Comeupence

So….my nonchalant attitude about training has caught up with me, it is not that I do not enjoy training, I just have more plans then time….and I can get away with it , most of the time, because I have done the foundation work with my dogs and they are great dogs.  This last weekend I entered Kira in UKC Obedience and Rally trials and Allie into the Rally obedience only.   These were two trials of obedience and two trials of Rally on both Saturday and Sunday, so it is a lot, and even more so considering the hot-humid conditions.

Rally is good way to introduce yourself and your dog to competing.  It is much easier and less disciplined then traditional obedience. Rally works like this, a course is set up with signs telling you what to do.  You go through the course and are judged on how well you and your dog perform the obedience obstacles and you are also timed.  Some people actually study the Rally signs so they fully understand them.  Not me, I will figure it out when I get there.  I do not recommend this, I just saying this is what I do. The signs are all different some are quite simple and others are more complex.

Allie and Kira did great in Rally qualifying in every run.  I was the major point looser for both dogs.  I had  problems with the 360 turn to the left.  I went right with both Kira and Allie, it was like I just could not stop myself from going right instead of left.  I did not NQ  because I caught my mistake and re-did the station correctly before doing the next station, but, of course this  cost us a lot of points.   I have done a ton of foundation work with Allie but we haven’t done any training in at least 6 months.  She is such a fun dog, such great attitude…. love my Allie-girl.  Both Allie and Kira earned their UKC RO-1 titles this weekend.

The UKC CD is basically the same as the AKC CD, with some minor differences.  One dog has to do an “honor down” while another dog works. The recall is not done on the flat but over a high jump.  I did actually practice this with Kira…once. I put her in a sit-stay set up a jump and called her, she came right to me jumping over the jump. No problem. Why over train something that doesn’t need fixing? Kira breezed through her AKC CD title with three consecutive qualifying legs and three first place finishes, so why should I expect less this weekend?

So the first Obedience trial, Kira was smokin’ it, we were headed for another high placement.  We come to the recall over the high jump, she runs straight at and without missing a beat runs around the jump instead of jumping it, automatic non-qualification.  OK so the jump looked different then any other jump she had seen, and gave my regular recall command “heir.”  Next trial instead of “heir” I will say “hupp” which is her command for jumping. So that is what we did and the next trial she did the recall over the jump perfectly.  I had to control myself and not do a little dance right there on the spot. Last exercise was the group sit-stay.  One minute sit stay with 12 other dogs. Kira was second from the end next to a Bullmastiff twice her size. One minute seems forever, so I count it down in my head.  I count 60 seconds, nothing, I count again another 60 seconds, I look at the judge and she is acting like we are not even close to a minute. I look over at the Bullmastiff, she decides to lie down.  Kira stays sitting, I am just about finishing up my 3rd counting to 60 when Kira goes ho-hum and lies down also.  Another automatic NQ.  SIGH Now the judge tells us to go back to our dogs.  I picked up my judging sheets,  Kira would have been first place in both trials if it were not for those silly NQs.   I have no one no to blame but myself.   I sitll brought home the two best dogs there.  🙂

Moral of the story, you need to train and you need to “proof” your training.

Now to brag about an incredible trainer and friend, Raissa Hinman, at these same trials, she earned the UKC UD title on her Malamute “Bootstrap.”   The only UKC-UD titled Malamutes ever are Raissa’s, Bootstrap, his granddam, and his sister.  Amazing!