#pvssc

You know it's been a wild ride when the judge hands you your leash at the end of the run and says "Yee-haw!"

Riot qualified today and came in 4th with a 93! A 13 point improvement over yesterday and all 7 points off were for heeling.

Riot warmed up really nicely today -- both outside and when I brought him in the building. His heeling was tighter, his focus was better, and he just overall seemed more eager to please. 

I brought him over to the rally ring about two and half dogs before it was his turn and it was even tighter than it was yesterday. The best I could do warming up ringside was to work on "watch" and keep an eye out for wandering dogs invading his space all while blocking someone else's view. 

Riot was very interested in the judge and I was half convinced he was going to go visit him when he came to take his leash from me. 

Overall the first half of the course was really nice. His heeling wasn't as nice as I would have liked but it was much better than yesterday. The jump was so much better than yesterday, he actually returned to heel afterwards, didn't back jump, and didn't bark.

The second half of the course was a lot more open and all movement with no stopping exercies (other than the last) and two speed changes. This was going to be more of a challenge for us regardless and then the clapping started. In the obedience ring next to us (which we were facing at the time), they were awarding placements and clapping. This was a bit much for Riot to handle as he was convinced they had to be clapping for him and ran over to see what was going on. I told him to heel and he came right back to me. But from then on out it was a battle to keep him with me as things were just way too exciting.

We had a wild time at today's Rally trial. I have so much fun with this dog, but he does keep things interesting.

This is the first time we've done rally since we started trialing in agility and I wasn't sure what that was going to do to us. 

I brought him into the building right as dogs started running in his class (there were 7 dogs competing in advanced A). We worked in a separate room with very few distractions and I was able to quickly get him to focus. We found a quiet area in the main room and worked some more and he was doing really well. There was no real room to work close to the rings and we needed to pass by the regular obedience ring to get to the rally ring. We arrived ring side with 2 dogs to go and practiced some sits, some downs, and some very small heeling patterns. I had relaxed a bit as we headed in the ring.

I made the mistake of asking "Are you ready?" right before we headed in and he gave one loud definitive bark. We headed in and he sat very nicely at the start line -- even with my fumbling to get his leash off. The first three exercises were okay. They weren't as precise as I'd like and he was a bit ahead on his heeling, but we made it through. The 4th exercise I stopped mid step to remind him to stay before finishing my step and calling him to heel. The 5th exercise was the serpentine and he was so far ahead of me by the third cone I had to call him back into heel position. Our 90° right pivot was very nice and then came the jump. Oh boy.

He did a very good job staying with me until I said jump when he took off, did the jump and continued forward to the ring gate where he decided to sniff. I had to call him to come back. He came back, back jumped the panel jump, and then as I told him to heel came back to me giving me one loud disapproving bark (apparently one jump wasn't enough for him?). Of course I'm trying not to laugh at this point.

We actually pulled it together pretty nicely after that. His heeling still wasn't where I wanted it to be (he was a foot or two further from me than he should have been), but the right spiral was pretty nice and the remainder of the exercises were completed decently.

We got done the judge handed me the leash and said we qualified. I think I just stared at her. She said we had an 80. I stared harder -- my eyes might have been popping out of my head. Then she told me to put the leash on my dog.

We finished in 5th place. The judge asked as she was handing us our green ribbon if the golden was obedience bred. I sheepishly relied "yes" thinking about all the OTCHs in his pedigree and his fabulous brothers and sisters. She said that we were going to do fine. I guess she recognized some potential in my spirited youngster ;-)

On our way out someone stopped me and said that he was "full of life." He's full of something for sure.