CWCCA National Specialty! Porter & Rally!

Thanks Mom, for reminding me that I haven't blogged in awhile!  :)

Way back in May, Porter, Stout, & I traveled down South for the CWCCA National Specialty. We started in Chattanooga, traveled down to Georgia for herding, then back to Chattanooga for the obedience & rally.

We'll start with Porter's Rally adventure first  :)

It was in this cool hotel called the Choo-Choo. It was a remodeled train station. I'll save those photos for last...

Porter competed again in Rally Excellent. He had one leg already from his first try, totally bombed the 2nd attempt, and here I had entered him twice... Stout had already had a disastrous attempt at Beginner Novice (we may never discuss that) so my confidence was not real high.

But Porter rocked it! Well, for Porter anyway  :) We placed last in both runs, but we qualified! I don't think we even failed a sign (because there wasn't any "3 steps backing up").

Here are some photos from the awesome Phyllis Ensley:

Please ignore my bright red legs - got sun burnt at herding the day before.

I may never be able to teach him to back-up, but we did conquer the "stand"!

So happy!

He was so excited to see a jump! And take it twice!

Don't worry, he's supposed to be facing that way :)

Happy tail!

I can't believe how much he watched me!

Or how happy he seemed to be out there!

It really looks like he cares  :)

Love his little face here! And his tail!

Wordless Wednesday: Keeping Me Humble

Rally Practice

I entered the dogs in a rally trial tomorrow. Actually, there are 2 trials in one day, so Stout is doing both trials & Porter is doing only one.

I'm beginning to freak out though. This will be Stout's first time in Advanced (off-leash!) & Porter's first time in Excellent. A LOT of things have changed since Porter last did rally... those signs are hard now!

I gave myself plenty of time, and we have been practicing, but I foresee some problems. Stout rocks all the signs, his problem will be the off-leash issue.

Porter is just a weirdo. I kind of take for granted all the shaping & clicker work that Stout has done... Porter doesn't understand that very well. So it's been hard to teach a lot of these signs to him. And he just gets frustrated at the lack of food delivery if my schedule is slightly off what he feels he deserves...

Here is Stout doing a little practice.

A Little Bit O' Green

No big St. Patrick's day post today, but we do have a little bit of green to share!

 

 

Stout earned his 2nd Q in Novice Rally B on Saturday!

It wasn't pretty (mostly my fault), but we got it done with a 77  :)

Now hopefully he can earn his title at the Specialty!

Stout's Rally Miracle!

Yes, a Rally miracle  :)

 

 

 

We scored an 87 in Stout's Rally debut!

 

I really should stop underestimating him... I mean, just look at the video below - no sniffing, no knocking over signs, no peeing on cones, no humping my leg, very little barking. He did not do any of the things that I had feared  :)

 

He just prances along, happy as could be! He did try to throw in a "prairie dog" & did bite the leash once, but I was ecstatic with his run. Even more thrilled with his attitude  :) Good boy!

So did you notice my confusion at about 1:16?  :)  Yep, according to the map below I turned the wrong way on the 270. I wondered why I was facing the wrong direction. And I didn't remember there being a Rally sign for a 450 degree turn  :)

Yep, I lost more points than Stout... I cost him what would have been a 97  :)

I could have re-done the sign for only a 3 point loss, but at the time I wasn't sure I did mess up. And I didn't want to ruin our flow. I could kind of start to feel things going down hill, so I just wanted to hurry up & get out of there! I didn't want Stout's first time in the ring to end in frustration.

Can I say again how thrilled I am? I know it's just one novice Rally leg, but I think it was a good start to his performance career!

 

 

Oh, and a funny story from our warm-up outside the ring: While we were practicing, Stout was his usual exhuberant self - barking, jumping, etc. Now I know there's no barking in obedience. And there shouldn't be in rally either, so I was trying to tone him down.

 

But this lady comes up to me and says very condescendingly "He can't bark in the ring."

 

I say "I'm aware of that. Thank you."

 

She says "He will lose a point for every bark. He cannot bark in there."

 

I say "Yeah, I know. But if that's the worst thing he does, I'll be happy." And I walked away.

 

Come on lady, it's only rally  :)  I'm sure she was disgusted by our score...

Getting Back in the Groove - And Starting a New Groove!

We are heading down to TN this weekend for our first AKC agility trial since the beginning of November.

And this is Stout's first foray into the world of performance competitions - his Rally debut!

This same trial last year was the first one Stout tagged along to.

It only seems fitting that this would be his debut  :)

I will have to re-create this photo...

Rally Practice

I did it - I entered Stout in the Rally trial at the end of January.

Just one day, one run.

Here is a video of a little bit of practice we did Monday night:

(http://youtu.be/6y2_vXsSCWI)

 

 

How many points do you think we'll lose if he does "prairie dog" everytime I have him in the "front" position?  :)

Stout's Performance Career is Beginning... Maybe

So today I found myself filling out an entry form for Stout. Well, then I'd change my mind. Then I'd start again...

 

I am thinking of entering him in a Rally trial in January. This is one of the few agility trials we attend that also has rally & obedience. Ironically enough, this was the very first trial that Stout tagged along to after we brought him home!

 

 

January 2011

 

January 2011

So it kind of seems fitting that this would be his performance debut  :)  We've been practicing our rally moves a little. And we have plenty of time for more practice...

So I'll finish filling it out. Or not...