We had our first AKC Rally competition today at the Mattaponai Kennel Club Nell competed in the Rally-O Novice A class and she did wonderfully. She scored 90 out of 100! When we first got to the ring, while the Advanced class was still carrying on, I tested out her "sit" and "down"... well... she looked at me like I was telling her to cook my breakfast. She gave me the blank stare... more like, "Show me the treats first". After I worked with her and gave her TONS of treats, she remembered how to "sit" and "down".
Our first station was "Halt, sit, down, walk around dog". Of course, I was nervous and Nell knew everyone was watching, so she decided, instead of sitting, she just decided to lay down "frog style"... all spread out on the ground. Nell, that cost us -5 points! Everything else went great. We have -2 points for tight leash walk and -3 points for something we couldn't read on the judge sheet. Perhaps I was too far away from the station.
Overall, our first competition was really fun and perhaps, I will spend some weekends going to other competitions so I can at least get her jumped up to the next class. :-)
I don't like you right now... See the death grip I have on this float?
Nell and Yoshi (foster dog) relaxing:
