Thursday, September 10, 2009

Coming this Saturday: obedience trial experiment

So I finally got organized and ambitious enough to enter another obedience trial.  This Saturday and Sunday Maggie and I will be trying for leg 3 of our CDX.

Just as a reminder (previously on our CDX quest) - Maggie & I got our first 2 legs in our first 2 tries.  We won our first class, and took 3rd in the next one with a score in the mid 190's.  At our next trial (the National Specialty where the Q ribbons are big and the placement prizes fantastic) we had 2 NQ's:  One with a nice run, but some "personal hygiene" issues that caused Maggie to sit up for about 1 min of the 5 min down.  The other one that wasn't so pretty, as Maggie decided that it would take 2 commands before she did her retrieves, and that the broad jump was really just getting in the way of her front, so she'd just skip it altogether.

So my experiment?  I haven't really been working on the exercises in their entirety.  I've been doing bits & pieces mixed with games.  You see, I figure she knows all the commands (we've been training for Open for  six years, off and on), what she needs is fun and motivation so she's really enthusiastic and attentive in the ring.  Tonight we did some jump grids to help her remember how to not jump lazy, then we practiced slow heeling with a few steps of slow then a tug game, and finally we practiced jumping over the broad jump with no fronts or finishes - just jumping and chasing the toys that were thrown.

Truthfully, I'm a little nervous.  Should I be doing the "full" exercises more?  It feels uncomfortable to be so cavalier about my training.  But what the heck?!

I'll let you know how we do!

1 comment:

  1. I think you're doing the right thing. The dogs are so smart that when you do full exercises they are just sure they "know" them better than we do. Then they do the auto finish, etc. Good luck this weekend.

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