Lance in 2013

The usual video highlights of all the good in the year:

Now Lance's year in review.  Spoiler alert- the corgi is awesome.

Obedience:
Lance started the year with 1 lowly UDX leg from 2012 and was just starting to gain confidence in the B classes.  I had also just begun a get rid of the cookies campaign after attending the Denise Fenzi seminar in December 2012.

Wow, did we have a great year!  Lance picked up his very first OTCH points in January and then slowly accumulated more and more.  A bit of some problems hit us when of course his sit stay problem re occured.  Knock on wood, Lance has now done 13 of the last 14 sits, with 8 in a row.   He rocked the Corgi specialty in October and then decided to almost give me a heart attack as he pulled off a 199 and high in trial at a big show a few weeks ago!  We finished the year with a total of 8 UDX legs, 35 OTCH points, 4 wins, and his OM1 title.

I credit a lot of our success to the huge increase in personal play and decrease in cookie dependence.  The Problem Solving class I took online from Denise Fenzi and Nancy Little also helped a lot in fixing his finishes.

Other accomplishments this year in obedience include his UDX-C and OTCH-C in CDSP (a versatility type title).  And of course he continues to be the happiest obedience dog ever.

Agility:
Lance and I were going to trial more in agility this year, but that didn't happen.  We started the year with 1 Q each in elite regular, jumpers, and chances and my goal was to get as close to the NATCH as possible.

I'm really pleased with how far we progressed in how little trials.  Lance completed the last 2 Q's needed for his Open Versatility title and even got his Elite Versatility title this past weekend. He has 21 out of 23 needed regular Q's, 13 out of 13 jumpers, and 8 out of 13 chances.  We went from not really having the distance skills needed in elite chances, to me being fairly confident at our ability to go for it.  Our qualifying rate in chances is still pretty low, but our distance and teamwork skills are definitely there now!

I didn't continue Lance's jump work program like I wanted to, but it also hasn't been a necessity.  Lance still stutters, especially towards the end of the day, but for the most part is loving jumping 4 inches.

Tricks:
:(  We did almost nothing.  Beginning of the year I started out strong and was working on several new tricks.  Last 2/3rds of the year I did absolutely squat.
1. Shaking head no: I so wanted this trick!  Lance already knew to move his head over his left shoulder so the plan was to teach the other direction and then switch back and forth. We struggled.  I got the right shoulder, mostly, but I certainly didn't get switching back and forth. Instead I got repeated twitches in one direction.  It's awkward.

2. Walking in slippers: Kinda done. I got stand in shoes, if it's the right type.  Otherwise I got squish the opening and frustratedly stomp.

3. Penguin-forwards: In the past I got beg and hop backwards.  I wanted forwards.  I mainly got barking.  But sometimes I get a few hops.  Corgi says this was hard.

4. Paw alternations, quickly: Check!!!  Totally nailed this one.  He does cute hops back and forth.  And gets mad and barks if I make him do it to much.

Goals for 2014:
1. Get the UDX!!!! Only 2 more double Q's needed!
2. Increase our average score in open and utility. Hoping for consistent greatness rather than moments of brilliance mixed with moments of *ahem* much crowd appeal.  His current ave from the last 8 Q's in open is a 196.  From the same time period in utility (september) he got 5 q's and an average of 190.5
3. Keep working on fronts and finishes, straight go outs, good glove pivots with no auto-marking from Lance, and decreasing his barking during obedience.
4. Get his NATCH in agility!
5. Give UKI a try as there will be a massive increase from 1 local trial to 4.  And he can jump 4 inches!