TNT
  • Home
  • Grooming
  • Wellness
  • Dog Sports
    • more than good looks
    • brain work
    • therapy dogs
    • fit dogs
    • water sports
    • scent work
    • high drive sports
    • pulling sports
  • Poodles
    • Tripp
    • Brag Wall
    • The Dog Blog
    • YouTube Channel
  • Local Info
    • Recomended Businesses
    • Things to Do
    • Dog Events Nearby
  • About Me
    • Stuff for sale
    • Contact Info
    • Continuing Education

The Dog Blog

Adventures in Poodle training...

Back On His Game

9/17/2014

0 Comments

 
The newest UKC club in our region, United Dog Sports of Northern New England, held it's fabulous inaugural event this Sept. in Scarborough, ME at Wassamki Springs.  It was a wonderful turnout and a lovely venue to boot.  UDSNNE offered Conformation shows, as well as both Rally & Obedience over the weekend.

I had a seminar planned that was cancelled, so I decided to do a day of show entry on Sunday.  I never intended to get into UKC Obedience, but I figured what the heck.  Go for one more title, and if we're lucky, Total Dog while we're at it.  And of course it's good practice for our other trials.  Plus entering conformation now and then let's me put to use what I've learned in workshops, etc.  Well... at least TRY to.  LOL  If nothing else it keeps my handling "skills" from getting totally rusty!

Read More
0 Comments

Best NQ ever... 

9/4/2014

0 Comments

 
AKC Obedience Trials, Aug. 30-31
Merrimack Valley Kennel Club
Judges: 
Lynda Moore (Sat. Graduate Novice, Sun. Pre-Open)
             Linda Ferrullo (Sat. Pre-Open)
             James Ashton (Sun. Graduate Novice)


This appears to be our new Labor Day weekend tradition - Obedience trials in Amherst.  Well, you can't pick the show dates, you gotta take what they give you.  Not that I mind one bit, of course... as if there's something better to do over a holiday?  ;-)

Saturday Tripp did wonderfully.  I wish the battery in my camera had held out, unfortunately I only got part of his first ring time and missed the rest.  But you can see how well he did - not absolutely perfect, but upbeat, relatively attentive, and only a few of his typical minor positioning faults.  He was like that all day!  :-)  What a bummer when he NQed in Grad. Nov. during the dumbbell recall.  But how funny too - he sneezed the dumbbell out!  It was just a little sneeze, but enough to make him drop the bell... poor boy wasn't sure what to do, so he continued coming to front as I had told him.  Well, it wasn't a bad choice on his part.  It wouldn't have made any difference anyway if he had picked up the bell and finished the retrieve, we still wouldn't have qualified.  Oh well.  Stuff happens, and it was pretty darn cute I must say!  Every other exercise in the class was done beautifully - heeling patterns, drop on recall, recall over high & broad jumps, long down - our final score would have been in the 190's if we'd Qed... considering we're limited on practice, that's nothing to sneeze at.  hehehe
Later in Pre-Open class (which is the same as regular Open, but without the group exercises, and lower jump heights) Tripp gave a repeat performance.  This time his retrieves were solid, heeling & recall were even better than before, but for some reason he missed the broad jump (stepped on the first board).  So yet another NQ on what would've been another high score. 
Sunday Tripp became the most ironic dog at the trial.  His performance was a stark contrast to the day before's.  He was extremely sloppy, distracted, and even moody both in and out of the ring.  Not like him at all (time to see the chiropractor again!)  But even though he was as horrible as I've ever seen him behave, he qualified in both classes!  I hardly think he deserved it, but obviously I will take it, and be thankful the weekend wasn't a total loss. 
In Pre-Open we somehow managed to earn a 191 & 1st place, despite Tripp's fault-ridden performance.  I think the judge was being generous (although she's not known as lenient, so maybe I'm being hard on ourselves as usual.)  He just wasn't nearly as good as on Saturday.  I would've expected to score that well in Rally, perhaps, but not in traditional, precision Obedience. 
Things only got worse from there.  In Grad. Nov. Tripp was an absolute mess.  That's not nitpicking either.  At one point I actually expected to get kicked out of the ring he was so bad.  Seriously!  But miracle of all miracles, he squeaked by with a 185.5, and as no other team Qed, we even got a default blue ribbon.  Okay, whatever.  Take the leg and run, I say.

I guess a 50% passing rate isn't too bad in these increasingly harder levels... but can I credit his wins to Saturday's performance instead? ;-)  haha
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    Tripp headshot by Sue Collura

    Categories

    All
    Agility
    Freestyle
    Grooming
    Hunting
    Obedience
    Poetry
    Puppy
    Rally O
    Shows/Trials
    Training
    Travel
    Versatility
    Weight Pull

    Archives

    August 2019
    November 2018
    July 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    April 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    December 2009
    August 2009

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Grooming
  • Wellness
  • Dog Sports
    • more than good looks
    • brain work
    • therapy dogs
    • fit dogs
    • water sports
    • scent work
    • high drive sports
    • pulling sports
  • Poodles
    • Tripp
    • Brag Wall
    • The Dog Blog
    • YouTube Channel
  • Local Info
    • Recomended Businesses
    • Things to Do
    • Dog Events Nearby
  • About Me
    • Stuff for sale
    • Contact Info
    • Continuing Education