190 1/2 3rd Place

Wyatt did a great job today getting a score of 190 1/2 and getting third place in Novice A obedience. It was a tough class with some great dogs ( a golden and a GSD) getting first and second with scores of 196 1/2 and 196. I felt pretty good going in. I knew the judge Susan King from stewarding for her last year. Wyatt had perfect attention on the start line and everything felt good heeling and figure 8 on leash. We lost 4 points probably for lagging and tight leash. I should have let out the line a bit more when he was lagging. Going around the figure 8 on the outside still needs work. He sat everytime though and in heel position most of the time.

Stand for exam was perfect. Sometimes he can move if the judge is too abrupt but we got 100% on that. Off leash heeling also went very well. We lost 4 again, not doubt for lagging and maybe a crooked sit somewhere. I was really positive animated between exercises and we ran over to the recall line. His recall was very good. We lost 1 1/2 points. I think he came in a little crooked but did not anticipate the finish which has been a problem in the past.

I felt great about the exercises and I knew we had Q'ed and gotten a good score. We went first so I had a lot of time to get nervous about the group exercises. The sit has been our hardest exercise. I kept him standing during the directions and put him in a sit when the judge said to sit your dog. He went into one of those whippet specialty 1/2 sit, 1/2 downs so I quickly got him up again and in a real sit. He was facing about 90 degrees to me but I did not want to hold up the class. Well, he made it through fine. Now onto the long down. That was a very long 3 minutes because I knew that was the last thing between us and a Q and maybe a placement. We made it through fine as I checked my watch every 5-10 seconds. I saw him looking around quite a bit at dumbbells in adjacent rings and felt big waves of relief when he would put his head between his paws. But somehow the 3 minutes passed. I was so happy!

He now has 2 legs and I was thrilled to get a score in the 190's. His first leg was a 172. I think it was smart to take some time off and fix the group sit and generally improve and proof a lot more. This is probably what I should do in agility too to fix contact issues...