PSDC Rally Novice

We were successful in Rally Novice at the Puget Sound Dalmatian Club's regional specialty.  Gimme qualified with 79 points for first place - I cost her 15 points.  She deserves a better handler.

I got Gimme out for several walks to snoop and sniff. When we got closer to ring time, I set up a chair and rug near the tree line, farthest from the ring and off the pee paths. Gimme settled a little bit, but not completely.

I hadn't thought through needing to walk the course, so I asked Nadine to come and sit with her. She loves Nadine, because she always gets to "find her stuff" (tracking) and I thought she might be okay with it. Not! Gimme was so stressed by me leaving her, even though I was in sight just 100' away, stressed enough she couldn't eat the cheese Nadine offered. Before next year, I'll have Nadine practice holding Gimme while I'm at varying distances, so it'll be more familiar to her. We can do this in conjunction with our tracking practices.

I had Gimme in harness for all of this, so any pulling she did wouldn't result in tightness against her collar. When I returned from the walk-through I gave her a huge glob of peanut butter while I got her undressed for the ring, because it's is calming for her. I carried a small handful of treats with me to reward heeling on the way to the ring. Gimme was focused and ready to work. Unfortunately, as we were standing at the ring entrance ready to go in, two dogs 20' away got into one of those loud yelling fights. This really blew any concentration she had and it took a lot of encouragement to get her working with me again.

PSDC Rally Novice video - Gimme had no real attention for the first sign, Call-Front-Finish-Left-Forward, so I had to lure her with my hand. She does well with the Offset-Serpentine-Left. She did well enough on the 270º-Right-Turn, though a bit wide because she thought it might be a nice time to visit the judge. Gimme did a good job on the Call-Front-1-2-and-3-Steps-Backward-Forward, but I messed up my footwork on the 2-steps-back costing us 3-5 points. I realized my mistake but it was too late to fix it and a restart would have cost as many or more points, and probably frustrated Gimme. She rounded the corner on the Left-Turn because she's smart enough to know the ring gates in front of us meant we had to turn, eh. Next was a Fast-Pace, which I later learned we got IP'd for a ten point loss. The judge said he didn't think it was "fast enough". I don't understand his objection since both Gimme and I broke into a trot and the sign description says "The dog and handler must speed up noticeably". I don't agree with his assessment, but I'm okay with it; I'd be more concerned if the lost points had cost us a Q. This was followed by Normal-Pace where we both dropped to a walk again. The next turn was a Halt-Left-Turn-Forward. Gimme did this well, especially since we've never trained it. The Straight-Figure-8-Weave-Twice went well, this is where Gimme really started to focus on me - she did better and better as we worked. Our next station was Halt-Down-Walk-Around. Gimme was slow to sit, but dropped like a stone for the down and stayed very still for the walk around. There was a nice stretch of heeling before we came to the Call-Front-Return-To-Heel. Gimme did well with this, especially since it was only the second time in her life to do it. I should have taken a couple extra steps to set this up, since it left us very little space for the next station Loop-Left, which was followed by a Loop-Right. We'd actually never done either of these, which are just basic heeling, but a little awkward to wrap my mind around. Next was a 360º-Left-Circle; easy peasy on the way to the Finish sign. I just saw where the sign description for the left-circle describes it as a "tight 360º turn", mine was not tight - I think I confused it with the 270º turn.

I am really pleased with Gimme's efforts. It was hard work for her, very distracting and stressful, but as I mentioned, she got better and better just during the time in the ring.

I had forgotten how noisy conformation shows are. Nadine picked her video spot so she could talk to SarahAnne and ask her to make a special effort to keep her dogs and grandkids quiet while Gimme was in the ring. I do have to say everyone was really was helpful and cooperative about moving dogs and keeping their distance. I'm not sure I would have gotten so much cooperation at an all-breed trial. Everyone here knows me and Gimme, and all her accomplishments, and it was clear they wanted to help us have a fair chance to succeed.

So one more leg to get the title, probably about this time next year. I'll be working on a few more things between now and then. I'll decide next year whether we'll continue to Rally Intermediate. I'm sure we could do it, but I'm not sure I want to bother if she isn't more comfortable in a busy show environment.

Weekend report...

Gimme did as well as could be expected on Friday and the judge was too kind. She came away with her first rally leg and a 2nd place.  Since it was a specialty, I got a professional show photo taken.  Here is a short clip of where Gimme pulled it together to do her better work for the day.  Many of her errors were, as Denise Fenzi calls them, errors of enthusiasm.

We spent as much time hanging out after we showed, as we had before.  My friend Nadine helped me fit Gimme for a dumbbell.  She showed me the kind she likes best and I've purchased the stuff to make them in just Gimme's size.  Interestingly, when she brought out her dumbbells to see how they fit, Gimme just grabbed them and really held them.  I'd been using a plastic one that I had and Nadine said she's known a number of dogs that didn't like working with plastic.  So I'm wondering if that is the reason we've had problems with shaping a retrieve.  Once I get these made, we'll see how that changes. 

Later that evening we had an agility lesson.  It was very discouraging.  Not because Gimme did anything wrong.  Rather because the instructor and I are clearly on very different pages as to what is appropriate for a dog with Gimme's age and experience level.  I do feel I let Gimme down, not standing up for her sooner.  In any case, that mistake will not happen again.  I may discuss this experience in greater detail at a later time.

On Saturday we hung out at my parents' house and I did the usual small home repairs, maintenance and yardwork.  Gimme had fun playing and being her usual goofy girl self.  In the early evening I tried to do a training session on "grape", but we didn't get very far.  She did work with me briefly, but it was clear that she wasn't very focused, so I didn't persist.  I should have realized from this attempted session that Gimme still had residual stress from the day before (keep in mind that the stress hormones can take days to dissipate).

Sunday was not successful. The Sammamish Kennel Club show is huge and the site is a nightmare.  We got there very early, which was good, since the hike from unloading to the obedience area was very long.  It took me three trips to get our stuff down there.  Unfortunately that meant that Gimme had to walk through the crowds around the breed rings six times (three trips both ways) which proved too much for her.  My strategy next time will be put Gimme in Michael's crate in the car and walk him on one trip and then put him in Meaggi's crate and walk her for a trip.  They will enjoy the walk and that would limit Gimme's exposure.  Plus I can then scope out a less chaotic route for my walk to the obedience rings with Gimme.  Of course if I bring my roller base next time (couldn't fit it in the car this weekend), that would get it down to one trip.  So next time it is coming along if I have to bungee it to the roof.

The drive from unloading to parking was so long I was afraid I was going to need my passport to get there. Then we had a reeeeeally long walk back to obedience.  By then Gimme was pretty overwhelmed by it all; even I found it chaotic.  I've forgotten how "busy" conformation shows are. We were there hours early and I was hopeful that plenty of quiet time and peanut butter bones would help her recover her wits. Before our run, she was starting to work with me again. I did get a lovely sit at the start line, but then some large dog nearby started a barking fest and that was all she wrote. Even so, the judge had some nice things to say about her.  I'm writing down her name as I'd like her to get to see Gimme again some day when she can do better.

Walking back to the car after we showed, Gimme was admired at length by a terrier person who thought she was "quite possibly the nicest Dal I've ever seen". She said she got her start in dog shows with Dalmatians. She was very impressed with Gimme's structure, lovely head, spotting and great type. In other words, the whole wonderful Gimme...

Closer to the car I ran into Nadine, who was parked near my car. We sat and talked and at one point she asked if she could work with Gimme. She had a special cookie that really intrigued her. Gimme worked nicely with her for a minute of heeling, but that was all her little puppy brain was up for. Nadine had lots of great comments about how nice she was working and lamented that she hadn't gotten near as far with her dog, who is 6 months older. So it was very nice to have her recognize what a special girl Gimme is and how well she's taken to training.

So we have much more work to do so Gimme can be comfortable and function in show/trial environments.  The classes with Ursula were a great starting point, but we have to go on from there.  My plan is to search the AKC events and find nearby shows and trials, and the local events for fairs and the like.  And we'll just go (at least twice a month, more often when I can) and hang out for starters... with the goal of getting to where she can work in that environment.  I'm not in a hurry - though I'll miss showing her off; we are again setting our sights on PSDC, this time next year.