Lance's Return

Lance had his return to AKC obedience today since his injury.  I only entered 1 day and only utility as I don't know how I feel about Lance doing the broad jump yet.  But I felt pretty comfortable with Lance only doing the two 8in jumps utility has.

Lance was excited to be at the trial but my hopes weren't high when I saw that his down signal was "broken" in the warm up ring.  Lance would sit.  Since I know he knows the signals well and thus was a stress issue, I praised him and had him run to me to get a cookie.  Another setup and then another sit.  More praise, more cookies, repeat.  And then Lance was doing downs brilliantly again.  But in the actual ring you only get one chance, not three.

During our run Lance was the most engaged he has ever been!  And that's saying something as Lance really is my focused and good working dog :)  I think I just did a better job of handling him in between exercises, more like I try extremely hard to do with Vito.  But whatever the reason, Lance didn't do any of the super quick glances at the audience or judge he usually does after our little bit of play in the ring in between exercises.

Articles were first with no real issues.  Even a tighter send to the pile than normal.

Gloves had a very poor pivot to #1.  #1 remains his hardest turn at trials, despite the fact that I think it should be the easiest!  He also humored the crowd by grabbing the glove quickly, dropping it (because he stepped on it??) and kinda flinging it against the wall, and then since it happened so quickly he was already moving about 3ft towards me when he stopped and realized there was no glove in his mouth.  Stared at me, and then ran back and looked for the glove crunched against the wall which he happily brought back.

Signals were third and Lance was Mr. Forgey.  Not too horrible, but certainly pushing it!  Very nice focus though and nailed the stand signal that was suddenly giving him problems late last year.  And then he sat on the down signal like I was expecting.  Because I knew this was a possibility I had already told myself I would praise him and just call him into me when it happened.  I'm glad I thought about how to respond as I do think that response is the best for him right now.  May not be right for every dog, but good for the sensitive corgi who just needs to know it's ok to be wrong.

Moving stand was not so great as the corgi took several steps after I told him to stay and another step on the judge's exam.  He hasn't had that issue in a very, very long time!

Directed jumping also had issues.  On the first go out he pulled up short so I re-told him to go touch and Lance did turn around to continue going to the gate.  On the 2nd go out Lance went all the way out but just stood when I told him to sit so I gave a 2nd cue.

So not the greatest performance back in the ring, but overall I loved his focus and attitude!  Very happy with the Corgi!