We have some show news! Cody and I were entered in both rally novice and beginner novice obedience in Austin, TX on the 26th-28th of October. This was an AKC show and extremely long days, running 8-9 hours with around 7 hours between the two classes. If we were showing in San Antonio, we could have just gone home for a few hours. If we were showing farther away, and I took the travel trailer, we could have headed out to take a nap and relax. It was the perfect combination of to close to spend the night, not close enough to head home for lunch. Thankfully the weather was on our side and we could go outside, find a tree with some shade, and toss the ball. The show site was wonderful with tons of room to locate some mental isolation. I’m not sure if most of you realize, but I am an introvert. Show weekends wipe me out.
It has been about 5 years since I have shown obedience. I knew Code was fine for Rally, having gained his UKC rally 1 title last month. Obedience is a different matter completely. You can’t talk to them or praise in obedience. They are given a command to start, but then the must follow along and end each stop with a sit without being told. Beginner novice is mostly on leash, aside from the recall, so it is a great way to see where you might need to work before moving on up to the next level.
I have to say, I am so very proud of Cody. He always walks in the ring with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. Even by day 3, hour 7 he was happy and working well. I’m probably not going to enter 3 days in a row again with two different classes, but we made it through with style.
Cody ended the weekend with:
Beginner Novice: 1st place score of 195, 1st place score of 196, 2nd place score of 194.5.
Rally Novice: 2nd place with a perfect 100 score, 3rd place with a perfect 100 score, 4th place with an 80.
There were a TON of really nice working dogs at the show. Entries were high, as shown by the very long days. Two judges were running, two rings were running, yet still it took all day to finish.
What is the deal with that one outlier score in Rally? An 80??? Well, there’s a story. I really wish I had it on video. We started out okay, but as I entered the off set figure eight I zoned out (totally exhausted by day 3) and lost track of where I was. You have to cross the center line 3 times and I totally didn’t know how many times I had crossed when I came out of my moment of thinking, so I kept going… which was to many and caused a 10 point deduction. I saw the judge writing and KNEW I messed it up. Well, this flustered me a bit. We made it to the ‘come front, finish right’ and call Cody around. He was so tuned in, and knew I was not acting right, so Cody decided he needed to cheer mom up!! He tries to SIT UP right in front of me, but he starts falling over. This dog has never sat up in his entire life. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but I tighten my leash to save him from flopping over on his back. It was like watching a tree falling in slow mode, his eyes were getting wide with a “Oh boy, I might have made a big mistake!” look on his face. So, we lost points for style. He recovered from the topple, and tried to sit right, but was totally crooked and leaning over on my leg with his head tossed back grinning. I send him on around and we keep going. He’s bumping me and acting the clown, making a few more points go out the window. In the end, I was happy we qualified!! The only reason we won a 4th placement, was because most of the other dogs had moved up to the next level class or stayed home because they had their title. I learned a valuable lesson. My dog doesn’t like serious mom or worried mom. He likes happy mom, so mom needs to not bite off more than she can chew and cause her Poodle to invent new games. Man I love this dog. You guys have no idea. He is such a joy.
Oh, almost forgot. They offered CGC testing, so Code picked up that small accomplishment as well. The tester was a fellow competitor in beginner novice class. She had a lovely Dob and took 1st place on Sunday. When I walked up she said “Ok, well I have watched him all weekend. There is no way he won’t pass this test. Let’s DO IT!” He rocked it, obviously.
Anyway, that was our weekend! I’m super proud of my Poodle, who is now known as UCH RO1 Highview Anutta Code Breaker RN, BN, CGC
~Becky