Sunday: Open A and Rally Exc B

Well, Sunday was a better day. We got there early and met up with the boxer from the day before. We did some heeling together and stays. Scorch was fine with him; certainly not interested in playing but happily ignored his presence. I'll take that. The boxer's handler admired Scorch's attention and happy attitude. I had loved the boxer's pounce on the dumbbell the day prior, but that was the only part of his performance I got to see.

We went into the Open A ring under judge Harold Doan, who had previously judged us in Rally. Scorch felt much better walking in; calmer and more in control.

Heel free: This got off to a great start. His slow transition and first sit were great. He went wide on the about turns and bumped me on the left, but his fast transition and quick halts made me happy. Maybe he was a touch forge-y on the halts... it looked like the judge might have marked me off. It's funny, some judges mark us off and some don't... probably those with forge-y dogs who understand that it's my dog's default position. I also understand how it's scorable forging. But I'm VERY pleased with his heeling. We're working on tighter about turns.

Figure 8: Oh boy. Scorch definitely knows that the judge has the dumbbell and his bumping me on the inside turn was awful and interfering... the whining also started at this point. I guess it's good that he's come so far from the dog that thought the dumbbell was "icky" (and no force fetch... EVER). Time to start working with dumbbells as a distraction more often (especially HIS dumbbell).

Drop on recall: Late but I don't care. Hurray Scorch!

Retrieve on the flat: That was the worst admissible throw ever! But my little champ tore out after it, worked through a distraction and... didn't sit. But that was AWESOME, good boy Scorch!

Retrieve over the high jump: Well, at least he didn't anticipate! During set up, he whined and got antsy. He came back around the jump... and it was such a good throw too! Ah well, things to work on. I'm proud of him for being slightly less frenetic. Then I had to tie my shoe, and my boyfriend didn't want the world to see him filming my butt so... the camera goes haywire for a second. :)

Broad jump: Wellllll... he jumped 2 boards instead of 0.5! He was headed directly for the center of the jump and I think he second guessed himself. Oh well, we were already NQ'd. The judge said my dog needs some downers or prozac. :) Probably true! I get jazzed up and it goes right down the (invisible) leash.

Out of sight stays: WE DID GROUPS TODAY!!! HURRAY!!! Scorch sat next to the boxer. As soon as we left, the boxer laid down and was really close to Scorch... but not quite interference close. The judge almost called the owner back, but decided he was ok. Whatever, because Scorch STAYED SEATED FOR THE ENTIRE THREE MINUTES!!!! Four out of the seven dogs laid down on the sit... not my boy!!!!

Then, during the down-stay, apparently the boxer got up, looked at Scorch, looked at the husky on the other side, and decided to go play with the husky. Hmmm, maybe it's a good thing Scorch told him off outside the ring... because if a strange boxer had tried to interfere with Scorch, he might have been missing a face. The husky and the boxer were both out of the ring when we returned... and my boy was holding his down-stay and hadn't moved an inch. SO PROUD.



Only one dog qualified in Open A on Sunday; but it was a very nice group of people and I enjoyed chatting with them during the stays.

After we were done, I did some quick tugging and heeling-with-treats, then I had to run over to the Rally walkthrough. The course was more challenging somehow (although we still have never encountered "heel backwards 3 steps"). I was happy to see a broad jump... that meant that Scorch would get a positive encounter with it. He kept looking back at "dad" during set-up, but boy when I said "ready", he locked on.

I took a tiny step on the 90 degree pivot, losing 5 points. Without that, we would have had a 98 and won the class... c'est la vie! It's funny, because I was most worried about the 180 degree pivot... so of course, I did that perfectly. Still, we finished 4th and completed our Rally Excellent title. :) As judge Withers says... YAY!!!!!