Griffin’s First Obedience Trial

Last week we did our first obedience trial!  We entered on a Friday – which ended up working out great, more people are at work, meaning a smaller event. This trial was held with a big conformation show and at a fairgrounds (so not climate controlled) and that may have made for a smaller event.

Distracting training for stays at a 2014 seminar.

Griffin was so laid back and relaxed while we waited, the temperatures and a lot of swimming the previous day probably helped. I really liked that we had so much space and were not squashed in a corner.

We just entered the “Beginner Novice” level which was due to be the very last activity of the day (most people left before then), making things even more quiet. We were the last dog of the last class into the ring! A big storm was coming in and the barn doors were being closed up due to the high winds.

Good parts:

• He did not jump on the judge (always my fear – and especially as many are …not quite so stable on their feet.
• He did not run out of the ring to party on the fairgrounds
• He stayed on task
• His work got stronger and stronger the longer we were in the ring
• We survived!

Things we need to work on:

• Details
• Heeling – much improved from the recent run throughs/matches, but not ‘training level’ quality yet. A few weeks ago I noticed during training that he was so far forward that his tail was brushing my hand – we’ve been working on fixing his heel position and that broke his sits, we’ll be able to easily repair that.
• Handler errors/choices: I had only practiced the sit, walk around the ring going counter clockwise – the judge asked us to go clockwise and it felt very awkward. Even though we had never practiced that before, Griffin was fine.
• Handler error – I may have accidentally been rude to another exhibitor. Someone wanted to introduce herself and, with her dog, walked right up to me to shake hands. I backed away moving Griffin behind me and greeted her, but didn’t comment on why we had moved away.  After awards (2nd place, 187) we moved away to head out before the storm while all the other exhibitors wanted to congratulate each other, shake more hands, etc.  Griffin is fine around dogs and often friendly or neutral, but I don’t want to take a chance and I don’t want him to think about friends at trials.
• Arousal level: SO much of our training and practice in obedience has been about calming him down. Due to his exercise and the heat – I think our heeling would have been better if I had got him a little more excited first – that’s not something I’ve done in obedience and I didn’t even think about it until later!  I need to be prepared to adjust if necessary.

Now What: I came home from the trial ready to fill out entry forms. The earliest we will be able to do AKC again will be mid-July. We have a WCRL rally trial in two weeks. We might not get very many runs due to me judging many classes. We’re going to do more training to fix our weak areas and be ready to enter more levels/classes!