This weekend the team and I headed down to Catawba, SC to attend the CDSP obedience trial. As usual, C2P2 (the hosting club) put on a great trial, with a wonderful, supportive, and friendly atmosphere.
Spark showed in Utility B and Open C in both trials. She qualified in all 4 runs, which was awesome! She did struggle a bit initially, adjusting to the pressure and the new environment. We had one major error where she dropped the dumbbell and jumped sideways as she was returning on the retrieve on the flat, when the judge walked around behind her as she approached front. She was able to pick the dumbbell up and finish the front, but this told me that I need to work a little more on being comfortable with the judge moving around to check her fronts. I suspect I also need to work on judge pressure and movement in general, since this is unlikely to be unique to this one exercise. So we’ll be adding that to our homework list for the next couple weeks.
I was especially happy that her figure 8s were flawless, and she really drove around the right loops on both. That’s something we’ve been working on. We also had 3 Drop on Recalls in a row, and she nailed all 3 and didn’t anticipate the down once! We also attempted the “Baseball” glove exercise for the first time, and she was a rockstar! She had the added challenge of the steward adjusting the 3 and 1 gloves a few times during the set up, which was a real proofing challenge. But her send out was straight and true, and her sit fast and clean. We got glove #2 (directly behind her) and she spun on a dime and grabbed it! Good girl! She did add a little extra flair to the exercise by offering a drop with the glove half way back to me (too many DORs? LOL!), but again completed the exercise. Silly girl! She earned 19 more OTCH points this weekend, but I have no idea what that puts her total up to. She finished the weekend with 2 High in Trials and 2 High Combineds. Clever girl!
Gambit and Rugby came along for the ride. Gambit’s back is still a little sore, so he sat this one out. Rugby is not quite ready, so I am resisting temptation to enter him for a few more months. Both had some fun hanging out and soliciting attention from everyone. And they both had some successful training. I’m feeling really good about both of them for the future.
