Another great show at Lab Specialty and new RE Title
by Rebecca & Krystal with big red lab Sandy :0) (no login)
Well, this is how our Thursday and Friday Lab Specialty show held at Champoeg State Park went with Sandy. Thursday was predicted to be extremely hot and it was. The trial got behind schedule so we did not get into the ring until around 1pm. We had Sandy entered in Novice Obedience, Graduate Novice, and Rally Excellent for both days. He already has his CD, but we entered him to keep his skills up and I need the extra ring practice. Plus, Specialties are always a lot of fun and who knows you can earn a placement or even shoot for High In Trial. Graduate Novice is a non-regular class so no credit there towards a leg but it was a chance to test him on some more advanced open skills like out of sight down, drop on recall, dumbell recall, high jump, broad jump,etc.
Anyhow, there were 7 dogs entered in Novice B and we took 2nd place...I was proud of my boy since it was hot and most of the ring was in the sun....he scored 174/200 which was not bad since 1st got a 179 and she was an experienced dog with performance lines from a breeder. Then right after I had him perform his graduate novice exercises. He did better on the heeling but refused the broad jump and some other bobbles thus got a low score but hey you don't have to qualify. He got 1st out of 1 dog---me--so not a real win there but some great practice and learning. Then Krystal was up next to try for his RE final leg. Well, as you can guess that was WAY TOO much to be asking of any dog and he performed miserably. Lack of attention, whacked the jump twice and even almost broke the honor dog--so he NQ'd. Krystal was quite upset as to her usual NQ pattern so I had to convince her to get back up in the saddle on Friday. Hopefully, Friday will not be so hot like not in high 90's and at least have a breeze...whew.
We headed out Friday to the show feeling great... temperature was good and Krystal was resigned to the fact that he may not qualify at this show for his RE. She decided to try her handling skills with him in Obedience. Well wouldn't you know it. She went and beat all of his CD title scores that I put on him. 184.5 which was darn good and only (1.5) points from getting High in Trial. He was 1st out of 7 dogs. He got a nice blue ribbon rosette which I have secretly always dreamed of having one day...an AKC Blue ribbon...which Krystal earned for Sandy :0)
I then handled him in Graduate Novice and he did miserably with me on his heeling as he wanted to be with Krystal not me. He did alright on some other tasks but only got a score of 160 but improved over his previous score. He again got 1st out of 1 entery (me)...he also got Highest Score in Non-Regular class which I was the only entry so not hard to do and kind of embarassing to receive the prize and huge ribbon...but it looks nice on his wall none the less.
The real prize that day was his RE Title!!!! They broke for lunch so time for Sandy and all to rest up for the big RE run. HE QUALIFIED with a 176 which was great considering the distractions. Someone that won a duck call at the auction was blowing it at the nearby picnic shelter while Krystal was in the ring...Sandy froze and went into hunt mode...almost perfect pointing hunting dog stance. Anyhow, she told him no leave it...no duckies...no duckies...well anyone that knows retrievers they love the sound of duckies. She got him refocused though and was able to finish the course. He can not do his reverse steps well so he lost lots of points on that and then other points mostly for inattentive slow response stuff which is usual for him sometimes. Three dogs were entered and he qualified so he got 3rd place...not a bad way to finish his RE title.
Now Krystal wants to look into tracking with him in the fall/spring when that is when Tracking events are held and of course onward towards his Open Obedience Title which will take awhile since there is such a huge gap between novice and open. Maybe he'll be ready for Rose City in January :0) that is my goal.
Krystal's Minpin Sakura will also be out there doing stuff and she'll be trying for her RA at Stumptown and also a run in Pre-Novice. A lot of other fellow DogTown friend's will be there also working to finish up titles and even try for some new title legs. So I look forward to seeing you all there, though I will be like a ghost just floating around until Krystal and Sakura finish their events as Sakura does not do well when I'm around.
Just stick with your dogs and keep training them and you will succeed... be it for competiton or for a great companion to be around...training does make a difference. Sandy is only going to be three in August and he has come a long way since he started with Stacey when he was a 3month old pup. Her Rally classes are awesome and Krystal would not have been able to get Sandy and Sakura to where they are today if it weren't for DogTown's training and support.