Rally Overdose! (Humiliating photos galore)

This past weekend, Juno, Kaline, and I did three Rally trials in two days. This was not, in fact, the best idea ever. Nonetheless, Juno earned her Rally Excellent (RE) title, and Kaline earned his Rally Novice (RN) title! Very exciting.

We had a new setup this year. Juno and I are minimalists and show up at trials with a folding chair and a travel mat, with a collapsible travel bowl hooked onto my belt loop so I can give her water at some point. Thanks to Kaline, we added to that: an enormous, exceedingly light and easy to pop-up Noz2Noz crate, a Ruffwear Mt. Bachelor pad to make the crate cushy, extra traffic lead and snake chain, Tigers jammies, etc etc. I felt slightly ridiculous, until I remembered that this is how “normal” people pack for trials. (Normal in quotes because ... yeah, if you do any kind of trialing, you're not normal.)

Trumbull packed and ready to go, except for the dogs!

 The first day, we got up at 4:30 in order to be at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds by 6:00 to set up and get our course map and start practicing. Juno was going to be first in the ring for Excellent, the first class of the day. So yeah, I was freaking out a bit. We got our favorite setup spot, and though the stewards were really slow/late handing maps out and checking people in, Juno and I were able to pace around the ring as the judge laid out the signs, and start practicing. Kaline snuggled down in his crate and was largely quite good about it. I think he realized it was the warmest, coziest, comfiest place he could really be (the building this trial happens in is SO cold, always).

Our setup at the show; red camp chair courtesy of our very kind friend, Laurie, cause mine is MIA.

The course was pretty nice for us, except for having a broad jump. Usually Juno does not believe in the broad jump. She just walks on it, which is a ten-point deduction. Since you can lose 30 points and still qualify, I don't fight her on the broad jump. We had practiced the send to jump (I'm not going to explain it, suffice it to say that it's really hard if your dog isn't in agility) a lot but that wasn't on the course. Anyway, I did my best to do Juno's usual warmup and got her really amped. Apparently, a little too amped.

We got in the ring and Juno was so excited that she flubbed things she's normally very precise about by just bouncing out of position. I just had to giggle at her, because she was so enthusiastic. We got to the broad jump and I gave her the “over” cue—and she sailed over it like a pro! I was so surprised I almost tripped over myself. She did the other jump fine and we qualified with room to spare, getting 82. That was her last leg for her RE title, and I was so thrilled. Little bummed that they didn't have the little medallions you usually get for a title, but still, it was cool.

Juno and her green ribbon for qualifying in Excellent. Her official title is now (Queen) SD Thundercats Are Go CGC CD RE.

We had to wait a long time for Kaline's debut in Novice. Outside of his crate, he was quite a pill, since he's collar-smart and knows he can get away with all kinds of things on his flat collar. He was most annoying. In the ring, he still got distracted and a little scatterbrained a couple times, but he was largely a very good boy and ended up with an 88 and his first leg!

Kaline's first green ribbon!

Had lunch, second trial commenced. Juno and I had a terrible time in our Excellent run. She was tired—I think that was the issue. Her main problem in general is lagging, and the lagging was extreme in that run. And she refused both jumps, probably because we had done too much jump practice outside the ring. Too many demerits and we NQ'ed. I was so bummed out I scratched from Advanced. (After you get the RE title, the next title is RAE, where you have to get qualifying scores in both classes in the same trial in order to get a leg. You need ten legs for the title). Kaline had a better run than in the morning and got a 93 for his second Novice leg.

Second leg!

The next morning, I was super excited to see that the Excellent and Advanced courses were really nice, in terms of playing to Juno's strengths. As I did the walk-through for Excellent, I noted that the sign for station 11 was in a weird place where it was easy to just miss it entirely. I spent the practice time repeating to myself not to miss that sign. So what happened when we did the course? Juno did rather nicely, other than refusing the second jump—and I missed station 11. Automatic NQ. UGH! Nothing feels worse than a massive handler error. We did Advanced just for giggles and though Juno lagged horribly and trying to motivate her was like pulling teeth, we still got an 89.

You can tell she's really thrilled.

Kaline did great in his final Novice run. He did all the stations so nicely, except for in the serpentine where we kept knocking into each other. He got a 94 and he got his title! That was a really nice end to the weekend.

Look Mom, I got a medal to go with my ribbon! His official title is now (Princess) SDIT Gatehouse As Time Goes By CGC RN.

I'm going to enter them both in one more trial (at a date to be determined) and if Juno is lagging and lackluster again, I'm just going to bag RAE for her. If she's not having fun and it's a chore and three jumps to practice for and then perform are just too much for her at this point, then it's too much. I'm not going to force her through all this for a title that is supposed to be “just for fun.”

Stay tuned for lots of training with Kaline on how to behave nicely on a flat collar.

Juno gets a Rally Advanced leg!

Also, I'm a lazy blogger. Today was our first entry into Rally Advanced B, and despite it being atrocious, we managed a qualifying score. The judge kindly went through the deductions with me, so I can't honestly say I have no clue why we passed ... but still. How did we pass???

First mistake, it was an outdoor trial on grass. This has never been a good thing for us. Second mistake, not actually knowing that they could have a broad jump in Rally. The broad jump is a big reason we're not in regular obedience anymore! I saw that thing when we walked in, and was like, “Well, we're gonna NQ!” Juno walks on/through broad jumps. I was told by one of the stewards that that'd be an NQ. But, remembering that we do Rally not to win things but to have individual fun bonding time, I figured who cares if we totally screw up.

Another mistake, I realized later, was that we may have done too much warming up right before our run. It was a rather warm day and when we got in the ring, Juno was panting. We had a bad start, too. Right as I told the judge we were ready, a huge green bug landed in the middle of Juno's back and at least tickled, perhaps even bit her. So instead of being focused, she was twisted trying to get it off. I flicked it off but she kept stopping to try and scratch throughout the run. And of course there was the usual lagging that happens when she does heeling off leash. So we got a lot of handler error deductions and points off for being out of position. And Juno walked over the broad jump.

The judge said nothing as we left the ring, so I figured I didn't qualify. Then they called in all the qualifiers at the end, and they were missing one the whole time. So just for shits and giggles, I checked the list of scores, and there we were, with an 83 instead of an NQ by Juno's name! I was totally flabbergasted. But yay! Not gonna argue! Our next trial is going to be in the same place; I realize it's not even close to an ideal setup for us, but we need to trial once a month, and this place is only half an hour away, and our friend Marissa is going with her studly boy Hunter. So we gotta go.

The parents have returned, and training with Kaline/work with Juno continues apace. Kaline and I had a bit of a breakthrough about a week ago regarding loose-leash walking and it is going so much better now! I'm super happy about that. He's been doing pretty well on his outings, to various restaurants, stores, etc. Both dogs have basically only been going on short working outings lately, just because we walk the packs and then we crash. We sometimes do stuff at night but that's about it. Kaline also is over his elevator fear finally. We went through a few days where we'd just do about fifteen minutes of riding up and down, up and down, and I think that helped. Elevators are now exceedingly boring rather than scary. They've both been really great at training in the park—I'm working really hard on finding heel with Kaline and on polishing up his recalls.

Our BLD harness shipped this past Friday, so hopefully it will be here in plenty of time for our upcoming Pennsylvania trip! I would love to get Juno some practice in it before we use it on the trip, but it shouldn't be a huge change for her from her Petjoy harness vest in terms of how we'll use it. She's been getting massages lately from our local dog masseur, Carla, who has a Seeing Eye dog named Justin. Juno doesn't always enjoy the massages (it's hard to explain to her that it'll be uncomfortable for a minute and then she'll feel a lot better; she just feels the discomfort and wants to move away) but I can tell that they're helping, and it's great fun talking shop with Carla.

First time in Rally Novice A: NQ

So, we NQ'ed today. It was totally my fault, unlike that epic time we NQ'ed in regular Novice A. That time, I had just taken Juno off leash for the heel free, and Dad, sitting outside the ring, decided to get up and move closer. All that mattered to Juno was he moved, and she absolutely booked it out of the ring to make sure he wasn't leaving. The end!

Today we were doing rally, which is different in that you can chirp to and encourage your dog all you want. You also have to follow signs that tell you what exercises to do and in what order, while in regular obedience, the judge follows you around murmuring directions. We've got our CD, which is the regular Novice title, but Juno isn't quite ready for Open, since we haven't had a chance to work on the broad jump. She also takes forever to do the drop part of drop on recall.

Anyway, since I waited till the last second to send in our registration, we were the last competitors in the last group of the day. So we were waiting around for a while, about 4 hours or so. The session officially started at about 1:00; we didn't even leave our house until 1:00. We swung by the storage unit to grab my folding Michigan chair (I always forget a chair for these things, and I'm always sorry), then headed for San Jose.

Magically we didn't have to pay for parking at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds and I got a freaking awesome parking spot. We actually found an open spot near the rally ring perfect for my chair and Juno's cushy mat. I love these trials—the only place other than a baseball stadium where I am actively social with strangers. You make temporary friends ringside, whoever you're sitting next to, and then of course anytime I see anyone with a Doberman I have to go over and say hi.

Dobie people, at least in my experience, are invariably friendly and lovely. We met a red boy, a red girl, and a black boy. The red boy was so handsome. Just the sweetest face. Big boy too. The black boy and red girl were littermates and their human mom is a breeder. Their biological mom has so many achievement letters on the back of her name it's ridiculous. And the brother and sister went 1-2 in Novice B.

So, we were Novice A. There were about eight other dogs, and only two got qualifying scores. Juno and I tried to stay warmed up but I don't think I did a proper job of it. Once we got in the ring, she was lagging, bigtime—that is our chronic problem. I get hella nervous, going in, and naturally Juno's response to me amping up in that way is for her to get super chilled out. I'm not gonna complain: Given the trade-off between having a great obedience dog OR a great service dog, I'm picking the second one, no question.

Other than the tight leash/lagging, we did fine, so I'm not upset about the NQ really at all. (Just a little grumpy at myself.) Juno did everything I asked her to, including the two new behaviors she had to learn for rally—"around," the Schutzhund turn, and "park," a right-hand finish. (I got "park" from the book Clara: The Early Years, which is about a hilariously spoiled pug. You should read it.) Most of the other dogs in our group had their noses glued to the carpet, since it was full of a day's worth of strange-dog smells. Junebug avoided that pitfall. Boy, I can't wait for the day Kaline has a leave it like Juno's!

Anyway, tomorrow we'll have a different judge and a different set of exercises. I'll try her on her slip collar rather than her big martingale, see if that makes a difference. Oh, and I won't forget my damn bait bag. I packed up two full ones today and left them both at home. (Luckily, they always have free kibble samples at the fairgrounds, and Juno gets almost as psyched for kibble as for bait.)

Outside the ring, let it be said that Juno was a champ. She had to do some bracing because my Michigan chair is pretty low to the ground. It was cold and I was stressed, so my muscles were pretty stiff and painful. She was picking up anything I dropped, helping me get my jacket off (too bad she can't help get it on), just being a star. Not even so much as a stinkeye at any other dog, and a lot of them will just kinda come up to you, though the owners always get them back fast. She did a lovely calm down-stay while I did my walk-through without her in the ring too.

I was planning to take Kaline to a movie when we got home, but we got home a lot later than I expected, and somehow being ringside and just sitting for most of several hours has totally exhausted me. So we are all just chilling out together for the evening. I can't wait till I can take Kaline to competitions. I get so excited when I see all the super-focused sweetie-pie Dobermans being stars in the ring, cause maybe that'll be Kay someday! All the Dobie people pronounced him very cute upon viewing his pictures. Heehee.

Here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!