Annie earned her CD in Dec 08 and since then has not ventured into the obedience ring. We've been working on her open exercises but never actually entered a class or show n go.
Saturday we ventured to Pets West and entered our first ASCA Open A competition. A friend of ours, Rose O'hara was judging so I felt this would be a good opportunity to get into the ring and not have to worry about a judge not having a sense of humor.
When our turn came, I walked into the ring to start our heeling exercises and Annie looked confused -there was her friend Rose, why wasn't I taking her to visit her friend? Why was I asking her to sit? I asked her to heel and she just sat there rooted to the spot. Confusion pasted across her face. I turned around and asked her to heel again, and she slowly came up to me. I patted on her and told her she was fine and proceeded. She actually warmed up to it and towards the end of the heeling exercise was not doing a half bad job. I petted and loved on her.
Next was drop on recall -I very happy with her performance of this exercise (2 points). Then came the retrieve on the flat. Again she did this fairly well. If I recall correctly she gazed at the audience a little before picking up the dumb bell (4 points). Then the retrieve over the high jump. She sent out nicely and retrieved well, but came back in crooked -sitting to my right, and then did not finish very straigt (6 points). Lastly was the broad jump. She sent out over nicely but then did not come to sit in front of me-gazing away. I called and she finished (8 points).
Sits and down stays: No deductions.
So all in all not a bad first time out considering her nervous Nellie self.
Today we went to Praiseworthy Pups Show N Go. We did Open B so we didn't have to start with the heel. First was the retrieve on the flat. I threw the dumb bell and it kind of got hidden behind a post. Annie sent out but stopped in front of the post and looked confused. I sent her on past and she was happy to find the dumbell on the other side.
Her high jump was lack lustre-my throw really wasn't quite far enough. She took the jump and hit it on the way back and stopped to my right rather than fronting properly. I fixed her and then we redid this element.
The next time was much better.
Broadjump: She jumped well and fronted pretty well.
Heels: Posts were pretty good -lagged a little on the fast portion. The heeling pattern was pretty decent (I had food!).
Stays: Again flawless.
I am hopeful we can work out our kinks and get our CDX completed in the next few months...
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