First Obedience Trial

I finally got around to uploading video from Penny's first Obedience trial which was last Saturday at the Louisville cluster, so I figured I should make a blog post about it!  We were going to the show regardless to see a breeder's dogs, watch some conformation, and enjoy the shopping so I figured why not enter something while were down there all day anyway?  They were not accepting mixed breed entries in the Agility trial, so I figured we could try Obedience for fun and to see what would happen.  We have not taken any Obedience classes yet but Penny has her Rally Novice title, and we have worked on heeling, stays, and recall at home: so we have pretty much everything needed to try Beginner Novice and I was curious to see how it would all come together in a trial setting.  Here's video from our run (Heel on Leash, Figure Eight, Sit For Exam, and Sit Stay on the first video; Recall on the second):

I just want to briefly run through each exercise and write down my thoughts :)

• Heel on Leash.  I was a bit disappointed because Penny was heeling SO nicely while we were warming up.  Staying close to my side and really focused on me.  She was still focused on me when we got to the start line but as soon as the judge said "Forward" I pretty much lost her.  I guess it wasn't too terrible but definitely not something I'm proud of.  Had a tight leash a lot of the time, had to call her back into heel position once, had a very sloppy left turn, etc etc.  I think it's clear that we need to practice heeling in different settings and around more distractions!  You would think that with having her RN, this part would be very easy but Penny never really did get super excited about Rally lol, and it has also been quite a few months since we did any Rally.
  

• Figure Eight.  Pretty much the same as the Heeling.  Distracted, needed lots of verbal encouragement (which is not good for Obed), tight leash, sniffed one of the ring stewards, not really paying attention to me even to the point of getting in my way and nearly getting stepped on (note in the video when she does her little hop and I have to call her back into Heel position).  Not as distracted by the girls as I thought she might be, since she does tend to get more excited about kids than adults, so that's good.
  

• Sit For Exam.  As soon as I stepped back I had a feeling she was going to get up.  For a split second I considered giving her a second "Stay" command, which would have just been a deduction, but I didn't act quickly enough and she stood up as the judge got to her.  After I told her to sit again, though, she did very well with the "exam"!  I'm also proud of her for not jumping on or mauling the judge, I don't think she even thought about it so that is good :)
  

• Sit Stay.  We practice this at home a lot but I think the extra stress of the trial environment is what made her break her stay.  She got up as soon as I started to get behind her, when she can't see me and starts to get a little insecure.  We'll have to work on this in bigger places and places that have more things going on... perhaps at Agility class and/or at the dog park.  I'm really glad she came to me, though, when she got up instead of bolting out of the ring like she has done in Agility!
  

• Recall.  This is probably Penny's favorite exercise so of course it was great :)  The judge gave us a very nice compliment about it which was really nice to hear.  We got one thing right at least, yay!
  

Overall I am very happy with the experience: we got through it without any major hiccups, it was a lot of fun (pretty sure I have a smile on my face the entire time), and I do think that Penny also enjoyed it.  It was good ring experience for both of us and I think that this is a venue that Penny has the ability to do well in with more practice!

Rear Cross Work

Rear crosses are something that both Penny and I have needed to work on for awhile now and with our recent first two trials it has become especially apparent that we need to practice!  In class on Sunday we tried to RC a few times on course and failed miserably 90% of the time.  Turns out that both of us are at fault: I'm not doing it quite right and Penny just doesn't understand.  Here's a clip from class to demonstrate a failed attempt:

Note that she is also jumping a bit high: 26" in preparation for upcoming USDAA trial (in which it's likely she'll measure into 26"), but I am still quite late with the RC cues.  I should have raised my outside arm MUCH sooner before the tire.

And here is some video of some work we did at home on Monday.  I cut out a lot of incorrect turns but I do think we are getting better:

Noted that my timing is better left to right than right to left, and she seems to turn easier that way.  My outside arm should ideally come up before the jump vs after, and I want to show motion toward her vs straight (angled toward the relevant jump standard).  Will be back again hopefully soon with improvements, have not been able to do much else yet this week as Penny has had an upset tummy since Monday night :(

First Q!!!

Penny and I had a great time at the Greater Lafayette Kennel Club trial this past weekend!  On Saturday we got our first ever Qualifying Score (95) in agility, also First Place and High Score in Novice A Standard!  I am so, so happy that things are starting to piece together.  No other Q's for the weekend, had some knocked bars in JWW and lost focus in our other Standard run but hey, I am happy with one as it is definitely an improvement from our first trial (also didn't run out of the ring at all!  She did however try to make new best friends with a poor unsuspecting ring crew member)   It will just keep getting better <3

Our next trial is probably going to be USDAA at Pawsitive Partners on April 7-8.
Things to work on until then:

• Less flailing of the arms!
• Rear crosses
• Automatic "down" on the pause table
• Weave pole entries/12 weave poles
• Continue reinforcing "wait" by ring gates/doorways
• Must be cued or released before going into crate/getting on mat
• "Whiplash turn"/Recall in general
• Remember: DON'T cross the plane of the first obstacle before the "Go" sounds!  :x