The Show Life -- October 20, 2007

In spite of all of the challenges which Bing has brought to my life, we have managed to do some pretty neat things of which I’m proud.

We spent much of this past summer taking group and private lessons in agility with our excellent instructor, Joanne Stock. My goal in early spring was to at least BEGIN to trial him (and Acacia) by the end of summer. Actually, that was Joanne’s goal…I didn’t have faith! We did enter and compete in three agility trials at the end of summer, and the little tiny successes fuelled my momentum to continue with agility next year.

You read about our first agility trial in blog #33, but I haven’t yet written about our second and third trials. In these, I learned that Bing is doing better on his first run of the day, but by the time his second run comes around (usually Jumpers with Weaves -- JWW), he’s had it with waiting and not being able to play with dogs. He’s very distracted by dogs outside the ring and wanting to leave the exit at the end of the run instead of waiting for me…oooo boy, this is something we need to work on! He also has become obsessed by the intensity of Border collies. Their movement style seems to excite him immensely and he has tried to leave the ring to go find them. Oy. If I want to do agility with him, we MUST address this! Fortunately, I have the help of my friend Leslie McDevitt and her cool teaching tool, an activity called “Look at That”.  In this activity, you allow your dog to look at another dog; while he is looking at the dog, you click. Your dog turns back to you and you treat. In this manner, you are giving your dog permission to look around, but calmly. It takes the taboo out of looking at stuff. It’s brilliant. If your dog can’t turn back to you for the treat, you’re too close. After this trial, we spent lots of time doing this at agility class and have had some success with it.

Acacia told me that she does not like JWW; too many jumps. It’s tough on her 9 year old body, and I will respect that. So from now on, we will just do Novice Standard. She LOVES the contact equipment! Acacia was my star in agility; she took first place and qualified in her third attempt at Novice Standard for her class…I was so proud of her! We need to work on her being able to do equipment with me farther away, but she really enjoyed herself for that one run a day and that’s what we’ll continue to do. I attribute the habit of working near me to all the work we have done through her reactivity. In all this time, it was extremely important for her to be near me and check in with me; this makes doing agility difficult, but I’m up for the new challenge with my “beauty.”

All of this agility talk is not meant to overshadow our Rally-O work! In mid-October we went to a rally trial and I competed with both dogs in levels 1 and 2, and with Acacia in level 3. This is an environment in which they are substantially more comfortable; the trials are attended by fewer people so they are quieter, and I know many more people at the trials so it’s very much more laid back for me. The dogs are also much quieter and relaxed; in agility, people are walking around, tugging with their dogs and revving them up. Not so much in rally, so it’s an easier place for Bing to focus.

Bing competed in two Level 1’s and two Level 2’s, and his scores were amazing! My crazy little Belgian scored 199, 199, 196, and 198! None of these were the highest scores in his class, but it was an outside trial and his scores have been slowly going up. He is becoming more consistent, as you can see. AND he earned TWO QQ’s toward his ARCH! YAY for Bing! However, his heeling stinks and it is something we MUST work on! After Arizona, I am determined to work hard on his heeling over winter and have something to really show for it in spring.

Acacia didn’t have quite as nice a day, but she did well. Having just earned her ARCHX, she now has to earn 10 QQs in Levels 2 and 3 with scores of 195 or higher...yikes! At this trial, she earned a PERFECT 210 in Level 2, then got a 199 in Level 3 (we have not trialed in Level 3 since she earned her title at that level) and received a scolding from our judge because I never taught her to retrieve (we would have scored a 209 had she been able to do the retrieve bonus exercise). So she received her first QQ toward her ARCHEX, and I became motivated to look into Shirley Chong’s retrieve protocol. In the afternoon, Acacia got a 197 in Level 2 and NQd in Level 3; she refused to take the recall over the jump. At first it surprised me, but then I quickly realized that the jump is a square bar obedience jump, which she hasn’t seen in quite a few years. She did, however, do well in the rest of the course, so I was still proud of her. So we do have a long way to go for our ARCHEX.

It’s only a few days until we have our long drive out to Arizona for some more rally…who knows what excitement that will bring! It’s been a great opportunity to work with both dogs but especially Bing and all of his quirks and to figure out what things we need to work on…the list seems to be ever growing. We had a full autumn of showing in our household, and Pete has been fabulous at supporting us in our endeavors. I just hope he’s still talking to us after Arizona!

Ali

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