11 May 2008

We went to Wirral ATS obedience show today. this is a lovely show held in Wirral country park so we were able to go for a walk in the woods while we were there.

Dora worked 3rd in her beginner round. I had planned to train this one and then work her novice round but as it was already very warm I changed my mind and worked the beginner round. Dora works much better early and doesn't like heat much. She did some very nice heelwork although she was not as lively as she can be so the heat was already affecting her. She did a lovely retrieve with a nice straight present. We lost 6 points altogether on the round.

Unfortunately Dora really does not like doing stays when it is hot and usually slides into a down rather than staying sitting and this is what she did in her novice stays which were held before the Beginner stays. I took her out of the ring and did not do the down stay after she failed the sit. We then had beginner stays only 45 minutes afterwards. I was in two minds whether to do them as she hadn't done the Novice stays but as we were in the running for a place so decided I would. However Dora had other ideas and lay down after only 7 seconds so we were out of the running then.

I took Saffy into the ring for another training round we played first of all and then did a little heelwork. We did a recall with the steward holding her collar and I called her to me and encouraged her to come really fast and jump up at me. She has plenty of enthusiasm for recalls. i then threw the dumbell and let her run out and get it. .

I then did a training round with Ruby. We had to wait outside the ring for some time for our turn and she was very good. there were a few people and dogs there but she was very good ignoring the dogs and she went up to several people to say hello and let them make a fuss of her. As she was so nervous of people at one time this is a huge improvement.

In the ring I asked her to do the heel on lead as if we were doing a proper round. She did it but not very happily so I got her ball and we had a game with it then I asked her for some more heelwork and had another game. That was much better. We then did a recall. Ann held her lead while I walked away and then called her. She did a lovely present. I asked for a finish and she tried to go through my legs rather than round. I am sure she does this because she thinks it is funny. She seemed reasonably relaxed in the ring. I threw the dumbell for her to fetch which she did. This was the most Ruby has done as a training round. We still have a long way to go to get a round which is competitive but it is not seeming so unlikely as it once did.

After we had done all the rounds we went for a walk through the woods which the dogs enjoyed.