Obedience - Not in a Million Years!!

I have always vowed "Obedience isn't for us... Don't like it... It looks boring... Selby (and I) would be hopeless at it... I'm NEVER going to do it"

And then .... 97/100 at her first trial last weekend!! Amazing how things change!

So what happened to my vow? Graeme was planning to take Mav to the Obedience Nationals in Queensland in June and asked us to come too. Before I knew it flights were booked - only problem - Selby had NEVER done anything that resembled obedience in her life!! A couple months of mad training later, along with the realisation that it would probably be better to actually get into the ring before we rock up at the Nationals, and she was in her first trial. It was a members comp at Northern Suburbs which seemed like a nice 'safe' go at it. I can't say I have ever been that nervous at an agility trial where once you get into the ring you don't have time to feel the nerves. I was so impressed with Selby's healing and she got all her positions (we need to straighten them up a little but she couldn't even do a stand 2 weeks ago so I'm not complaining)

One thing I learnt is that it is probably a good idea to know the rules BEFORE you go in the ring. I lined up for the recall with Selby sitting beautifully at my side expecting the judge to say "leave your dog" instead I hear "forward" ... "What? I have to go forward first?" Short discussion with judge then I step forward and woops Selby isn't really with me and misses the sit :( There go our 3 marks. She did do a beautiful recall though so again not unhappy with her - totally my fault.

On to the stand. My little tactile defensive dog that has only just learnt how to stand is not ready to cope with being examined as well so we opted for the 30 second stand (the judge thought I was crazy and given that I had never practiced more than about 10 seconds she probably wasn't too far off) I was amazed that Selby completed this exercise successfully and would go through to the stays without being DQ'd. The stays TERRIFY me!

Stays, along with the exam, would be the main part of obedience that has stopped me from even considering training Selby for trialling. She really doesn't like being touched and is very possessive of her personal space. Leaving her to sit amongst other dogs that she doesn't know - NEVER in a million years! Turns out she was just fine, although she is a real sticky beak and spent the whole time looking around for what mischief she can get into. I had been advised to give her the "evil eye" if she looked like getting up - which would be fine if she ever made eye contact with me!! The 1min sit and 2 min drop felt like an hour but even with Maverick working in the next ring she didn't get up Yay!

We finished the day with an amazing 97 which I'm thrilled with (shame there were also dogs that got 98, 99 and 100 so she only placed 4th)

Obedience Nationals here we come!!!

My Beautiful Puppy

Friends

Selby Agility 29 Nov 2010 - Including first pass in Excellent agility

Selby Meets the Sheep and Excellent Agility

After finally finishing my teaching prac a couple of weeks ago we headed to Albany for the agility trial there and a weeks holiday. (Thankfully we had the best holiday as the trial is hardly worth mentioning)

All the dogs had the best time as we stayed on a farm with a lovely yard and went for many walks discovering the beaches of Albany and Denmark.

On the way home we stopped off at a friends farm in Kojonup for a night. They had 8 4 week old puppies which were just lovely to play with (I wanted to sneak 1 home with me) They were all so cute!

Selby's highlight of the visit was getting to meet the sheep! She has never seen sheep before so I was curious as to how she would react - as you'll see in the video she had a ball. I totally amazed me that she knew what to do (kind of) purely by natural instinct. I don't know a lot about sheep herding but apparently it was not bad for a first effort. Selby couldn't get enough of it and would have loved to have had another go, but we had a long drive and a trial to get home to and I didn't want her to be exhausted before we got there.

After arriving home via a Boddington to see an old student of mine (so great to catch up with him and his family) we quickly unpacked and then repacked the car and headed off again to a trial. I was amazed at how well Selby ran in both Excellent Agility and Excellent Jumping (the Open Agility was ok but she decided she had done enough contacts for 1 day). The night got off to a great start with our 1st pass in Excellent Agility on just our 3rd attempt Yay Selby! We finished 1st in 500and 2nd overall. In Jumping just 1 bar came down :( but it was such a smooth run and I enjoyed both runs so much.

2010 Royal Show Part 2 - A great day!

Week 2 of the Royal saw our most successful run of the show (after a Snooker effort that doesn't bear mention)

Novice Gamblers was our last 'roll of the dice' for this year's show. Whilst we have had 2 passes in Gamblers before, they have not been the smoothest of runs. So the plan this time was to pick a course and stick to it no matter what happened - I get very confused if I decide to go back and fix obstacles so there would be none of that! As it happens Selby had a fantastic run that didn't require any changes of plan. She got 3 out of 3 contacts (not brilliantly but compared to jumping off miles above the colour the way she has been lately they were great) and even threw in a few jumps of her own to get some extra points! I only planned up until I had completed the weaves a 2nd time thinking that then I would be near the gamble for the closing. Turns out 45 seconds is a really long time!!!! we had plenty of time to do some extra bits whilst we waited for the whistle to go. There was a heart stopping moment as Selby ran towards me after the tunnel in the gamble but thankfully I was expecting that this might happen and had planned to spin her around to get her over the last jump if needed. Yay she went clear and got her Novice Gamblers Title - her 3rd title for the year!!

As games are not played often there are a lot of much more experienced dogs in Novice still so we had to wait to find out if she had placed. Turns out there were 7 qualifiers with my little puppy topping them all!!! What a great way to end our 1st Royal Show.

2010 Royal Show

This weekend saw us compete in the Royal Show for the 1st time - hard to think that this time last year we hadn't started trialling yet!
Saturday was an early start off to the teams event. Looking specky in our new shirts team Xtreme was ready to take on the rest.
Selby joined Maverick, Phoenix and Chuckles to compete in both Jumping and Agility. Phoenix got us off to a great start with a clear round in jumping (no pressure on the rest of us)All the dogs had pretty good runs but sadly not good enough tho place.
In the Agility comp none of the dogs ran clear, but with only 6 faults between them all we were amazed to find we had placed 3rd!! - Not bad for a bunch of newbies taking on far more experienced teams :)
I accidentally entered Open Jumping so we gave that a go in the afternoon. Sadly I did a front cross that just kept crossing (yep - a very dodgy move) This resulted in Selby taking the spread from the side and running through it like a channel. The crowd thought it was really funny, I was just plain embarrassed! Despite my dodgy handling I was really happy with the way Selby ran - she did go where I sent her after all!
Saturday was the Obedience trial so Selby had a day off while I went along to watch and see what obedience was all about - maybe one day we will give it a go (maybe).
Back again yesterday for Agility and Jumping. Novice agility started really well but Selby sadly took a wrong entry into the tunnel and then blew her contacts - something we really need to fix soon. Excellent jumping was also a really good run with just 1 bar and deciding not to take one jump. In both runs Selby had great drive and her run home in the jumping was great so I am really happy with how she is going especially as we nearly had to pull out of the trial as she was lame a couple of weeks ago.Back next Saturday for the games and hopefully a clear round!