As I said I felt it was time for Blaez and
I to move up to the next level in competitive obedience which is A-test, the
differences between Novice and A-test is longer stays, doing the down stay out
of sight, scenting with no decoys and of course doing one heelwork course of
lead no talking to your dog, the only time you may talk to your dog is when you
step of from a stationary position and you may say dog’s name + heel, that’s
it, the off lead is no problem but the no talking can be a bit tricky.
With all our hard work, training at home
and at the club focusing on our heelwork I finally felt confident enough to try
out a show, so off we went to our first show which was an open show, we had to
be there really early to enter and after all the formalities was done it was
waiting for the judge and steward to get there and get the heelwork course
ready and then all the competitors had to draw a number to see in what order we
had to go into the ring, I drew number 6 out of 7 competitors, second last not
so great I like to be in the first few not, number 1 of course but 2,3,4 around
there, but anyway we had to deal with number 6, by then I started stressing
again, I can work myself up so easily, by the time it was our turn I felt my
stomach turning, honestly I can’t say why I was stressing so much, the more I
would tell myself it is just for fun the more I seemed to be getting worked up,
I just took a deep breath and entered the ring, well I will tell you up to this
day of competing in obedience I have never had such a disastrous heel course, I mean it was a catastrophe from
the moment I set off, Blaez just was all over the place, he went wide and
lagged, at one point he was sniffing the judge then he left the ring and ran
towards the car, I called him back and he came but it was not 2 seconds later
and he headed off towards the car again and went and sat all nicely next to the
car, I called him back again and decided I lost all my points I might as well
talk to him, so the bit of heelwork where I encouraged him we did perfect, I
was so mad at him but after I cooled off a minute or so later I realized he
must have started stressing as well, not knowing what was going on, picking up
my state of emotions and then I was ignoring him on top of it, he must have
felt confused and needed reassurance, that is why he ran to the car, something
familiar where he felt safe, at least that is what I think.
Anyway the stays went fairly well, the sit
stay no problem but the down stay was out of site, I could see he was looking
for me but he stayed down, we had a 5 min down stay and at 4:23 min he sat up
still looking to see where I might be, but he didn't move or run off which is a
good thing for his first time at an unfamiliar location, his scenting was
almost perfect dropping the scent article just as he got to me but it was the
right one that is the most important thing and the dumbbell was great, you see
when we decide to stuff up we do it completely, go big or go home J
Just goes to show how our emotions can
influence our dogs and I think with more competition experience we should be
well on our way again, also practising more
at unfamiliar and different places can also only help, fortunately for
me there was no photo evidence of my
embarrassing show moment this time.
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