Thursday night was the last night of obedience class. Teddy had a couple of downs in him for his last night of class this session. During class my nose decided the bleed... it stopped relatively quickly with some applied pressure and I was able to stay and help Tracey finish teaching. A photographer for The Advocate was there to take some photos. Joy and her rescue dobbie Skinny made the paper.
On Friday afternoon, Tracey, Cheryl, Nikita, Kazee, Xan, Bern, and Grace piled in the Roth Ford Expedition for our trip to the Bossier City obedience trial. The trip was uneventful.Saturday morning Grace competed in Rally Adv B. She was all over the course, was not listening to me - her score tells the story ... a 77! On Sunday I got her out and practiced in the hall. She was very bouncy but listening pretty well. When I took the leash off in the ring and asked her to heal she made a break for the jump and never regained her composure... I last my composure by sign 5 or 6 so we excused ourselves. DARN IT!... What happened to my blossoming obedience dog that was scoring in the low to mid 90s at the LCCOC trial in late May? I need to find her again before Reliant in 2 weeks.
Bern competed in Open A both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he only NQ'd two exercises instead of the usual three. His retrieve on flat was almost perfect - minus 0.5 points! We lost 10.5 points for heeling.
My goal on Sunday for Bern was to get a better heeling score. I warmed him up good before he went in the ring. The heeling pattern was good for him - no immediate halt. Our score was -3. To date that is Bern's best effort at the Heel Free in the Open A ring. He lost 2 points for his retrieve on flat - completing this exercise in the ring met a training goal for 2009. He was distracted by something he thought might be food on the ring floor during the Retrieve Over High Jump, forgot what he was doing - NQ. Feeling quilty about his poor attempt at the previous exercise, he went to visit the judge after the broad jump to say he was sorry. Since I had to call him back to me - NQ on the broad jump as well.
Bern drops just fine outside the ring but he typically isn't moving towards me when we practice. However, Bern has lost his moving down - no drop on Sat or Sun. My goal for Houston is to have him drop at least one day in the Open A ring. Bern and I seem to be getting closer to a first CDX leg.
On Saturday my nose decided to start bleeding again while I was out with the dogs on a potty break. I laid on the hotel bed Saturday evening and took it easy. Tracey took great care of me and my guys. We ordered in pizza and watched James Bond movies on the TV. The folks at the show were great - napkins, ice, and lots of TLC for me. Thanks to each and everyone of you. Monday AM the ENT caurterized an area in left sinus that seemed to be causing the problem. After it heals the scar tissue will provide some reinforcement.
