07 June 2008

Danesford obedience show today. I took all the dogs with me to give the new van its first test. Thankfully Saffy's season is now over.
I entered each dog in 1 class as I was helping at the show. Ruby was drawn 9th in beginners. I did a training round with her. We started off by playing in the ring and then did a couple of set ups for heelwork and rewarded for setting off with me. The steward was wandering round the ring but Ruby was happy to play with her ball and ignore the steward. I did stays outside the ring later on. I did them near a shelter so I could practise going out of sight as I will need to do this for our gold test in a few weeks. Ruby stayed really well. She was watching all the dogs about coming and going but stayed nicely.She took no notice when I moved out of sight.

I only did the beginner stays with Dora as she was the only one I wanted to compete with so we did those next. I was a bit unsure whether she would do them but it was a nice cool day and she did them perfectly. After lunch we went to do our round. She was very good but kept going slightly wide which is unusual for her. After we finished the judge pointed out I had one of the ties on my jacket hanging down and it kept flapping in her face which was causing the wides. We only l;ost 3.5 marks on the heelwork and he said almost all of these were caused by the cord. At the end of the class we actually came fourth out of 56 entries, in spite of my mistake.

I did a training round with Saffy. She does like playing with squeaky toys but these are not allowed at shows as they distract other dogs so I had a different tuggy. Saffy played quite happily with it outside the ring bu when we went into the ring she looked at it like she had never seen it before and wouldn't play with it. I did get her to do some nice heelwork though. I then asked the steward to hold her so i could do a recall. she hasn't got the wait very well yet. I left Saffy, turned and faced her and called. and she shot across the ring like a nuclear missile and launched herself at me hitting me in the stomach with both paws nearly knocking me over. There were several loud gasps from the ring side. I however couldn't speak. The steward said Saffy has been sitting quietly not pulling at all until I called her.

We had a very nice day. The van was really good. We had loads of space. The dogs stayed in their cages when not working and I think they liked having their own space. Saffy really does not like going in a top cage but apart from that everyone is happy with it. I just need a little gas stove so I can make cups of tea and it will be perfect.