Lance Graduate Open
>>
Saturday, April 30, 2011
–
AKC Obedience
,
lance
,
obedience
,
trial
,
video
Lance showed one day this weekend in grad open.
Signals- 2pts
More forging then at the last few trials. I thought I was going to have to bump him on that first left turn but he read my shoulders and got out of my way. There were some nice moments of heeling, especially trying hard on the slow time. Signals were good, I didn't use any verbals but didn't go full distance. Lost points for forging and the front and finish.
Scent Article- NQ
When I was trying to show Lance the pile being sent out Lance thought I was sending him so happily took off. When we actually started the exercise Lance went out confidently, searched quickly and then happily brought back the wrong one. At least this is the most certain Lance has been about the exercise during a trial! Oh and then he auto finished on the judge's cue, naughty corgi.
Glove- .5pt
Once again Lance wasn't certain where I was directing him to go. But he did find it and brought it back by a finger. He didn't even look at the jumps this time :) Lost .5pt on the finish.
Moving Stand- 1pt
Naughty corgi moved a few steps after I left him. Also moved another step on the exam.
Go Out- 0pts
While setting up it looked like Lance was eyeing either the glove spot or the jump so I interuppted his gaze and tried to have him mark again. But then Lance seemed upset that I corrected him and just looked at me so I wasn't sure where he was going to go. He surprised me by going straight out and touching the gate. Go corgi, 1st time not going to the glove spot! No clue why the judge didn't take off points for his touch.
Directed Jump- .5pt
1/2pt for bad finish
Overall
Well we still need one more leg for his grad open title but I was so happy with his performance today! Lance seemed much more confident in everything. He was a bit more distracted in between exercises, I think he wanted to leave the ring for his treats, but at least he came back immediately each time I called.
Vito wasn't entered due to finances plus I'm still not sure if he's back to himself. The positive side is that I'm not sure how much his attitude today is due to being a green dog in a new environment or the meds. No longer a zombie at least!
Wow, great run! Love how he was so up and on all the way through, and so confident. I can't imagine all the little pieces that need to be in place before putting a routine like this together. Great job!
Looking good! I like how he seems to casually observe the crowd (even if he's really thinking about where the treats are). He looked really confident during that run.
I love it! The Graduate classes look like so much fun. He was so happy leaving early on the scent discrimination. Sorry he brought back the wrong article, but he looks happy which is awesome.
I really appreciate your comment on my MA trip! The woman wasn't as mean to me as she was to Ann. I'm not sure if it's because she's known her for 13 years so they're more comfortable together or she knows that I'm just starting or what. But honestly if she DID speak to me the way she spoke to Ann, I'd have said something. I don't need someone to sugarcoat things, but there are proper ways and improper ways to give criticism. For me, so far, I feel it was proper. We'll see if it continues. One of the instructors we used to go to agility for falls into the "I don't know how to give constructive criticism" category and we left her. Now she isn't even at our training club anymore; apparently other people have had the same issues. She never really watched the students do agility, she was too busy chatting with her friends, the other students. One time I ran a sequence and it felt wrong, and I knew it was handling errors. We finished and she said, "That looked alright" but I said, "It just felt like I did something wrong, can you tell me what was the mistake?" And her answer, not even kidding, was, "You're trying to do agility with a Malamute, that's the problem." ....and that was the end of that!
As far as not teaching what I want, I also agree with you. I'm glad she didn't waste a whole hour on telling me how to take Layla out of the crate, because I would've been pissed. Her point is that foundation pieces are missing - Layla doesn't come out of the crate ready to work with me and be a partner; she comes out of the crate ready to wander around on her own without caring about me. I appreciate her pointing out that the issue is usually a foundation mistake, but I don't want to spend an hour (and $75) going over a foundation thing. Just tell me how to fix it and we'll work on it at home.
Same thing with the Stay With Me. I'm still going to take Layla on walks where she can go at her own pace and sniff. I didn't really explain the Stay with Me stuff better, but I'm going to in a future post. When the dogs are on a "with me", they walk with me at my pace paying attention to where I'm going and what I'm doing. Not heeling, just conscious of me. When they're "free", then they're free to do whatever they want. The issue is that Layla is constantly on a "free" and never thinks that she ever has to stay with me, whether at an obedience trial, at a class, on a walk, wherever. I don't think we'll need to do this "with me" stuff forever, but I think the point was to show her that sometimes she does need to stay with me. I'm still confused over some of the stuff, to tell you the truth.
I do like the woman - for now. Like I said, I might change my mind depending on how she is at our next lessons. We're going up again on May 16th and again in July.
Also, I DO have video of Layla's trial, but I haven't uploaded it yet! I have to find the USB cable and throw it up there. The heeling was bad, really bad. I knew it would be, we'd barely worked on it. But it wasn't as bad as the first trial and we're both improving. I'll be doing even better when I can walk like a human again and not Frankenstein.
Sorry to ramble in your comments - I have a bad habit of doing that! Lance looks awesome. I love how seamlessly he transitions from fast/normal and slow/normal. It looks great :)
Awesome! Would love to have that attitude in the ring. He is so cute :)