I sent in for my score book several weeks ago and was told the wait would be about 6 weeks for it to arrive. I saw that there was a trial coming up and contacted the club to see if my scorebook didn't come - if it were possible to just try the BH - pay the fee but not get a score. The gal didn't quite tell me no, but just the same it was kind of a no. To my surprise my score book arrived 3 days before the trial! I was able to go up last Wednesday to train with the club putting on the trial. The club was super nice and helpful. They walked us through the BH pattern and I felt really good about the prospect of trialing there. The main reason I wanted to go to this trial is that I figured if we failed, we would be failing somewhere that no one would really know us. I also figured it would give me experience so I could feel more confident at my club's trial coming up in June.
Saturday rolled around and I was SO nervous! Seppel did okay with things, but I had forgotten how weird he can be in new situations. He was a little bit on edge, he freaked out when I scanned him for the microchip. Luckily the judge knew him and knows he's not a psycho. He just gets a bit nervous with new places/new people. He's not dangerous, but he's not the outgoing dog that he normally is at club. I was really lucky to have a friend from club show up to film his BH routine. It's nothing super fancy... I think it'll be quite sometime before we even think of an IPO1 because his obedience is really lacking. I want to get a better heel on him before we even think about it.
Here is the video:
I was really happy with his sit and his down with recall. You'll notice I had to give him some handler help when I asked him to heel. I realized as it was happening what was going on. We have been working on the 'here' command, and for some time he was constantly trying to finish left. I got him to start running at me straight, but I would always finish him to the right - so as to try to eliminate the whole 'finishing left' that he was doing when he got to me. I could tell when I told him to heel he was like "What????" I moved my shoulder because I was like - please just do this. I would have had to help him either way because 'around' is not a solid command yet either for him.
Overall we had a wonderful experience. The trial setting was not as intense as I expected. Granted it was just a small club trial, but overall the atmosphere was really laid back and easy. The other IPO club was full of really nice people and again, my experience could not have been better.
I am also really excited because this means he can do protection in our club when we go to train!
We also went to a Rally match on Sunday, he got the 1st leg of his URO2. It wasn't pretty, I am not sharing the video. I took Seth as well, and he did not qualify for his 1st URO3 leg, it wasn't too pretty either. I may put up the video, but it was just a bad time all around. The judge had a horrible attitude and just kind of set the mood for everything. My friend's dog got her very first title - her URO1. This past weekend was a good one!
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