Obedience Fun Match
We went to a fun match for obedience on Sunday! They are very rare in this area but a club has actually decided to host one a month leading up to their April NOI qualifier.
Lance Utility
Lance must have left his brain at home. He wasn't confident in really any of the exercises. Heeling was fine, about the same as Saturday's trial and signals were great.
Articles were where we fell apart. Lance didn't see the pile on our turn and send but did get to it without my help. Unfortunately he pretty much gave the quickest sniff of the pile ever and started to walk back towards me. I moved in to help him and still just a quick sniff and staring back at me. Repeat. Finally I pick up the right one show him where I put it down and give huge praise for when he brings it back to me. My 2nd send I am only 4ft from the the pile and I use the same leather article as the first. He is still hesitant but picks up the right one and I praise as soon as he has it in his mouth.
Glove was #3 and even out pivot sucked. Normally pivoting left is something he really enjoys but today Lance didn't so much heel with me as wait until I pivoted and then got into position. He did lock onto the right glove and did pick it up ok. There was some hesitation on the send as he questioned whether to take the jump but decided to keep going. On the way back with the glove he again eyed the jump but this time was thinking harder about taking it so I called him to me.
Moving stand was fine except for the major forge during the heeling.
Go outs were crap. I decided to go 2/3 of the length and while Lance did run out confidently he chose to go to where glove #3 was. I called him off and ran with him to the center of the ring and then moved back out to halfway to send him again. Lance still went way off to the right. I do a 5ft go out straight and then just under half way straight. I end with putting him in a sit to do the bar jump.
On the positive side all fronts were lovely and some of the finishes.
Vito Open
I was very happy with this run! Lots of things to work on but I loved the attitude he was giving me. It was Vito's 2nd time doing an open run through.
Vito started off with a bit of a lag but I speed up and call him and he does the rest of the heeling pretty nicely. Except for halts, we still stuck at those. And a bit forgey on the slow. I release him to tug with me and he is very much into it.
Figure 8 was lovely except for being a little too vertical! Vito was pretty amped up and doing some bouncing in heel position. Again our halts suck. More tugging afterwards.
Drop on recall was nice, no taking the jump this time :) I walked in to reward the drop. Front great, did a left finish and he did his odd scootching backwards into position.
Retrieve on flat he has a crappy pick up. Vito always slides the dumbbell a bit with his mouth while trying to grab it. I'm not sure if it's because he's playing with it, if I have the wrong type of dumbbell for him, or if it's just because of his really poor mouth (BAD overbite, 3 missing teeth on bottom)... Crooked front.
Retrieve over high was decent and he actually came to a decent front. Same pick up issues. And while he started the right finish on my hand signal he stopped half way and was going to come back to my right if I hadn't given a verbal.
Broad jump I threw a cookie. Crap front and finish.
On the group stays I had planned to come back and reward Vito for sitting. Unfortunately I dwaddled and he layed down right as I started walking back. I walked into him to have him sit and then stayed in sight for the remaining minute. On the down stay I came back around 2min, treated, left for the remainder.
