1/3 of the way there! *L*
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IliamnasQuest
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- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:04 am
- Location: Alaska
1/3 of the way there! *L*
Well, we're back from the obedience trials north of us. Good news: Khana qualified on Saturday, taking second in her class and earning her first leg (of three) toward her Rally Excellent title.
We were signed up for both rally and pre-novice, but it was more than I wanted to do. When you sign up you have no idea of what time the classes will be scheduled - they make that determination after seeing how many are entered in each class. The way they had it set up was that walk-through for Rally Excellent A & B was at 9 a.m., with the B class starting immediately after and the A class starting at 10 a.m. Pre-novice was scheduled to start in the mid-afternoon. I showed up at 9 for the walk-through of the course and they had already done it and the first dog for the B class was in the ring! This was NOT what the schedule had said. I fretted during the whole B class because missing a walk-through is a major problem (we don't know the course until we show up). Luckily there was a bit of time after the B class ended and the judge let me walk-through.
Here's the breakdown of the exercises for those who are interested! This class is all off-leash.
START (always the first sign .. *L*)
1 - Fast pace (run)
2 - Normal pace
3 - Figure 8 (around two cones, with two dishes set near the cones - one dish with a toy in it, the other dish with smoked sausage - and there was a dog in an "honor stay" about six feet away)
4 - Halt (sit), 180° pivot in place to the left, halt (sit) (the dog has to back up to stay in heel position for this left pivot).
5 - High jump, handler runs by
6 - Call dog to front, finish right, forward (dog comes to a sitting position in front of handler, then returns around behind the handler to heel position)
7 - Back 3 steps, dog backs up in heel position
8 - 270° left turn
9 - Halt (sit), pivot right 90°, halt (sit)
10 - Moving stand (while moving forward, handler tells dog to say and dog is to stop in a standing position while the handler continues forward and then circles around the dog and back to heel position)
11 - Broad jump (handler runs by)
12 - Halt (sit), side step right (dog is sitting, handler steps directly to the right, dog moves over to maintain heel position and sits again)
13 - About Left Turn (handler does an about turn to the left, dog goes around behind handler and does an about turn to the right to get back into heel position)
14 - 270° Right Turn
15 - Moving down (while heeling forward, handler instructs dog to down and dog is to go directly into down position from a stand)
FINISH
And after you finish, you had to go to the Honor Stay spot to do a down-stay while the next dog does the exercises. Unfortunately the rules currently state that each dog has to do an Honor stay while another dog completes ALL of the exercises. The next dog in the ring made it to the figure 8 and got really distracted .. the owner was trying to coax it through the exercise and the dog started to eat the sausage (about 5 feet from Khana!). The owner took the dog by the collar and tried to go on (you're not allowed to touch your dog) and the dog just wasn't listening at all. So they left the ring. Since they only did part of the exercises, Khana's stay didn't count. We had to stay for the next dog, which was a very slow pyrenees. The dog came in and the owner had a hard time getting it to even sit at the beginning. She coaxed the dog (very slowly) through the first four exercises and then could not get the dog to jump and she finally left the ring. And again, since the dog didn't complete the course, it didn't count! The third dog in was a rottweiler and that dog did complete the course. But poor Khana ended up doing three stays. The first two stays weren't short because the dogs were SO slow and distracted. I think that the rules are in the process of being changed because as they are now it's really not fair. Khana had to do nearly triple the stay that anyone else had to do.
As you can see, it gets complicated at times! Khana can do all of these behaviors beautifully but when she's distracted or a bit nervous she gets sloppy. We earned a 90 out of 100 points - had to do one exercise over.
Anyway, I opted not to stay for 4-5 hours to do the next class. Instead I went back to Anchorage and visited with someone who has a litter of four week old chow pups. They are SO cute!
That night I didn't sleep well at all - was awake every hour and had really weird dreams. This condition I have that affects my joints also creates a fatigue problem as well as insomnia at times. At 6:20 a.m. Sunday I decided not to show Khana that day .. I was so tired and so sore and had a 150 mile drive home to deal with. So I re-set the alarm for 10:15 a.m., took a couple of pain pills and tried to get some more sleep. It's counter-productive to me to push myself when I'm not feeling well. I was sorry not to earn the second leg toward Khana's title but she doesn't care one way or the other .. *L* .. and if I can't give her my best than how can I expect her to give me her best?
Our next rally competitions won't be until maybe July .. I have her entered in novice obedience in Fairbanks (500 miles north) over Memorial Day weekend, so we'll see how it goes.
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
We were signed up for both rally and pre-novice, but it was more than I wanted to do. When you sign up you have no idea of what time the classes will be scheduled - they make that determination after seeing how many are entered in each class. The way they had it set up was that walk-through for Rally Excellent A & B was at 9 a.m., with the B class starting immediately after and the A class starting at 10 a.m. Pre-novice was scheduled to start in the mid-afternoon. I showed up at 9 for the walk-through of the course and they had already done it and the first dog for the B class was in the ring! This was NOT what the schedule had said. I fretted during the whole B class because missing a walk-through is a major problem (we don't know the course until we show up). Luckily there was a bit of time after the B class ended and the judge let me walk-through.
Here's the breakdown of the exercises for those who are interested! This class is all off-leash.
START (always the first sign .. *L*)
1 - Fast pace (run)
2 - Normal pace
3 - Figure 8 (around two cones, with two dishes set near the cones - one dish with a toy in it, the other dish with smoked sausage - and there was a dog in an "honor stay" about six feet away)
4 - Halt (sit), 180° pivot in place to the left, halt (sit) (the dog has to back up to stay in heel position for this left pivot).
5 - High jump, handler runs by
6 - Call dog to front, finish right, forward (dog comes to a sitting position in front of handler, then returns around behind the handler to heel position)
7 - Back 3 steps, dog backs up in heel position
8 - 270° left turn
9 - Halt (sit), pivot right 90°, halt (sit)
10 - Moving stand (while moving forward, handler tells dog to say and dog is to stop in a standing position while the handler continues forward and then circles around the dog and back to heel position)
11 - Broad jump (handler runs by)
12 - Halt (sit), side step right (dog is sitting, handler steps directly to the right, dog moves over to maintain heel position and sits again)
13 - About Left Turn (handler does an about turn to the left, dog goes around behind handler and does an about turn to the right to get back into heel position)
14 - 270° Right Turn
15 - Moving down (while heeling forward, handler instructs dog to down and dog is to go directly into down position from a stand)
FINISH
And after you finish, you had to go to the Honor Stay spot to do a down-stay while the next dog does the exercises. Unfortunately the rules currently state that each dog has to do an Honor stay while another dog completes ALL of the exercises. The next dog in the ring made it to the figure 8 and got really distracted .. the owner was trying to coax it through the exercise and the dog started to eat the sausage (about 5 feet from Khana!). The owner took the dog by the collar and tried to go on (you're not allowed to touch your dog) and the dog just wasn't listening at all. So they left the ring. Since they only did part of the exercises, Khana's stay didn't count. We had to stay for the next dog, which was a very slow pyrenees. The dog came in and the owner had a hard time getting it to even sit at the beginning. She coaxed the dog (very slowly) through the first four exercises and then could not get the dog to jump and she finally left the ring. And again, since the dog didn't complete the course, it didn't count! The third dog in was a rottweiler and that dog did complete the course. But poor Khana ended up doing three stays. The first two stays weren't short because the dogs were SO slow and distracted. I think that the rules are in the process of being changed because as they are now it's really not fair. Khana had to do nearly triple the stay that anyone else had to do.
As you can see, it gets complicated at times! Khana can do all of these behaviors beautifully but when she's distracted or a bit nervous she gets sloppy. We earned a 90 out of 100 points - had to do one exercise over.
Anyway, I opted not to stay for 4-5 hours to do the next class. Instead I went back to Anchorage and visited with someone who has a litter of four week old chow pups. They are SO cute!
That night I didn't sleep well at all - was awake every hour and had really weird dreams. This condition I have that affects my joints also creates a fatigue problem as well as insomnia at times. At 6:20 a.m. Sunday I decided not to show Khana that day .. I was so tired and so sore and had a 150 mile drive home to deal with. So I re-set the alarm for 10:15 a.m., took a couple of pain pills and tried to get some more sleep. It's counter-productive to me to push myself when I'm not feeling well. I was sorry not to earn the second leg toward Khana's title but she doesn't care one way or the other .. *L* .. and if I can't give her my best than how can I expect her to give me her best?
Our next rally competitions won't be until maybe July .. I have her entered in novice obedience in Fairbanks (500 miles north) over Memorial Day weekend, so we'll see how it goes.
Melanie and the gang in Alaska
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vicster605
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chowfrnd88
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That's awesome! That is a long time to stay! 
She is such a good girl. I laughed at your description of the pynese going slow. I just picture Khana wnating to give a chow sigh. 
Congrats to you both!! That is a lot of things to do!! Which did she have to repeat? What happened that she had to repeat it? You guys are so awesome!!!
I hope feel better now, I hope the pain killers helped. I'm so sorry that you're going through all that. I think your dedication is amazing through it all.
They had agility trials on Animal Planet yesterday morning and I was watching for your girls! LOL I bet one day I'll see one or more of them on there.
She is such a good girl. I laughed at your description of the pynese going slow. I just picture Khana wnating to give a chow sigh. Congrats to you both!! That is a lot of things to do!! Which did she have to repeat? What happened that she had to repeat it? You guys are so awesome!!!I hope feel better now, I hope the pain killers helped. I'm so sorry that you're going through all that. I think your dedication is amazing through it all.
They had agility trials on Animal Planet yesterday morning and I was watching for your girls! LOL
I bet one day I'll see one or more of them on there. 
This photo arrangement is the wonderful work of Sweetpea
Maxwell here, Khana, we all can do that except maybe Yoshi, he is a bit slow. We don't cause were chows, But since you are doing all of that, great job but make sure you get some ice cream or something yummy out of it. You must really love your mom to do that for her, humans are get their kicks from the wierdest things.
Maxwell
Maxwell
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cheriekynb
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IliamnasQuest
- Rank 3
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- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2006 8:04 am
- Location: Alaska
*LOL* .. I love these replies!!
Believe me, Khana has me well-trained when it comes to proper rewards. She had roast beef (deli-sliced) and those mini-sausages stuffed with cheese for her warm-up and after-class reward. Then we went out for KFC for dinner and she talked me out of several pieces of popcorn chicken as well as a piece of chicken strip (but she let Trick have the biscuit .. that wasn't good enough for her!).
chowfrnd88 - the exercise we repeated was the moving stand .. we headed toward the exercise and she stopped before I gave her the stay command - we were too far away so we did it over. I must have inadvertantly given her some sign that we were going to do a halt because it's not normal for her to just stop like that. We lose three points for re-doing the exercise.
monicaxyz - all the puppies are spoken for from this litter. Two are going to Canada, they're keeping one female, and the other two are going to local people. They're actually heading down to the states to do some judging and taking all the puppies with them since they don't want to let them go too young, so it will be quite an experience traveling with five six-week-old pups (AND three adult dogs) in a motorhome. Luckily they have a HUGE motorhome.
Melanie and the gang
Believe me, Khana has me well-trained when it comes to proper rewards. She had roast beef (deli-sliced) and those mini-sausages stuffed with cheese for her warm-up and after-class reward. Then we went out for KFC for dinner and she talked me out of several pieces of popcorn chicken as well as a piece of chicken strip (but she let Trick have the biscuit .. that wasn't good enough for her!).
chowfrnd88 - the exercise we repeated was the moving stand .. we headed toward the exercise and she stopped before I gave her the stay command - we were too far away so we did it over. I must have inadvertantly given her some sign that we were going to do a halt because it's not normal for her to just stop like that. We lose three points for re-doing the exercise.
monicaxyz - all the puppies are spoken for from this litter. Two are going to Canada, they're keeping one female, and the other two are going to local people. They're actually heading down to the states to do some judging and taking all the puppies with them since they don't want to let them go too young, so it will be quite an experience traveling with five six-week-old pups (AND three adult dogs) in a motorhome. Luckily they have a HUGE motorhome.
Melanie and the gang
Re: 1/3 of the way there! *L*
Hang out with puppies, or go to obedience trial. Hmmmmmm I think I'd hang with the puppies too.IliamnasQuest wrote:Anyway, I opted not to stay for 4-5 hours to do the next class. Instead I went back to Anchorage and visited with someone who has a litter of four week old chow pups. They are SO cute!
