Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Trixie's Obedience: A Work in Progress

Trixie made her debut in Open obedience this past weekend. Let's just say that we are still a work in progress. Open obedience is completely off leash and the handler is only allowed to give either a verbal command or hand signal for each command. The open exercises include off lead heeling, drop on recall, retrieve on the flat and over the high jump and the broad jump. Food or toys are not allowed. Additionally, out of sight group stays for a three minute sit and five minute down, complete the Open class.

The good news, improvements were made from Saturday's trial to Sunday at our Specialty and the judge, Pat Scully, was extremely complimentary and felt we just have little fixes to make to be successful. The bad news, no qualifying runs.



Until you step into the ring, you never know what will happen and we have our list of things to work on. In this run, Trixie was still in the game until she cut the corner jumping the broad jump, which is a disqualification. All of the other errors, are points off your score.

Obedience continues to be a learning experience for both of us and the benefit of better teamwork and bonding with my girl, carry over to everything we do from agility to just cuddling on the couch.

2 comments:

sararenee said...

Even though Trixie cut the broad jump- I'm impressed! You guys look like you're right with each other as a team, and both seem to be enjoying the work too!
Sylvie and I will make it to the obedience ring someday : )

Graydogz said...

Nice run Linda, you could see that Pat was disappointed when Trixie cut the BJ short. I'll send you a note with more comments but GOOD JOB!