Just Do It! Nike’s tagline rang true for me last Friday, as I sat debating if I had the energy and will to show my dogs. Sometimes you have to suck it up and do it, even when you want to stay home and relax.
Over the last several months I’ve been having some health issues which are dragging me down. An ultrasound two weeks ago has shown a few things that are sending me off to a specialist but the appointment is a month out, because the issue is not ‘urgent’. I get it, I really do. Military medicine is socialized medicine. There is no real motivation to work long hours, your pay is much lower than the national average, management is bloated causing excess paperwork, etc. Keith could pull some strings to get me in sooner, but really I felt dealing with the pain and hassle was fine. This isn’t life threatening. I’m a big girl, but locating the energy to train my dogs for the shows this past weekend wasn’t so easy.
I really hate taking my dogs to a show ungroomed. They weren’t matted or gross, but Jingle really could have used a good bath / blowout / touch up trim to make her look fabulous. She’s sporting a fair amount of hair, and with her age it can look shabby pretty quick. Younger Poodles coats are not as harsh and tend to look messy quicker than a 2 plus year old dog. Friday morning I called her up on the couch and started line brushing. I didn’t have the energy or the time to do more than brush two Standards. Grooming would take me most of the day, and it wasn’t going to happen, not if I wanted to have any energy for the actual show. I have some auto-immune issues and when I am under the weather, my joints give me problems. Scissoring Standard Poodles wasn’t going to happen. This is the number one reason I am adding in Miniature Poodles to my breeding program. Something’s gotta give or I won’t be able to continue breeding / showing dogs.
After an analysis of my overly picky nature I came to the conclusion I was being hypercritical, and I needed to step back and look at the bigger picture. This wasn’t conformation. No one was going to touch Jingle or judge her coat care. She didn’t look ‘bad’ just not ‘fabulous’. I took her to Tractor Supply and we did a little practice. She wasn’t great, but she wasn’t abysmal. Worst case I could show her once and pull her the rest of the weekend if it was a total failure. You never know what your dog is truly capable of doing if you do not even show up.
I medicated up Saturday morning and headed to the show. Wet and cold, which seems to be the only weather we are having in Texas this winter. Show 1, class 1 was Cody in rally advanced. This is totally off leash, early morning with a dog who is pretty high drive. I couldn’t run his energy off due to the weather, so I had to pray for peace. It wasn’t our best run, because there was a lot of joy happening in my Poodle, but he did pull off a 2nd placement. Next class was obedience with Cody. This starts on leash, and he had time to find his brain during the on leash heeling and figure 8’s. His spectacular sliding front on the recall got him some major cheers and an unofficial title of “Best Recaller” of the weekend. He can always make people smile. First place in obedience! The timing was really tight, as I had to run quickly over to walk the course for Jingle’s rally novice run and only had time to walk once. It was a pretty difficult course, but similar to Cody’s run (just easier and on leash), so I didn’t think it would be to hard to keep track. This was her first time in the ring and I was very pleased with how she did. I messed up one sign, but still gave us 4th place. A good first try! I was thrilled.
This was one of those weekends where they have two shows on the same day. After a short lunch break, we started back up with round two. Due to how the judges took their lunch breaks, I ended up having to show Cody in two rings at the same time, along with 4 other people. We shifted dogs as best we could, but it was still tight. Cody and I did Rally Advanced super quickly, which caused me to lose us a few points. Still, we managed to get 1st place, due to the fact that all the other dogs were also rushing and flustered, and the course was NOT easy. These two judges were super tough in rally and tolerate zero mess up on pivots, tight leashes, or how you hold your hands. Some judges hand perfect 100s out like candy. Not this pair. If you got a 100, you ran it perfect. Anyway, I hustle over to obedience and the judge looked at me and said “step back, breath, give yourself a minute to collect your thoughts”. She was a tough, but kind judge. Cody knew I was a bit off my game, and what does Cody do when I am not totally with it? He gets creative. He proceeds to grab the leash, make giant leaps on the fast heeling, lean on me HARD during the halts. We make it through and get to the recall. I think we have it, this is Cody’s strongest exercise. The one thing I can count on him to nail is the recall. I’m looking at him, he is looking at me, but when I call him he just sat there. Looking straight at me. If I wasn’t in the ring I would have slammed my palm on my face! I pitched my voice WAY to high on the “COME”. I pitched it up instead of my normal mid tone (for me) “COME”. I looked him in the eyes and he had his ears up, head tilted slightly as if to say “was that a ‘come??’ or is this a test?” I learned this lesson years ago with Major when I was showing him for his CD title in Colorado. Same thing. I pitched my voice to high and he sat there looking at me like ‘yeah, that’s not come. I need to stay. This must be a test”. Poodles over think everything. I proof my dogs to not assume what is coming next. I trick them to make them listen to me and what I am saying, not assume what I want. When you do that you end up with these problems, because if I change my voice command, my dog is going to question what I am asking. Smart dog, stupid handler. I called him again and because he was sitting there so long he over shot me due to speed and excitement. His front was sloppy and his finish was not pretty either, but we were disqualified anyway, so it didn’t matter. The judge came over and said “You pitched your voice high the first time”. I said “yeah, I know better than to do that. Totally my fault.”.
Jingle showed about an hour later, at near 4pm. We had been at the show site since 7AM. She was tired, bored, and ready to go home. However, she and I did finish the course. It wasn’t pretty, but it was ‘green’. A green ribbon means you qualified and gained a leg. As long as you walk away with green, it’s all good! I was thrilled with the fact she was able to mentally hang for that long at her very first performance show.
Sunday was a new day. I was a little bummed I didn’t get Cody’s second leg in obedience, but I did have a chance to get both his and Jingle’s titles in Rally. My lungs were bothering me, due to my asthma / allergies, but I medicate up enough to manage, even if it did make me fuzzy headed. Cody was up first with obedience. He was really distracted. I wasn’t able to get him focused on me like normal. For some reason he was watching everything going on around him, which isn’t Cody. During the figure 8’s he looks at one of the ladies standing as a post like she is a monster. Then on the off leash healing he missing an about turn and an automatic sit. This was not my normal Poodle. He holds it together and I pitch my voice correctly for the recall and we qualify. 4th placement and happy to have it!
Rally Advanced was next. I needed to refocus my Cody on me. How do you make a dog more confident in a place or area? Well the key is narrowing their focus. If he is watching me, focused on me, he won’t have a chance to look around and find monsters. I took him outside and we played some games. A little tug, some quick fetch games, I tossed some food around and had him get it super fast. I built back up his relationship with me, his confidence in me. Then we went inside and did some tugging inside, a few little quiet games, tricks, etc. Our Advanced run was beautiful. He was all in and gained another 1st place. Jingle was up last, but because there was only the one show, it was 11AM when she was to go into the ring. Not bad at all! If you are friends with me on Facebook, you will already know the sadness that follows. The run was stunning. She was totally with me. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect run. I had attention, eye contact, she was heeling, tail wagging, and moving nice. We ripped through the course, I had plenty of time to practice, etc. When we were finished I was so excited, because I knew that was incredible. The judge came over and said “wait. You missed a sign”. I was shocked. I had her point out what sign and I KNEW IT. I hit me. I just failed our run!!! The judge said “Jingle did good. Jingle got a perfect 100. You, on the other hand, missed a sign and NQ’d. Jingle gets steak. You get nothing!”. Best Judge ever! She was the same one who watched me fail Cody on his obedience. Bad Handler!!
If I hadn’t been on pain medication, allergy medication, and sleep deprived, I ‘probably’ would have walked home with 3 titles this weekend. However, I almost talked myself out of going at all, so taking home a slew of awesome placements, 7 out of 9 qualifications is NOT shabby at all.
On a fun note, my daughter continues to be the Raffle Queen! I gave her $20 to spend and she netted us $25 amazon card, $25 Red Lobster card, $15 Starbucks card, a new toaster oven for the camper, a travel mug, a car magnet paw print, a travel water bowl for the dogs, and a small vintage Poodle planter! I don’t know how she does it. If I touch the raffle tickets, you might as well burn them!
Sorry this was so long, but if even one of you decides to enter a show and just give it a go, even when you don’t think your dog is perfectly trained, / groomed, or if you don’t feel the best, or can’t find the motivation then this was worth it. Just Do It!