Big Days for Bethena; Iggy Wonders Why?

I'd cut to the chase, but what the "chase" is depends on your point of view. Iggy and Bethena both had fun at the 2 days of LRCGB obedience/rally-o. They love the added attention of having days devoted to THEM; they love seeing other dogs and people; and they loved spending time at their favorite swimming hole each morning before the long car ride. Perhaps having fun is the chase.



I learned a lot about what drives Iggy -- he (like many dogs) did great outside of the ring, heeling beautifully, looking at me with fearsome concentration, doing perfect recalls and finishes in warm-up. Inside the ring, Iggy seemed to be pondering a huge question: why were we inside all by ourselves when all the other dogs were outside where they could get treats and praise and attention? All the fun was on the outside. Of course, that meant that Iggy had to make his own fun. He found many things to sniff while on-lead "heeling" (and I use that term loosely); his off-lead work never really included "heeling" at all. He did beautiful recalls both days and the long sits and downs were no problem for him, even when a kid walked RIGHT behind him this afternoon carrying a hot dog. Iggy smelled the hot dog, looked the kid right in the eye, and watched him walk around the perimeter of the ring as long as he could but never even thought about getting up or changing position. He is truly awesome.

Perhaps learning something about what motivates us and what the difference is between "fun" heeling and NOT heeling is the chase.



Bethena did her (on-lead) rally novice b trial yesterday. She did well, tho it was a little bit of a slow start as she hadn't really gotten into the groove yet. Once she got by the first station, she did very well and got a fourth place with a 90. That was enough to qualify and get the third leg of her RN, so she is now Chablais Ragtime Waltz CD, RN. For some silly reason, I elected to do a "move-up" for today, putting her in the Rally Advanced class instead of having her do an extra Rally Novice leg. After I got home, Heide reminded me that part of Rally Advanced is the potential for the "off-set figure 8" -- in that exercise, the dog has to do a figure 8 around orange cones while IGNORING the treats placed in the food bowls adjacent to the figure 8 cones. The actual exercises included in any particular course are up to the judge's discretion.



As it turned out, there was no off-set figure 8 today. Bethena worked so well -- she truly shone. She was more excited (in a focused kind of way) than I've ever seen her before, even last July when she got the third leg of her CD -- her eyes were glittering she was having such a good time. I was a little nervous that she was going to go flying over the ring fence, because Advanced is all off-lead. Instead, she watched me the entire time, flew through the course, and her only "mistakes" (tho they were mistakes only when viewed through the rule-book, in my book she made no mistakes) were some crooked sits and moving her feet a bit on the stand. Because of the moving feet, we repeated the stand a couple of times, but she got it right the third time and ended up with an 88!!! If she hadn't moved on the stand (and if I hadn't forgotten to pause on the stand after all that work getting her to hold still), she would have had a 94 or 95. Truly impressive and she is such a good girl, she enjoyed herself so thoroughly. She ended up by qualifying for her first leg in Rally Advanced.

Is "the chase" synonymous with ribbons? I don't think so, but I know that Bethena had a good time.




As far as shows go, I think the future will hold rally advanced trials for Bethena in Hopkinton in July (Lakes Region Kennel Club) and novice obedience for Iggy in North Conway in September (Carroll County Kennel Club). At some point, we need to commit to doing open obedience work with Bethena, too, but that might not happen til next year.

In the meantime, I am just glad that they had a good time.




(Picture ids: first is Bethena in her pool in the backyard at home; second is Iggy at work with friend Mia in the background; third and fourth are Iggy on the left and Bethena on the right in the backyard; and the fifth is Bethena on the left and Iggy on the right in the backyard.)