Friday, January 04, 2008

Open Run Thru

We had open run throughs last run. I was very pleased with Wyatt. I did novice sits and stays and he was perfect. That was a relief. I am planning on talking with our instructor about a plan for open sits and stays. Right now, he is doing very well at home with the 3 minute out of sight sit so I need a plan on how to slowly replicate that in class including a consistent strategy for when he makes a mistake. We did have a problem with drop on recall but I think I figured out why. I was looking at the judge for her hand signals and I was also saying "Wyatt, down" instead of "Down". I found I could see the judge fine with my periperal vision. We lost 5 1/2 on heeling, which I consider very good. We lost 0 on retrieve and a 1/2 each on the jumps. So that was awesome. So, if we did not have a drop issue, we would have gotten a score in the 190s. Looking forward to the match Sunday. Not sure what I am going to have him do for the sits and stays though. Should I try it or skip it or ask the judge if I can stay in sight?

2 comments:

Katrin said...

What you could do in the match, is go in for out of sights, leave him, leave the ring as the rest of the group does, then wait just outside the ring, where he can still see you. So you are changing the picure slightly in that you are no longer IN the ring, but not so much that he can't see you at all, which many times is the main stress for dogs.

The judge & other competitors probably won't mind that, as you aren't changing the picture for any other dog either (some dogs become very reliant on at least 1 person, doesn't matter who, standing across the ring from the dogs as in the Novice S&Ds, and if you are that person, other competitors might be unhappy with you as in the Open ring their dog would not have that picture)

Good luck!

John Heffernan said...

That's a really good idea, Katrin! I am going to use that in the future.