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  1. #1
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Jun 2014
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    USA
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    Finally...back in the obedience ring

    I finally ran out of excuses not to trial and stepped into the ring with Linus after a three-year hiatus from trialing in obedience to address some stress issues with him. Both my dog and I felt very little nerves, we were both prepared, I could run the exercises subconsciously and while in the ring, just focus on my dog and give him the support and leadership he needed. We had engagement and playing between exercises and we both felt confident. It was actually a little anti-climatic to tell you the truth!

    I had the very best and cutest dog in the class and won a blue ribbon! He was also the only dog in the class. As expected, heeling was our nemesis and was where we lost all our points. I just haven't found the secret recipe with him to get the same heeling in practice as in a trial. The rest was great and we scored in the low 190s. I can't wait to get out of Novice and start doing the fun stuff (and neither can he) and so we're going to hopefully get our last two Novice legs at the end of the month and get it done and over with so we can move on to Open. I gave up on the notion of a perfect scoring dog with this guy, but I think I'll get consistency with him. Who knows; the journey is a long and winding road!

    The judge has a sharp pencil, which I don't mind because I want that feedback, and was very good with the novice groups. She was patient, supportive and had a good energy. When we finished the first part of our run, she told me we Q'ed so far and that my handling was excellent, better than most of the Novice B people she sees. She asked who my trainer was and I told her and she asked me to relay a message to her about what a great job she is doing in turning out her Novice A students. During ribbons, as I was leaving, she stopped me and said she wanted to shake my hand and congratulate me again for doing such a great job. I was flattered and my trainer was touched by her compliments. I know a lot of people who have had poor judging experiences as a novice and never went back, remembering vividly how awful it was years later, so I know that getting such a great judge is something to be appreciative of and I recommended her to my obedience club for future trials as soon as I got home.

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    POPTOP (04-03-2018)

  3. #2
    Senior Dog
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Central NJ
    Posts
    2,603
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    Congratulations! Glad to hear you had a good experience ... most (but not all) of the judges I know do try to be encouraging to the Novice people ... after all they (you) are the future of our sport!
    Annette

    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
    Sassy (HIT Jamrah's Blonde Ambition, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015

    Chloe (HIT HC OTCH Windsong's Femme Fatale, UDX4, OM6, RE) 6/7/2009

    And remembering:

    Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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    Labradorks (04-03-2018)

 



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