Holy crap. What a day that was.
Our club only hosts the (minimum) 1 sanctioned trial a year, and we've got a very large number of members who are new to the sport (including myself. For all I read, study, train, and watch videos, I've never been to a trial). My TD/Trial Secretary is a 30yr veteran of the sport, and has numerout HOT SchH3 dogs, as well as a gold medal from UsCA, but 1 person can only do so much. We only have 2 members in our club other then the TD who have ever titled a dog (but now I have!!!) .... regardless of all that, it was a rough time getting everything organized. Then, a BH handler didn't show up. Had to track her down, waited for her, re-organized the entire order of everything because a bitch was in heat... Finally had the first BH team hit the field at noon or so. (There were 7 BH's, 1 dummy dog)
First BH dog was dismissed. Out of control. (just wandering around, slowly) 2d BH dog did well (one of the 3 dogs to pass yesterday).
Koenig up, and we were put into the long down first, which I was afraid of. I really wanted to heel first!!! I put my dog in a down, and didn't get 3 steps away from him before he was crawling all over the place. Like 15' of crawling, and spinning. Jerk. The judge didn't see Koenig stand up and TAKE 3 STEPS before returning to a platz, because at that time, he was busy watching dog 'heeling' having a party around his handler. (Hahaha! I'm not on a leash! Wheeee!).
A few seconds later, the dog was running in large circles. Then made a beeline for Koenig. STRAIGHT AT HIM. The dog in question is a large imported male. Intact. Sweet, but still a boy. Koenig stayed down, but was in as 'upright' of a posture as possible. If the charging dog had made eye contact with Koenig, I can guarantee there would have been a BAD fight. E's (the dog) owner was calling and screaming his name, to no avail of course. Now, E is standing over Koenig, tail straight in the air. I don't know what to do. Call my dog out of a potential fight? Screw the BH rules, and avoid a vet bill? Scream PLATZ so HOPEFULLY he does not engage with this dog? Run to him? I was totally freaking out.... I decided to do nothing. 5 very long seconds later the handler got to E and put his leash on. My sweet, fantastic brindle boy HELD HIS DOWN.
All those times I've broken the Leerburg 'rule' of no dog parks paid off big time right then. We go to dog parks, and I train with Koe. Have him do long downs, recalls, just basic OB. I think training in situations/locations like that are the only reason he stayed down. We've had that same scenario before, with smaller dogs, and with an ecollar on
Alright, we survived the long down, and our judge had the handler of E continue the rest of the routine with him on leash. Of course she did not pass the BH.
We're up for heeling. Holy crap. I've gotta breathe, cause I'm so freaked out by that point. His on leash heeling was as bad as it could have been. I might as well have been walking Sara-dog! No eye contact, tight leash on corners, (4' leash!) forging in the fast, blah. He just was FLAT. No performance. Group on leash was OK. Left the group, removed my leash, and he got better.
Still very wide in the group, but as we went through the heeling pattern something clicked with him and he turned back on. The judge said we had 'Moments of pure brilliance off leash' ROFL. Moments. Fantastic. lol.
We had a OK sit out of motion it was slow, and I've got some really embarrassing pictures of him yawning. Constantly.
My nerves totally got to him, You all saw my video from home last week. No yawning. No break of focus in the out of motion exercises. Ha. Not at trial! It was a mess.
Dang dog. Yawned the entire time. So our down in motion. Wait. What is a down in motion?????? I must have forgotten to train that one.... lol. It's normally his default out of motion behavior, but he didn't down.
He sat, and he sat slow. We lost 6 points there, which is A LOT. Better then failing the exercise though!
Recall started NICE, but he slowed down at the end (didn't ram into me though, yay!), and was crooked in the front.
Overall, whatever it does not matter. We passed.
I DID ask the judge if he'd give me our score, and since he's fantastic, he did.
We got a 49/60. If my dog had downed when I asked, it would have been 55/60 which isn't bad at all for a B, and especially since it's my first dog/first trial!
We did it.
Moving on to bigger and better things. SchH 1, here we come!!!!!!!
I'll try and get some pictures up today. Video may not come for a few more days though... sorry, but it'll get here eventually! I can't NOT show ya'll how great Koenig did when he was charged. God, I nearly peed my pants.
Not to make excuses, or anything, but something was 'up' yesterday. All the dogs were having trouble even our SchH3 dog flunked out of OB. The TR1 missed an article (which he never does!), a SchH2 dog didn't track at all, was excused from OB.... the whole day was just a MESS. 3 out of 7 B's passed. But wow, let me tell you, the three of us that DID make it sure are proud. We're all first time handlers, with young dogs.
Only mine is a rescue though.
Edited by Kelly Byrd (10/02/2011 01:51 PM)
Edit reason: overall results.
Re: Koenig BH, HCT, CGC
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I am so happy for you. 
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