High in Trial Corgi!

If nothing else, read the end and celebrate with me!

Very big AKC obedience trial this weekend.

Saturday Utility
Oh my.  Lance was very excited to be in the ring.  A little too squirrley.  Gloves were first and a loss of 5 points kinda shows you where the class was headed.  He made a slight bobble of the glove on pick up and then spit the glove at my feet, culminating with not sitting.  Articles were pretty good, but on the 2nd send Lance hesitated and almost didn't go to the pile until he saw me looking at it.
Go outs were very exciting.  Lance locked onto the glove #3 location and went there both times, (although we had glove #1 earlier).  Barking on both jumps.  Signals were also costly.  It's been a very long time since I've heeled with Lance's butt instead of his front end.  He punched me on the recall as well.  The moving stand was borderline NQable.  Lance was a good body length ahead of me on the heeling, continuing his fine work from signals, and while he usually still has a great freeze on the stay, Lance chose not to show that part off today.  Walked very far but I kept walking too.
The judge did qualify us!  Not a pretty score.

Saturday Open
Much better.  The Corgi was happy but in more of a thinking mode.  No real issues although his fronts were off.  Lost only 1 point on the heeling due to a slightly wide about turn (can't seem to fix that!) and the 2nd halt.
Held his sit stay!  And I didn't notice any sniffing this time as I walked away.  Was almost crushed by the nice golden next to him on the long down.  Alternate handler was needed as her momma needed to handle the sibling in the same group.  Apparently the golden felt the need to sass and was not going to move to where she should've been set up.  They were very close but Lance didn't seem to be any more stressed.

UDX leg #8!

Sunday Utility
Much better than Saturday but still pretty squirrley.  The moving stand was first and I'm pleased to report that Lance heeled nicely and stuck the stay just fine.  Go outs were second and Lance managed to lose even more points than the day before.  First go out he went crooked like the day before, but not quite as bad as he arched a bit more to teh center.  No sit.  Picturing yesterday's disaster I gave a 2nd verbal cue to remind him of his job.  He barked on the jump.  Second go out he sits, but gives a sassy bark back in response.  Gives another bark on taking the jump.  Sigh.
Heeling was greatly improved!  It's nice to heel with your dog instead of after him.  But sadly, Lance stared at me blankly when I gave the stand signal and sat instead.  The remaining signals, glove exercise, and articles all went very well.  NQ for us.

Sunday Open
Lance was ON!  Heeling was gorgeous.  Fronts and finishes, almost perfect!  Lance did almost give me a heart attack as he did a small jolt when the judge said to call him and I feared was anticipating.  But he was a good boy and waited for my cue.  Drop on recall he gave a loud grumble as he did the down signal.

I knew he did very well for us and was hoping maybe we could get a 197ish score.  Lance was the first dog in the ring and dogs after him were making silly mistakes.  There were 4 groups of stays and after the first half of the class was finished there were only 3 qualifiers including the corgi!  My hopes started to dash as the second half of dogs broke free of the curse and did very, very well.  I almost went home several times.  But finally the large class was over, a run off was done, and we went back in the ring.  As he announced 3rd and 4th place as a 198 my heart sunk.  Second was a 198.5.  And then suddenly my number was being called and Lance won the class with a 199!!!!  Pretty sure nothing was processing after that and I may have been in a long daze.  199.  High in trial CORGI!