The Corgi has OTCH points!

Lance and I just had one of the best weekends ever!  We participated in our first AKC obedience trial since October and broke our sad streak with a bang.

Sat
In Utility Lance qualified for the first time in AKC since exactly 1yr ago and 8 other attempts.  His heeling continues to be a billion times better in the forging department but fronts and finishes continue to ruin us in trials.  I used our new tiny gloves for the first time but forgot to give Lance a firm "drop it" versus the normal "yes" cue I always do in practice and Lance happily tugged back on the glove when I grabbed it.

We watched the rest of the class as dog after dog NQed on something.  By the end we were the sole survivor and I was shocked to receive a first place and OTCH points!

Unfortunately, Lance didn't see the need to get what would be our only high combined award ever, and blew the drop on recall in Open.  Sigh.  But the great news is that Lance held his out of sight sit!  He still wouldn't make eye contact with me when we walked into the ring with the other dogs, but he did it!

Sun
In a nerve wrecking performance, Lance managed to qualify in Utility again!  After the signals I wasn't sure if we were qualifying as Lance seemed to almost anticipate the down signal.  I analyzed my video frame by frame and he doesn't start moving until after my hand starts, but he was certainly down before my hand returned to my side!  Articles were terrifying.  Lance grabbed the correct one right away, but then seemed to notice the judge and dropped it.  He picked up the correct one, turned toward me, and dropped it TWO more times, every time after the nice judge took one step forward towards us, thinking of course that the corgi was coming front.  Finally he pulled it together and actually brought me the damn thing. The rest of the exercises went well and Lance happily ran and grunted as he worked.

Again, we watched the rest of the class drop like flies, but one other dog did qualify with a really nice run.  2nd place earned us a few more tiny OTCH points!

In Open, Lance had a really nice run.  Fronts were horrible, but otherwise he was spot on.  Stays were held once again!!!  Lance actually managed to get 2nd in the nice class.  This earned us our second leg towards the UDX, finally!!!

Getting an OTCH is a dream of mine and the few points earned this weekend were thrilling.  I don't think that Lance has the precision to actually finish the title, but he always has so much fun showing.  We'll just keep plugging away towards the UDX and OM titles.