Ugh... Obedience

I get in these moods sometimes. Like all of the sudden I want to show my dog or dogs in obedience. I get super motivated and enter shows and practice all the time. Then just as quickly I get out of the obedience mood.

I am out of the obedience mood now, but the one time a year show specific to Malinois only (American Belgian Malinois National Specialty) is in California this year. They are offering obedience, rally (an easier type of obedience with different exercises) agility and regular dog show conformation. So I entered everything. Which means I had to start practicing obedience again. The problem was I was not in the mood. So I put it off and put it off and still couldn't get in the mood and then with one week to go, I finally started practicing, and we are having problems. I am leaving for the show tomorrow (it is in Sacramento) so it is too late to fix the problems.

However, this could be a good thing. If we do poorly at the obedience portion, I will stay out of the obedience mood, and can spend my time doing more fun things like agility, tracking, walking or ball throwing. None of my friends are currently showing in obedience, so when I practice, it is just Pie and I. Setting up by myself is a pain and set up and take down takes up time also.

This is the ring I have to set up. The two jumps and the baby gates in the back. The reason for the gates is there is an exercise where the dog has to run away from you in a straight line, go between the jumps and stop and sit on command. The baby gates are a visual marker. You train the dog to run to the gates because that is what is used in a trial to block off the different rings. Sometimes Pie want to take a jump on the way to the gates but that would cause us to fail. After the dog stops and sits by the gates the judge tells you which jump to tell your dog to take. In this case you can give a hand signal and a verbal command. Such as moving your left arm while saying over to get the dog to take the jump on the left. The going away from you is called the "go outs" and the jumping is called "directed jumping." I call it a lot of work to haul jumps and baby gates around. Picture me doing it in the Miata before I had the Buick... it only worked with the top down.

This is a nice park I was at today. I've been kicked out of a few parks in Camarillo for training my dogs off leash, but not this one. I got a nice view of the Camarillo Airport and I would have been able to see the ocean but it was too hazy. But I did spot one of "our" airplanes on approach to Channel Islands ANGS.

Here is Fancy enjoying watching Pie do all the work.

Fancy says, "Good job on the 'Retrieve Over the Jump' exercise, Pie."

I thought Fancy's cheeky attitude needed adjusted, so I put her to work helping Pie practice the "Long Sit- Out of Sight." In competition, the dogs all sit together in a line for three minutes while the handlers go out of the dog's sight. I usually practice it for five minutes. See why it is easy to get out of the obedience mood? It is boring to hide behind a car while your dog sits out in the middle of a park for five minuets. And even more boring when you hide and they hold a down for ten minutes!

This is the view from behind the car. Thrillsville.

Pie has her Utility Dog (UD) title, which means I'm trying for her Utility Dog Excellent (UDX.) This means she must do everything correctly in not one, but two times in the ring, completing the open level and utility level exercises. If she qualifies in open and utility in the same day she gets one "leg" towards her UDX. You need 10 legs. If she does even one thing wrong, such as moving too much when the judge pets her during the "stand for exam" exercise, you will not get a UDX leg that day, even though you do the other 10 or so exercises correctly. This means not only is it a lot of work and hard, but I have to practice the open and utility exercises. That also puts me out of the obedience mood.

Maybe after Pie is old I will be back in the obedience mood. For now, I think agility is more fun for both of us.