Bethena's Lucky Day; Iggy Gets His Backside Wet

SO, today was the first day of the LRCPV (Labrador Retriever Club of the Pioneer Valley) specialty in Westfield, MA. Bethena was entered in her first rally obedience trial and there was a CGC (Canine Good Citizen) test that Iggy could take.

Bethena went first, so let's start with her:

We had a miserable class yesterday, she was totally distracted and I realized at the very END of class that she didn't feel well, as she had a LOT of wicked soft stool right after we left class. All of her time spent trying to drag me to the door for the last 10 minutes of class was because she was trying to be a good girl and go outside (although I had taken her outside about 5 minutes before that, so didn't think that was the issue). Anyway, it was fairly frustrating because I ended up feeling horrible that she was sort-of sick when I thought she was just being a brat.

The drive down to Westfield was also miserable, it poured almost the entire way. The radio stations all kept saying "a chance of showers." Apparently their meteorologists don't have windows.

Once we got there and parked, I took both dogs for a little walk, then put Ig back in the car and went to practice a little with Bethena. She did great, much better and more focused than yesterday; I kept popping her treats. I think she does know what a show is and knew that we were there to do a routine in a ring.

Given that she knew what was going on, you KNOW she's going to have to find a way to get attention, right?

As we're practicing, we start with some heeling then some 360 turns, and she is smokin'. The we do the (really easy) halt, sit, and walk around your dog. WELL, Bethena now thinks that doing a left-had pivot is so much fun (she does it with a little dance and wiggle that's impossible to describe) that whenever I start to go in front of her, she's pivots to the left. She's really enjoying herself. She does it again and again and again. I'm telling her that we're not practicing the pivot, but it is clear from the expression on her face that we are practicing the pivot, I'm just using the wrong command to get her to do it.

I finally manage to get her to sit and stay like she's supposed to while I walk around her and after that, everything's ok. It's still pouring off and on, but she loves the rain and has always done the best when it's been raining. We let a couple of people go ahead of us because they have conflicts in the breed ring.

The pattern wasn't tough, the judge very nicely made a point of not putting in exercises where different judges interpret the requirements differently. We started with a long heel to the other side of the ring, then a left turn at station one to station two, which was a sit then down then forward from a down. The biggest problem was that Bethena never sat.

Instead, she spent quite awhile about 3 feet away from me tracking something and then standing in one spot with her nose as close to the dirt as she could get it, inhaling deeply. I called her to heel, she ignored me. I called her again, still nothing. I raised my voice a little (knowing I was going to get points off for harshness). Nothing. I called a little louder: "Earth to Bethena...." Nothing.

Finally, I took her collar and got her to my side where she sat and we did the rest of the exercises without trouble. Of course there wasn't a problem -- I was pretty sure we had NQ'ed (not qualified) because of the loud voice and collar and her not doing what she was supposed to. Why wouldn't she be close to perfect once she had everyone's attention?

As I'm about to leave the ring with her, the judge comes up and says that "there was a stop-watch malfunction" and that I could choose to take the score I had or to repeat the entire exercise. (The stopwatch is important because if there is a numerical tie between two dogs, the dog with the shortest time gets placed before the other dog.)

Once I picked my jaw back up from where it was hanging loosely, I said "but didn't I just NQ?"

The judge said she couldn't tell me that before I made my decision, so I said "well, yeah, let's do it over."

The judge says "Good call!"

She hadn't NQ'ed me (tho she said lots of judges would have) but had given us a "substantial deduction" for handler error (i.e. harshness and correcting in the ring).

So, Bethena got to do the entire course again. She was awesome and got a 95 (out of 100), tied for second place. (Here's where the stopwatch comes in.) She did the course a full twenty seconds faster than the other dog with a 95 so she got the second place red rosette and her first leg in Rally Novice. More importantly, she got a stuffed toy that she carried all the way back to the car and only grudgingly gave up when I put her back in her crate. Not to mention that she had a great time.

Now it's Iggy's turn.

We go for a walk and I try to warm him up with a simple sit.

No.

He won't do it.

The ground is wet. His bottom does not sit on wet grass/dirt/sand/gravel. Nuh-uh, no way, not in this lifetime. I try food lures -- he backs up or jumps up for the lure. I try an arm behind his knees to get his legs to bend. I am begging, pleading, coaching. Nothing. Won't sit.

Finally, Iggy sits but will only do it for a fraction of a second before he pops back up. I'm thinking there is no way he's going to get a CGC today, I shouldn't waste the $10.00. Instead, we go into the barn where the raffle is and look at all the stuff. There's a woman in there looking at the stuff too, and she has treats. Iggy latches right on to her. He plops his butt down and gazes up at her. Sheesh.

We go back outside after a bit and Iggy slowly gets more comfortable with sitting. I think he was also getting more comfortable with the whole show environment (he had only been to a couple before) and he was getting tired. At this point, he would even lie down and was doing a great job of heeling. We go to the barn where the CGC test is.

We enter the barn and are standing, waiting, and Iggy sees another male (intact, Iggy is neutered). Ig starts toward him with an odd barky noise that could have meant almost anything but was just harsh enough for me to have to correct him (in front of the CGC judge) by telling him no and having him lie down (which he did without any problem). He never had raised hackles or anything like that, but whether the bark was frustration and not being able to play with/meet the other dogs or was "I don't like you," it wasn't a normal "Hi, I'm Iggy" sort of bark. I assume that he's going to be excused, but the judge said she'd see how it went.

Iggy did great with all the basics -- "sit" and "down" and meeting a stranger and meeting a strange dog (he licked her muzzle). Then we did the crowd-mingling -- I deliberately took him pretty close to some other dogs and he was fine. On the way back into the barn, he stopped to sniff the corner of the doorway. He was pretty interested in it. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that a rule from obedience also applies to the CGC: a dog is not allowed to urinate during the test.

When I turn around, everyone in the barn is holding their breath and I get Iggy in and they all go "whooooo, that was close!"

By the time we got to the official "sit" and "down" in the CGC test, Ig was in true heeling mode and was sitting automatically (go figure). Of course, the tester wanted to see him respond to a command so she finally had me put him in a stand, which he did well. However, then when I tried to get him to sit, he wouldn't until I said "release" (from the stand) and THEN repeated "sit"!!!!! Good boy!!!! After that, we did a recall and some heeling and Iggy did very, very well and earned his CGC.

On the way back to the car, Ig stopped to check out a big rock that was stuck in the dirt. He tried to get it out so he could play with it but figured out pretty quickly just by nosing and mouthing it that it wasn't going to move. Unfortunately, it had recently been marked with flourescent orange coloring so people wouldn't trip over it. He got lots of laughs walking back to the car with his orange nose.

Iggy and I did a novice run-thru at the end of class yesterday and he did pretty well with that. Given that he ended up doing well this morning, I think we'll try to practice a bunch outside and then maybe enter LRCGB (Labrador Retriever Club of Greater Boston) June 14 and 15. Closing date for entries isn't until May 30, so we have time to think. Bethena can enter rally obedience there as well.

Tomorrow is day 2 at LRCPV.... I believe that Bethena is napping right now, saving up her energy.