Obedience Trial Fail

I told everybody after the fact that Auggie added yet another BD leg today.
Except the only problem is that BD is not actually an AKC title… and it just means BAD DOG.

What a BRAT. The first day, I’m told his heel was wonderful, to which I replied “Except for that time he was ON THE WRONG SIDE.” I took a right turn and he decided to skirt around and was on my right side instead. Of course I was halfway across the ring before I realized. And there was a halt in the middle there and I stopped and he sat like three feet from me. When we got to the other side of the ring and did an about turn, I told him “HEEL” again and he got back where he needed to be. I don’t know how he got on the wrong side. They told me he was watching me the entire time but I think he must have taken his eyes off me when I turned and that’s how he ended up on the wrong side.

But he totally blew it with the stand for exam. For one thing, I stood him and said “ST-” and before I could get out “-AY” he was sitting down. $%&&(%@*%. So I stood him up again and this time he stayed standing. When the judge touched his head he was fine, but when she went for his back, he danced over to the side. And when I went back towards him, he was dancing in a circle or something. I could have killed him.

And then of course I went in for the group sits and downs which was a complete waste of time anyway since we already NQ’d, and he was doing fine with his sit-stay until the dog next to him got up and started wandering the ring. He got up and FOLLOWED her, nose glued to her butt. ($&@*(*($&@&$@ HORNBALL!! Sooooo we didn’t even get to see how many times he might have rolled over in the down-stays.

Ugh.

The second day, he wanted to greet the judge for the SFE. Stupid stupid stupid overly friendly dog! At least he stood still when I walked back to him this time instead of doing a stupid circle dance.
Also Auggie thinks calling to front and then going to finish is stupid and he would rather just do it all the first time. Which is ANNOYING because I NEVER call him to heel position, it’s ALWAYS to front. Dumb dog has the game figured out and wants to play by his own rules.
He checked out on me two seconds before the long sit was done. He literally got up and the judge said “return to your dogs” immediately after. AAAAAUGH. So again, we didn’t get to find out if he was indeed going to start rolling over during the long downs.

At least the judge the second day thought we were funny. At once point during the heel free, I stopped and Auggie sat, and the judge said “forward.” I started forward… Auggie did not. I looked over my shoulder and said to him, “So, are you coming, or not?” And he leapt up and ran after me back into heel. He did a few other snotty things and after the call to front fiasco and I put Auggie’s lead back on, I was laughing at my little brat and told him he was such a bad dog, and the judge said “no, no! I like you!” I suppose a comedy act like Auggie and I is probably rare in obedience. As long as a judge has a sense of humor I always seem to make them laugh… too bad there’s no award for Best Comedy Act. Kinda like at an agility trial I was at where I would have taken first for Loudest Handler.

I honestly can’t decide if Auggie thinks this game is stupid and I should call it quits. I wonder if part of the problem is we’re at the same site we’ve done agility at for years. We pull in and he flips out thinking we get to play agility, and then we go do a one minute sit stay instead. If I were Auggie, I’d feel ripped off, too. He apparently does well at heeling off lead (though he’s definitely not as tight as I’d prefer) so I’m thinking next time I get the chance to do obedience, I will also enter the next level up in rally. At least that part of it he seems to enjoy. It’s this whole “standing still” and “don’t move” nonsense he has a problem with.