Lance UDX leg, tiny OTCH points!

2 day obedience trial with the Corgi!

Saturday
UDX leg #5!  Lance did amazing in open.  With a few fronts and finishes knocking our score down to what is usually out of placements.  But with some bad luck of others, Lance managed to get 2nd for another 2 OTCH points!  Heeling was really nice with a much more enthusiastic fast time than recent trials, and the first about turn was good.

Biggest happiness for me is another held sit stay.  After last saturday's failure he has been seeming to start stressing over it again.  We did lots of little tiny sit stays this past week for huge rewards.  Still not sure what long term plan is to help.

In Utility Lance was very squirrley!  Very nice go outs, but 2 no sits.  I should have given him another cue to sit on the 2nd one but I froze.  Signals went well but his about turns were a bit wore again.  He punched me on the recall and then decided not to do the finish.  Corgi smirk.

Big pro in utility was his continuation of a happy down on the signals and also keeping eye contact with me on the glove pivots.

Sunday
Pretty good run in open.  A little more corginess than the day before as he was bordering on forging on the heeling and added a bonus woof as he did the drop on recall.  Really good finishes for hte most parts but off on most fronts.

Did his sit again!

In utility his brain fell out.  Go outs were first and like the day before Lance didn't sit on the first cue.  This time I was ready with the 2nd verbal right away.  But even on the 2nd go out Lance still didn't sit on the first cue and waited for the 2nd!  On gloves Lance was busy staring at the crowd and stood put as I pivoted to face #1.  With his back turned to me I still managed to send him out and he did actually get the glove!  And then bobbled the pickup, twice, in his enthusiasm.  Heeling was pretty good but Lance was checking out, very briefly, quite a bit.  I barely got the stand cue in as he chose that moment to check out.  But he did stay and remained in a stand as I gave the stay cue and walked away.  Then he must have doubted himself as he was already sitting as I got to the other end and turned around :(  So no UDX leg for us.  Finishes were mostly spot on, and even his fronts were better.


I still can't believe how great he's been doing this year.  Lance is now halfway towards his UDX, has 162 out of 200 points towards his Obedience Master, and actually has 11 OTCH points!

Things on the to do list include:
1.  Working hard on fronts, especially with an object in his mouth.  Lance seems to have gotten worse about the severe angles in practice, so polishing that up should help the straight approaches in trials.
2. Finishes- although I'm really happy with the progress the nose touch has given us.
3. About turns- not sure how to replicate the loss of eye contact and thus the wideness on the abouts.  I've very recently started doing about, immediate side step right in practice to see if that will help.
4. Stays.  No clue how to fix Lance's confidence issue.  So far I'm just continuing doing them often, with food behind him.

Keeping an eye on:
1. The no sitting on the go outs.  Have not replicated this in practice or even the rare match we go to.  This may be his *new* issue, if the ones below are really fixed!
2. Glove pivots, auto marking- Hasn't done this the last 7 days of trials!
3. Downing on the drop on recall and the signals- doing good so far!

Run!