Spice had her obedience debut this weekend. It was going pretty nicely with a few bobbles - she was fascinated by the healing direction sign cones. THEN someone kicked on a ginormous blow dryer (the size needed for a Great Pyrenees). We were setting up for the sit for exam when the blower came on - Spice jumped what seemed 2 feet vertically in the air and her eyes bugged out. With the blow dryer whining next to the ring she struggled to hold her stays and was very nervous. At the end of the exercises, she was extremely happy to exit the ring gate and dash to her crate for her big girl yummy cookies. Overall I was pleased. She does need a bit more maturity but it gives me an idea of what I need to work on before we try it again.
The video shows her looking over her shoulder several times in the direction of the dryer. We worked on dryer proofing Sunday. We went to see blow dryers with big brother Bern, who is not nervous of the noise, so they were somewhat less scary. We circled past blow dryers several times and stood for a few minutes to get extra yummy cookies each time. And I have 2 sizes of dryers we can proof with at the house so we will continue that work here.
Bern was not into his Open A exercises this weekend - double NQs. No dumbbell retrieves. He busted his stay on the broad jump on Sunday. We need to work these exercises more and try again for his 3rd leg and CDX title. On the bright side, he held his 3 minute out of sight sit both days which he had recently been busting so there is hope for a Q.
