Fall CKC trials

In early November, I entered Piper in a two rally novice runs and one obedience pre-novice run at the Georgina Kennel Club Trial. The trial was held in Lindsay, about half an hour from my parent's house, so travel was easy. It was probably the largest trial we had entered, with rally, obedience, and two conformation rings. The whole arena was full of dogs!

Piper was first dog on the line in the obedience ring, and rocked her final pre-novice leg. Yahoo!

We then had to wait about two hours for our first rally run. She already had a leg from the previous winter, and had her ASCA RN from the summer, so I was nervous but didn't doubt she would qualify. Hubris haha. I walked the course and it was a little awkward, but not very many fronts (which I struggle with). When it was our turn, we seemed to breeze through...until we got the second last sign and I thought "hey, I thought there was a similar sign near the beginning of the course...oh shit". I walked right past the third sign on the course. Stupid, nervous Kelly! So we didn't qualify in that run, even though everything else was beautiful. Oh well.

Waiting around another few hours for our second run, we chatted with a woman who had a Toller set up next to us. Turns out I had met her before through a mutual friend. My mom and her friend also stopped in to watch our last run. Now all of a sudden I'm surrounded by people I know and the pressure's on!

Piper warmed up beautifully as we prepared to go into the ring. The judge is already in the ring as we walk in. All of a sudden, Piper won't stop staring at her. I get her attention to start the course. Once we get going, she looks back at the judge again. The poor judge can't figure out what she's done...I can't figure out what she's done! Piper continues to half pay attention to me and half to the judge throughout the entire course. It was super sloppy, with tons of out-of-position marks off, but the judge passed us. I actually can't believe she scored us as well as she did! The only thing I can think of that threw Piper off was that there may have been a noise as she entered the ring. Maybe she associated it with the judge? It was just an odd run.

I do for sure think we both need practice at trials, specifically with ring nerves and proofing. We are going to do our best to find a few mock trials, or maybe even enter a few trials as exhibition.

So now Piper was only one Q away from her CKC RN, and boy was I determined! I found out there was a trial only an hour from Bracebridge the following weekend, and our old instructor was judging! After confirming we were allowed to compete under her, and confirming we were allowed day-of entries, we arrived at the trial the following weekend.

It was a much smaller trial, and Piper was the third dog on the line. I've noticed our early-in-the-day runs are ALWAYS our best. Anyways, it was a phenomenal run. We came out with a score of 99 - only 1 point off for out of position. My faith was restored after our crummy rally runs the weekend before.

Piper heeling in our 3rd qualifying RN run. She really is awesome :)

We are now in an advanced rally class to learn the new signs and practice working off leash. I hope to join our old friends at the Peterborough Obedience Club for their May trial. I was also hoping to try entering in novice obedience, but I'm not sure I will be confident enough for that. Time will tell!

CKC trial, February 9, 2014

Last month, I entered Piper in a CKC trial run by the Hamilton Dog Obedience Club (HDOC). We were entered in two runs of Pre-Novice Obedience, and one run of Rally Novice. We stayed overnight with a friend in Waterloo, so were easily able to make it to the trial on time (arrival at 8:00 am). I found an empty spot and set up Piper's crate, with my chair in front of it.

We had the very first run of the morning at 9:00 am (lucky us!), with Pre-Novice Obedience. Pre-Novice (PCD) is a class that goes before the traditional Novice (CD) (obviously), however it is voluntary. You don't have to finish your PCD before you try for your CD. The exercises are very similar, however easier.  We spent about 15 minutes warming up before we went in, and Piper did pretty well, although I was very nervous. We had a few spots with tight leashes, and a sloppy sit, but other than that we did quite well! There was a Golden Retriever and Belgian Turveurn in our class as well. Since it was pass/fail, there was no winner.

After that, we had a few hours of waiting around. I pulled Piper out of her crate about every 45 minutes to let her stretch her legs, and she was very good. Didn't make a peep while in her crate. I was also in luck, because I had set up Piper's crate in the middle of a group of CDT (Companion Dog Training) people, several of whom I had met before at various fun matches. One lady with a German Shepherd was competing in Utility (the highest obedience level), but was not having a successful weekend. She and her dog were entered in all four trials that weekend, and hadn't succeeded in earning even one qualifying score. The woman on the other side of my had two Cocker Spaniels and was fairly new to obedience, although she had quite a bit of experience with field trials, and beside her was a couple with two Irish Red and White Setters. Both were fascinating to talk with, I enjoyed hearing their stories about all the other dogs they had had and the trials and training issues they had faced.

Our next run was Novice Rally at around noon. We were entered in Novice A, since Piper doesn't have any other CKC titles. The course was essentially three straight lines, with signs all along. There was more heeling involved than I have seen in other rally courses. We kind of suck at heeling. We sped through the course in 1 minute 15 seconds (you are given 2 minutes), and although we did all the stations perfectly, we lost four points for having a tight leash and three points for being out of position. Sigh. Clearly we need to work on heeling. We finished with a score of 93 (out of 100), which is a pretty good score. We got second place out of four. I suspect I was maybe walking too fast, not talking to her enough because I was nervous, and probably not signaling with my body enough. Also, it's possible I didn't warm her up enough or practice enough before we went into the ring. Still pretty good though, and it was definitely a qualifying run!

We had to wait another few hours for our last Pre-Novice Obedience run. I had been nervous of this one for several hours - the judge was a very tall, very loud, black man. Piper (as a typical Aussie) tends to be reserved around strangers, and I had no idea how she was going to react to this judge when he did the examination. We did fairly well with the heeling patterns, and when it came to the examination, Piper not only allowed the judge to touch her, but raised her head so he could scratch her chin! Sometimes that girl boggles my mind. When it came to the sit-stay at the end, Piper broke and lay down with only 10 second left. When I returned to her, the other dogs and handlers were dismissed, and the judge allowed me to re-do the sit-stay, which was very kind of him. We passed, but only because he allowed us the re-do! And so Piper earned her second (out of three) qualifying run towards her PCD. There was the same Belgian Turveurn as in the morning, and a Sheltie in this class as well. 

It was a long day, but successful! Piper now has two legs towards her PCD title, and one leg towards her RN title. Hopefully in the spring we will be able to trial again and finish.