Back from dog trial

[Vankarhi]

Well we got back home at 04.16 this morning. The trial finished at about 01.15 in the morning then they had to add the results then the presentations etc etc. We left Bundaberg at about 02.15 in the morning. I am so tired. Anyway, Mysta and myself came 2nd in both trials in the Novice section and actually qualified with a score of 185 in the second trial, under a judge who everybody says is hard task master. Actually he told me about 2 years ago that my dog was not up to standard and needed a lot more work, then showed no interest when he realised he was not a papered/registered dog. I was not trialling him then, just wanted a practice go during training and did not realise this guy was an actual real judge. So I was pleased to put my dog under him and get a good score. We were sitting on a qualifying score of 181 points during the 1st trial, but Mysta decided to stand during the drop stay. Oh well just one of those things. i am happy though.

[willowbirdy218]

Congratulations!! Hope you and Mysta had a great time!!

[Vankarhi]

Agility and obedience are slightly different things. But I also do agility with the dogs just for fun as our club does not have enough equipment to actually hold agility competitions. i would like to put them in comps for agility but would probably have to go to Rockhampton (1 hour drive) or Maryborough (3 hour drive) to train them properly. But i am still thinking about it. Obedience has 3 basic levels (there are other things you can do with the dogs though) which is Novice, Open and Utility. In Novice which is what my dogs are doing at the moment, although Mysta only needs one more qualifying score and he then goes into Open, they do the basic commands like sit, drop, stand, stay, stand for examination, and a recall. They must do it at 3 different speeds (slow, normal and fast) on and off the lead, the stays they must not move even when distractions like a stray dog comes into the ring, which happened on Saturday night. Open they have to retrieve a dumb bell and bring it back to you, they also have to retrieve the dumb bell over a jump and have to jump over another long jump on command as well as basic training all done off lead, and a recall with a drop on command halfway through the recall. In Utility, the dogs must do jumps on command in the direction chosen (over the jump the judge designates), must do scent discrimination, and food refusal/glove retrieval, as well as normal obedience off lead and no voice commands, just hand signals and leg signals. It is interesting and you realise how easy it is for a dog to miss a command or get distracted, or even for the owner to get distracted (usually through nerves) and then lose a lot of points. I enjoy it. it is not that easy either, you must put some time into the dogs.