Payton in class, round two
This afternoon I texted with Auggie’s breeder. My initial thought was to just bring the puppies over to the training building after her class tonight and let her see how things are going and give me some tips, especially on an issue I’m having with Georgie. But she told me she was just starting a new class and asked if I would like to bring the pups along.
I decided to bring Payton, since our rally trial is in three weeks, and he could use some work in a new location and with some other eyes watching. Georgie will wait for another day; besides, I can’t really work two dogs at once.
The class is a unique one we developed to meet some in-between demands… people who weren’t quite ready to jump into agility, but were looking for something more than just pet house manners. We delve into some rally exercises and do some extended sit-stays and down-stays in a line up like you would at an obedience trial, and also do some beginning obstacle introduction with agility stuff (jumps, tunnels, tire.)
So away we went tonight. Payton did fairly good with heeling though he is still very forgey, and forges more on me the longer we heel. I stepped on his paw once and almost tripped over him several more times. Sigh. And the sits, oh God, the crooked sits! I’m still hoping to clean it up enough in the next few weeks that we can scrape out at least ONE qualifying RN score.
But in light of my decision earlier this year to stop always being so negative about my dogs and their behaviour, I am not going to tell you where he was awesome.
First, his first sit-stay was ALMOST great, but being his very first time in a lineup with dogs he had never met before, he got up and came to me just before I went back to him. The next several sit-stays, however, were lovely, and I was even able to test him some by doing stupid dance moves and things (I made sure none of the other dogs – or their handlers – were looking at me while I was doing this.) So he rocked those!
Next, his recalls were equally lovely, though the first was lacking the enthusiasm I like to see, but he gets a pass because once again, he was sitting in a lineup with dogs he had never met before.
After that, we moved on to introduction to agility. First we had a jump, and I felt bad because Payton and I are totally cheating. We have at least a dozen jumps of varying type at home and he has seen regular jumps over and over and over again being that we’re doing beginning jump training! The other students were like “ooooh!” but HE’S CHEATING HE’S DONE THIS A MILLION TIMES ALREADY.
Next we got out the tunnel. Payton has seen a tunnel before but not fully extended, and as many times as I see it in my basement and think “I need to get that out and work on it,” I have yet to actually do that. So I wasn’t sure how he was going to do with a tunnel stretched all the way out.
Of course I am an idiot and had no need to worry. He darted right through it, then came back, then back through again. Everything was going GREAT until Auggie’s breeder suggested I run with him through it.
So I did. And Payton went OMG YOU GUYS THIS IS SOOOO MUCH FUN and the next thing I know he jumps on top of the tunnel, STAYS THERE for a second or two, then hops back down. How he managed to actually stay perched on top of the tunnel is beyond me, but he did it.
But I said I wasn’t going to be negative, right? Well, as embarrassing as that was, he only did it the one time and then appeared to realize that on TOP of the tunnel is not how we do it. I ran him back and forth several times after that in both of our turns, including setting him up for some odd entries.
The best news: he is really fast. Not so fast I can’t keep up, I am a runner myself and just generally a gym junkie (in fact, I’m blowing off a Wednesday class at the gym to take him to this class… but I figured I can do those weight lifting sessions at home…) so I have the added bonus of being able to sprint myself and not end up nearly killing myself. But he is definitely fast.
Now I just have to figure out how to not kill that speed in him. Which means I need to become a far better handler and very soon.
So there you have it. My dog is a huge brat and embarrassing, but he’s a very talented little embarrassing brat too.
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.
Little Comedian
So I’ve been working on Auggie’s one-minute sit stay and three-minute down stays. During the sit stay he started to lay down, so I’m standing across the room from him and go “No, Auggie – sit.” He continues to lay down. “Auggie… AUGGIE…”
He looks at me, and instead of sitting, he proceeds to ROLL OVER.
Which of course makes me crack up, because not only does he look ridiculous when he rolls over, but again, I can just IMAGINE this happening during the obedience trial. All the dogs are in a line doing a down stay and mine is like “Durp durp *roll over* *roll over* *roll over* What am I supposed to be doing?? *roll over*”
So later that night I was telling my mom about this, and I said something like “And I was like, no, Auggie! Sit! Sit!” and laughing about how he then rolled over… and then I look over, and there’s Auggie across the room from me, SITTING, and looking at me with this sad look on his face, like “I AM sitting!! What more do you WANT from me?!”
It’s a really good thing he’s so cute, or the brattyness would not be funny AT ALL.
