We had a great weekend showing Rally in AKC.  The show was local only 15 minutes from  my home, so I decided to pull Flash out of retirement and play with both him and Jazz at this convenient show site.   Keith had Friday off work, which meant I could enter all three days of the show and possibly gain their titles in one weekend.  Aim high!

Friday April 5th. I arrived early, set up, and started doing some drills with the dogs.  This was the first show I had taken Flash to in years and the first show where I had another dog with me.  He was insanely jealous that I was working Jazz.  As both Jazz and Flash were entered in the same class, I had to move one of them up into first place, so there would at least one dog between them, otherwise I would not be able to warm up the other dog.  Flash and I entered the ring first and he was beyond happy to be showing.  We walked out of there with a score of 99 out of 100 points, netting us First Place and a nice new squeaky toy!  There was only one dog between Flash and Jazz, so I wasn’t able to work with her as much as I had hoped.  However, she did great and ended up with a score of 93 out of 100 and Fourth Place!  Not to shabby.  Still, she wanted that toy like no body’s business!  I told her she needed to step up her game to net a new squeaky toy.

Flash says: That’s my toy, Jazz!

Saturday April 6th.  Again Flash was first in the ring, but there were more than one dog between Flash and Jazz today, so I knew I would have time to get Jazz fully focused and ready to play.  Flash scored 90 with no placement. You see, there was this invisible monster hiding in sign 6, which required us to redo that station. He wasn’t going to go near that station, much less do the left about turn in front of that sign!  It took a lot of praise and encouragement, but he finally made it by that sneaky spooky sign.  Of course the monster was still lurking around and Flash had to watch the sign the entire time we were heeling, which lead to more points off. I let him sniff the sign when we passed it again, at which point he decided it was no threat.  Lots of praise and play after. Still not sure what that was about, but I was hopeful it was a freak incident.  Jazz scored 95 and placed second out of 12 dogs!   She was animated and happy, if a bit to enthusiastic.   I’ll take that any day of the week!

Sunday April 7th.  Flash again was first dog in the ring.  I think next time I do this I will move Jazz to last so I can watch other people go first.  Because I did one sign incorrectly, Flash lost 10 points due to my mistake.  His final score was 88, so without the 10 point mistake he would have had a 98.  Still, he passed and received his qualifying score which is all that matters in the end.   Jazz benefited from my education and did get her revenge!  She scored 98 and first place!  She snatched that squeaky toy from the judge faster than you can say “Poodles Rule!”.

I am happy to say that they are now: UKC CH, U-RO1 Tintlet Rhapsody in Blue RN  “Jazz”
And
Karbits Energizer MX, MXJ, RN, CGC, TDI  “Flash”

We met some REALLY friendly and supportive people at the shows.  One lovely women who had a Parti girl and a really nice women with a Saint Bernard.  Both are local, so maybe between the three of us, we can get enough dogs to start an advanced show obedience and rally class.   It was nice to get back to the obedience side of things.

Keith and the kids came to watch today and took some video.  Here is Jazz’s First place run on April 7th, 2013

~Becky