Zumi AKC Open!
Well we did it! Zumi and I entered our first AKC trial in a year, our first time in Open, and my first time with the new rules last weekend. 2 attempts on Saturday, 1 on Sunday.
My goals for her this last weekend were
1. Confidence. Zumi is my sensitive girl and while she's even half of what Vito is in terms of anxiety, she is sensitive. The AKC atmosphere isn't easy for her. So I was hoping for heeling that was energetic and the ability to not worry about the judge.
2. Duration :) aka not anticipating anything. The retrieves were my biggest worry of course.
I had officially given up on not getting squeals on her sends in a trial environment. Practice is actually going very well, but it's also still very easy for me to replicate a squeal if I wanted to! 1.5yrs of working on the squeal and we haven't yet made it. So I said it is what it is, we will keep practicing on not squealing, and we will start showing too. I was hoping for eye contact before I sent her, and no actual anticipation.
And I'm happy to say that both goals were met!!! Zumi had perfect ring entrances with energy and focus on me during the leash removal, transitions, and I didn't catch any worries at all with the judge!
Heeling/8- Her heeling wasn't super drivey, but she was right with me on all 3 heel patterns. We had a minor issue on the figure 8 in the first trial with a small lag the first quarter, and a bigger issue on the 3rd trial with it.
I was also an idiot during that trial and went left with her on the figure 8 when I should have gone right. I always go right. Right for drivey dogs, because why not!, and right with more laggy dogs because I want them to practice getting up and going. I might get a lag right away, but I tend to get better recovery. Going left I think stressed her a little and then we just didn't get our get up and go on so she crossed to my right after the first loop.
Cue discrimination- All very solid in terms of position changes!!! I even did one trial with signals only! We did discover a minor issue of walking on the stand stay after I left. Well minor on trial 1, major on trial 2- basically no stay at all, and back to minor on trial 3.
Drop on recall- All beautiful. Well on the 2 she stayed. Because clearly related to the other exercise, Zumi didn't want to stay while I walked away.
Retrieve on flat- All eye contact before the send! Some without dancey feet! And 1 of them had no squeal (trial 2)!!!!
Retrieve over high- All with eye contact! Trial 3 had no squeal! We had some punching on the fronts though :)
Broad: No problem cutting the board and I generally stood in the middle.
Sit stay: No issues.
Down stay: did not want to lie down on the first cue. all 3 trials needed a 2nd cue. I even gave an exaggerated down signal on the 3rd trial and nothing. No problem with me leaving and getting my leash though.
So 2 NQ's and 1 should have been NQ but ended up a Q. The last trial I screwed up and blurted out "down" as I gave a hand signal to lie down. Well actually it was my hand that blurted up as I planned on the verbal. I immediately recognized my mistake. When I talked to the judge after the show I thought I was discussing that error and she told me it was considered a substantial deduction, but not an NQ. But I realized when I got home that I think we were discussing different things. I'm pretty sure she thought I was asking about the repeated cue to lie down on the stay-get your leash exercise, not the accidental double cue on the drop on recall! Oh well.
Trial 2, I thought this was her best one!
