Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Sunday at Oakland Co. KC

I showed at Sunday's two Oakland County's obedience trials (I was at my son's Solo & Ensemble music performances in Livonia on Saturday). I did all four classes with Gryffin, Novice B in the morning's trial with Ty and Open B in the afternoon's trial with Joker.

Gryffin was listed as first in each of his classes, which meant aiming to get there at 7 AM for an 8 AM start. With the roads being so bad and snow covered, we didn't arrive until 7:30. We started out with a nice steady Q in Utility B, which helped to make the ugly drive there worthwhile. We were in a runoff for 3rd place with a 193, lost it to Linda MacDonald and Wings.

Much to my embarrassment (and also amusement, I must confess), Gryff failed his drop on recall (1st ex. in Open B) because of.... a sticker on the floor! The judge used stickers to mark everything, and apparently, they were different enough (whiter and bigger) from the ones that are all over my building floor to cause a major brain blip. The drop was supposed to be close to one of the Figure 8 stickers. I cued the drop, G spotted the sticker, his eyes kind of spun around in his head, and he stopped and sat. I waited a while to see if he'd figure it out, but alas, he didn't. Given the rest of his class was pretty sloppy, at least he didn't blow a really high score . Happily, he looked VERY solid and straight when I got back on his sit stay, always a welcome sight.

I was all done with Gryffin's morning classes before showing Ty in Novice. I hadn't shown her since the weekend she finished her CD back in October. She did a nice solid job and got first in her class with a 197. We're entered a few more times in Novice since were not ready for Open yet.

In the afternoon's trial, Gryff again Q'ed in Utility with another solid performance. Well, except for a lot of moving during the exam on the Moving Stand. We had 4 solid and confident article pickups for the day, something we've been working hard on since our last trial in December. He also Q'ed in Open, which earned him his 6th UDX leg. OB and UB finished up at right about the same time. I got called for a runoff in UB, and it was admittedly sloppy. Came out of that, watching others running off, then got called into OB for a runoff. Bonnie Burman was in the Utility ring for a runoff, and we were going at almost the same time. This last runoff felt the like the best one of the day. In Utility, we'd runoff for 4th against Laura R. and Flare and she won the runoff. We had a 195.5. In Open, we were in a 3 way runoff for 2nd in OB with a 198, ended up 3rd.

Joker failed right away because he was not looking at the broad jump and stepped on the first board. He also went down on his sit stay (which was after the down stay in the afternoon trial). However, he did once again put a smile on the judge's face, and I think his heeling was less ugly than usual :-). I was even able to see him on the 2nd outside Figure 8 ;-).

Kay Braddock and Jet Q'ed again in Utility A for another 1st place in the morning trial. A bit of bad luck kept them from Q'ing in the afternoon's trial. They've had a bunch of that during their short Utility A journey - one tiny error that's prevented a Q. I saw all but her Signals in both classes, and they looked great. Unlike a lot of Utility A dogs, Jet has generalized her performances well to the ring and looks as confident and solid there as training at home.

Nancy Stein and Reuben held it together to earn their 3rd leg in Novice B in the afternoon's trial. Stays have been really hard for Reuben to master, so it was great to hear that he did them with confidence.

Linda Owens and Pam Bannick both finished their UDX's in the afternoon's trial, and Linda earned High Combined with two scores of 198. Nice going, Linda!

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