Obedience Fun Match

This morning I took the dogs to an obedience fun match.  I entered both of them in Novice and in Rally.  Novice was first and both dogs did well.  Bosley had a rough start in the "heel on leash", he was too busy sniffing and looking around to pay attention to me.  The "figure 8" was a bit better and his "heel free" was pretty good (at that point he realized that I had treats in my pocket, so I am sure that is why he was suddenly more attentive).  He had a great recall and didn't break his long sit or long down.  We need to work more on "stand for exam".  He was wondering what a stranger was doing touching him, and he moved his back feet trying to look back at the judge.  Overall, he did quite good considering it was his first full Novice run through.  I do need to warm him up more before we get into the ring.  Once he realized we were out there to work, he did much better.  If he is not focused on me before we get into the ring, it is hard to get his attention once we get started.

Maggie had a good Novice run too.  She lagged a bit in  the "heel on leash", but that was my fault.  I was walking too slow and she was bored.  Once we got to the "figure 8" and "heel free"and I picked up my pace and she was great.   Her "recall" was good (sometimes she is slow coming to me, but today she wasn't) but I messed up the "finish" by double commanding.  I knew the second that I did it that I made an error - oops!  To finish off her run, she didn't even break her "long sit".  Lately she has been laying down during her sit-stay, but today she actually stayed sitting for the full minute!  I was very happy with Maggie's run, and to top it off, she got "High Score" in Novice.  When the judge called her number I was looking around to see who it was; it took me a minute to realize that it was actually Maggie!

We also did a small Rally course, which was fun and well needed practice.  Maggie did pretty good.  Bosley was still sniffy (no real warm-up).  I did get some good tips from the judge and that should help us out at the Rally trial that is coming up next weekend (yikes, less than a week to get ready).  

The dogs got rewarded for their good efforts with a nice long run in the coulees.  The weather was turning cold and nasty, so of course that made the run all the better for them.