Ronin - Fourth Place Utility B, NQ in Open B
The American Belgian Tervuren Club had a Specialty Show today and with it held an all-breed Obedience Trial. AKC Judge Mrs. Linda Scanlon had 56 entries to judge--she was the only judge for all the regular classes. We didn't start until 12:00 (noon) so she was still going when we left after 6:00 p.m. The venue was at the Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley, Colorado. Obedience was in the 4H building, as usual. Most of the time there was only one ring going, so there were no distractions, no dogs in other rings, no barking, no loud noises, really a quiet situation. Probably too quiet for most dogs--when there was something happening it drew the dogs attention away from the task at hand.
Ronin is after another UDX leg, which means he must qualify in both Utility B and Open B at the same trial. Utility B went fairly well for us (we qualified). Ronin's "go around" finishes were non-existent, he went part way around and stopped, staring off into the distance as if the rest of the world held too much of interest to come around and sit at heel. The "swing" finishes were OK. He did everything fairly well except his "go-outs" for the directed jumping. He went out straight, but slowed and was about to stop prior to my command. He didn't go out far enough, so he lost 6 points on each go-out. Plus 2 points off on each finish. gah! But he came in Fourth Place out of 14 entries (2 were absent so only 12 competed).
In Open B he should have done really well. He is solid there (right). He did NOT drop on recall--I had to give a second command so that gave us an NQ (Non-Qualify) for that and thus for Open B. Then he perked up and did very nicely, losing only 5 points for the other exercises. Until out-of-sight stays. He did the down stay first, no problem. Then on the sit stay he went down at 1:57. Some other dogs went down before, but a friend said Ronin didn't pay attention to them, he just went down on his own. GAH!
He's done go-outs, drop-on-recalls, out-of-sight stays solidly for weeks, with and without distraction. Some days, that's just the way it goes.
The fun part was there was a Belgian Terverun and handler who place high in both Utility B and Open B, finished her (the dog's) UDX Title, got First Place in Open B, and got High Combined Score! And this was at the Belgian Terverun Specialty! There weren't any catalogs available so I don't know who it was. I'll come back and edit this entry later when the results show up on the AKC website.
Lots of familiar dogs and handlers. Some new people also. In all it was a very nice day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we will be in the Irish Setter Club's Specialty and all-breed Obedience Trial.
Ronin is after another UDX leg, which means he must qualify in both Utility B and Open B at the same trial. Utility B went fairly well for us (we qualified). Ronin's "go around" finishes were non-existent, he went part way around and stopped, staring off into the distance as if the rest of the world held too much of interest to come around and sit at heel. The "swing" finishes were OK. He did everything fairly well except his "go-outs" for the directed jumping. He went out straight, but slowed and was about to stop prior to my command. He didn't go out far enough, so he lost 6 points on each go-out. Plus 2 points off on each finish. gah! But he came in Fourth Place out of 14 entries (2 were absent so only 12 competed).
In Open B he should have done really well. He is solid there (right). He did NOT drop on recall--I had to give a second command so that gave us an NQ (Non-Qualify) for that and thus for Open B. Then he perked up and did very nicely, losing only 5 points for the other exercises. Until out-of-sight stays. He did the down stay first, no problem. Then on the sit stay he went down at 1:57. Some other dogs went down before, but a friend said Ronin didn't pay attention to them, he just went down on his own. GAH!
He's done go-outs, drop-on-recalls, out-of-sight stays solidly for weeks, with and without distraction. Some days, that's just the way it goes.
The fun part was there was a Belgian Terverun and handler who place high in both Utility B and Open B, finished her (the dog's) UDX Title, got First Place in Open B, and got High Combined Score! And this was at the Belgian Terverun Specialty! There weren't any catalogs available so I don't know who it was. I'll come back and edit this entry later when the results show up on the AKC website.
Lots of familiar dogs and handlers. Some new people also. In all it was a very nice day. I'm looking forward to tomorrow when we will be in the Irish Setter Club's Specialty and all-breed Obedience Trial.