3 out of 2 Sits!

Herding group only trial this weekend!

Utility Sat
Mostly a very nice run!  Gloves were first and Lance actually had a very nice pivot and didn't auto mark!  Good articles.  Go outs were our point sucker.  A bit crooked and starting to turn before I called it.  Also barked on both times on my cue to take the jump.  Signals were a bit forgey on the heeling, and he looked like he was about to anticipate the down.  I saw his little butt twitching right as the judge allowed me to give my signal.  Moving stand he took 2 steps to greet the judge early and another during the exam.
We did qualify and actually managed to squeak in a second place for 2 more OTCH points :)

Open Sat
Beautiful run.  Continued doing a great job on his fronts and finishes.  Heeling was great except for two little moments he couldn't contain himself and started forging.

QQ10 was on the line and I held my breath as Lance held his sit!!!!  And then I about died to hear we didn't qualify on the down stay.  Apparently about 15 or so seconds in he stood up and bit his butt, and then lied back down.  Aghh!!!!!  Blew a 198, the title, and possible run off for first place.

Utility Sun
Glovers were first again but it was #1 and for some reason I never pivot far enough to that one and Lance doesn't try very hard to pivot right.  But he got it and was super cute like usual.  Signals were next and Lance did some pretty good heeling.  Just one wide about turn so we're finally on the right track to fixing that!  And a forge of course.  Directed jumping was entertaining.  Lance started turning even shorter than Saturday's go outs, looked at me, and then switftly turned the opposite direction like he was going to go to his go out spot but then took the far jump instead.  Another thing to cross of the list of things he's never done before!  2nd attempt I tell him he's going to go touch the gate this time and Lance takes off before I even stand up to say ready.  Call him back and when sent for real this time, the corgi actually does go all the way to the gate.  But I want him to touch it so use some training in the ring to tell him touch and good boy.
Moving stand was much better, no walking.  And articles were beautiful.
NQ and likely another blown good score.

Open Sun
Lance really is loving open these days.  Another beautiful performance.  Sneezing on the figure 8 and still kept in position!  Actually maybe it prevented some forges :)  Finishes continue to be doing well but a few crooked fronts.
http://youtu.be/_xy84imAzv8

I debated about pulling him from the stays but then decided to do them after all.  He looked pretty confident yesterday and of course I was hoping for a high score.  I came back from the sit and was ecstatic to see him sitting nicely, even with both dogs next to him lying down.  He went into the down very easy (lately he's been slow about doing so in trials) and I confidently left him.  And then returned to my good corgi holding a sit.  Sorry Lance, there's no banking sits for future stays!  Apparently he had another butt biting episode and then sat afterwards.  Not sure if something is going on back there or it's just stress. At least having 2 issues on the down stay is better than 2 issues on the sit!  Score would have been a 197.

He's making me so proud as he's consistently doing amazing in open.  The last 5 times in open, all his scores on the individual exercises have been a 197 to 199.  That is insane improvement.  Of course only 2 of those scores were qualifying due to a blown sit, and 2 blown downs...

Utility is also getting there.  Of the last 5 times his scores all would have been in the low 90's and he qualified in 3 of 5.  Directed jumping is becoming our biggest point sucker.  But I am currently working on that by trying to re-require him to actually physically touch the STANCHION.  I have never taught him to target the actual stanchion as we don't have those gating at the club.  But we recently ordered 1 side of those type of gates so I'm doing some quick training.

Actually a friend video taped his stays for me on Sunday.  He looked so much better than the last times I've seen him.  A bit of stressed when I first left but other than that nothing.  Ears up, no stress yawns, very little occasional sniffing, no constant readjusting of his feet.  On the down stay his head was down for that first minute, until he suddenly sat up and attacked his butt at about a minute.  But then a confident sit stay.  Hope?  But oddly enough he's actually doing worse in practice.  Used to be he would never ever go down in practice. Now he's doing it all the time.  Only in a line up though, never any other time or any other place.