the finish.

Broad Jump- .5pt lost
Once again Lance fronted way to the right of me but I gave him a left finish this time instead of the usual around finish. I also only had to do a tiny backyuppy move to get Lance to the broad jump. Lance gets distracted when I hand my dumbbell off the the steward so I usually walk backwards to the broad jump to get his attention on me. But today he only quickly glanced away so I almost felt like I did a threadle move!

Sit- NQ
Lance downed at 30 seconds. Basically as soon as the group was out of sight he went down. Lots of tongue flicks.

Down- opts lost
He held the long down and I am told that he even rested his chin to the floor a couple times. Still looked stress when I returned.

Overall
I'm really happy with the corgi. We got a fake 197.5 which is our best fake, and real, score yet. His fronts and finishes aren't loosing as many points and this was the best we have ever done in our heeling. I'm really liking my hands at my side for our heeling for getting some less forging. Really good boy today! If we could just hold our stays. Oh, and I didn't give any verbal cues for his tricks this time just in case the judge wouldn't like them like last time.