I know, I know – I said it after first completing the CD in UKC and then also in AKC that I’m never going to do Novice Obedience again. Apparently I really shouldn’t use the word “never” when it comes to dog events. <G><\/p>\n
Saturday (Obedience)<\/strong><\/p>\n Last Saturday Quigley and I were entered in ASCA obedience for the first time. I decided that if we do want to continue working toward Open (and possibly even Utility) titles, I’d rather trial at $12-15 per entry in ASCA than $20-30 in AKC until we get more ring experience and have a really solid chance of qualifying. Unfortunately, to get to that point we first have to finish the Novice class…<\/p>\n Both runs went pretty well on the individual exercises. In trial 1 we could have done better if I had moved more briskly on the heeling – that really stood out when I watched the video later. We lost 7 points on the Heel On Leash & Figure 8, none on the Stand for Exam, 10 points on the Heel Free (sniffy\/laggy, had to give a second command to heel on the heel free, plus Quigley missed one sit), and half a point on the recall. In trial 2 I picked up the pace and we only lost 4 points on the Heel On Leash & Figure 8, again none on the Stand for Exam, 5 points on the Heel Free, and another half point on the recall. Unfortunately, no video for this one.<\/p>\n I did not expect that we would NQ on the group exercise, and certainly not in both runs. Each time Quigley laid down from the sit as soon as I turned my back and walked away. We’ve been practicing Open out-of-sight sits of up to 8 minutes for super high-value rewards with good success, so that was definitely a surprise. It was hot though, and he does not tend to do well sitting in the heat.<\/p>\n I’m not entirely unhappy with the outcome overall though, as we would have scored 182.5 in trial 1 and 190.5 in trial 2 if Quigley had held his sits. His average of passing scores in all Novice obedience runs so far is 180, so there’s definitely improvement.<\/p>\n Sunday (Rally)<\/strong><\/p>\n In the morning trial we started out with a run in Novice C, trying for our last RN-C leg that requires a minimum score of 190. We left the ring with a 196, deductions were for my dog bumping me and some awkwardness when I nearly ran into the sign on the moving sidestep right. This was our last ASCA Rally Novice run, as we completed all 3 level titles (RN, RN-X, RN-C).<\/p>\n In the afternoon we moved up to Advanced, in pursuit of X legs (scores of 195 or better), but it wasn’t to be. We ended up with a 189, which was still good enough for first place. Any exercises involving stationary stands has very slow responses recently, and there were two of them on the course, plus a slightly mangled call front – 1, 2, 3, steps back. I really need to polish up on these.<\/p>\n\n\t\t