17 May 2008

We went to Southport Obedience show today. We set out early so that I could take the dogs for a run on the beach first. We got there about 8:00 and had a lovely long walk. I made sure I took the camera with me as I wanted to take pictures of the dogs on the beach, but unfortunately I walked out to the sea and then found I had left the camera in the car. The dogs had a wonderful time running round. there is so much space at southport. We walked out as far as the sea. All the dogs ran in and out of the waves.
Saffy was a bit confused about why she couldn't drink the water, She kept tasting it in different places as if she couldn't believe it all tasted bad. Unfortunately She made herself a bit sick drinking the water but it didn't stop her chasing Ruby for miles. I did start to wonder if bringing them to the beach before the show was a good idea as they ran so much but they soon recovered.

When we got to the show Saffy was drawn in her beginner class. this really makes a change as normally it is Dora who is drawn. We were only going to do a training round so it worked out well as it gave Dora more time to rest after her walk.

Unfortunately when we went into the ring I realised Saffy was limping and on checking saw she had cut her foot so we came out of the ring.

As Dora had a problem staying last week I decided I would train her novice stays. She did them really well. She didn't go down in the sit at all. Then I took her in to do her beginner round and she worked really well. Her heelwork was excellent. . We only lost 4 marks and went into the lead.

We then went to do the beginner stays, however these didn't go quite as well. Dora went down at 53 seconds on the sit, and sat up on the down when I returned. This is not something she usually does. I think it was a mistake to train the novice stays so close to the beginner ones.

Next I took Ruby in to do her round. Again I just trained it. I asked her to play and asked the judge and steward to just wander around the ring. Ruby very quickly started playing with her football and I could see she was aware of the people near her but it didn't stop her playing with me. This is a huge improvement for a dog that at one time could only play at home in the garden. At one time she was not able to stop watching people near her.

After Lunch I took Both Saffy and Ruby to train stays at different times. We did them outside the ring so we could have some of the effects. We had the calls of time and return to your dogs etc. I trained Ruby during an A stay and did the same times so Ruby did a two minute sit stay and a 3 minute down stay which she managed well. She was quite happy sitting with people and dogs round about. She never tried to move at all even when people walked by quite close.

I trained Saffy while a pre-beginner stay was taking place. I didn't leave her for the full minute as she is not ready for theat yet, but she did the 2 minute downstay.

after that I went to check my score in the beginner class and found that even with Dora breaking her stay we could still be placed.

I then trained Dora in her novice round. this is quite hard to do as she really only likes working for food and you cannot take food into the ring. I did take a toy with me and she played with it a bit. I mainly used the round to get her to ignore the stewards commands. In the recall when the steward said call your dog I didn't. Dora started to come when she heard the steward and then stopped and sat back down when she realised I didn't actually call her. Hopefully if I do this sometimes she will learn not to anticipate as much.

We then went back t the beginner ring and found out I was 6th with Dora. We would have been second if she had done the stays. there were 50 people in the class so I was veery pleased with this result. I can see lots more stay training in Dora's future.