The CWCCA National Specialty

I am back from Ohio, caught up around the house, and ready to report on my experiences at the 2012 Cardigan Welsh Corgi Club of America's National Specialty. This will probably be a long (and maybe boring) post so I'll give you an overview first. The boys and I had a lot of success.....just not in agility. Out of the 5 runs I signed up for, I qualified in the one that mattered least to me, Time To Beat (T2B). Thank goodness I took everyone's encouragement and signed up for Rally! Both boys qualified, both days! And finally, two of the photographs I entered made the cut and earned placements. I won a third place in the Action category and a second place in the General category! Woohoo!

Now for all the details....If you skip this, just be sure to read the last line of the post......

Luckily for me, Rally Novice A was set up as the first class of the day, beginning at 9 am. Agility wasn't set to go until 10:30 so no conflicts! That was a load off my mind. The course held none of the moves I was worried about, and things went well. I had a hard time getting Jimmy's nose up off the carpet so I lost a bunch of points on a tight leash and I messed up the spiral around the cones and needed a do-over. But, even so, I qualified in the 80's somewhere. Wilson did a better job (as I expected, he's very pleased to be working again!), but still somewhere in the 80's. Our end result was Wilson took 2nd place and Jimmy took 4th. Yea! I must confess here that there were only 4 dogs in Rally Novice A, and we all qualified! On Tuesday, again there were none of the moves that worried me (meaning ones where Jimmy starts to protest loudly). Wilson was really up for it, his heeling was great, and we cruised through. Jimmy still preferred to sniff the carpet, but we did just fine. The judge on Tuesday was much more generous and everyone had scores in the 90's. Wilson took first place with a 98! Jimmy came away with a 3rd. Needless to say I am so glad I signed up for Rally! I have even signed up for another rally trial in May, so I can hopefully get each boy their 3rd legs/titles.

Now for the report on agility.....Sigh.....such bitter disappointment.....
First, let me mention the weather.....a HUGE cold front had come roaring through...It was cloudy, unseasonably cold even for northern Ohio on Lake Erie, and freaking WINDY. We had steady 20 to 30 mile per hour winds both days, with gusts going even higher. The jumps had to be staked down and still blew over.  Same for the Chute....Even the Teeter was flopping around! It truly was miserable and exhausting being outside in those conditions. It was hard to get my usual trial routine going......Since other folks had plenty of success, my failures can't be blamed entirely on the weather, but it sure didn't help! Monday, in Standard, Jimmy did his usual Table BS  and after dancing around it a few times, I grabbed him and carried him off the field. The walk of shame for both of us. In Jumpers, it was a bit of a tricky course, and Jimmy got a refusal when he lost momentum going toward one of the jumps. The judge was a strict guy, and was giving no breaks. Tuesday, in Standard, it was dogwalk to the table, and Jimmy blew his contact on the dogwalk....so of course he did the table for me!  I praised and praised him while he stayed for the count...and as we moved on to the next jump, the double, he took a bar. But who cares, as we were already NQ'ed.... I was glad about the table, and took that as our victory for the run. In the JWW run, Jimmy was an innocent victim. I got lost, something I haven't done in a very long time, and went off-course. I wanted to cry. Literally. So our only redeeming run was the Time to Beat run....There is only one placement ribbon given in this game, to the fastest dog. We were not that team. But Jimmy did give me a speedy run and we earned another 8 points toward our title requirements and leg #4 out of 15 legs we need. So, we did get one nice green qualifying agility ribbon.

And back to happier news....here are my two pictures that made it to the winner's wall....

Second Place General.....

And Third Place Action........

I still have a lot more I want to talk about, but I'll save it for another post or two......and just to keep you coming back....There will be GIVE AWAYS coming up, so stay tuned!

Wilson Was Away on Wordless Wednesday!

Ready to Rally.......Not!.....Opinions Please!

So, I've been putzing around with training Rally Obedience to both my guys. I am doing it at home, and just practicing all the basic Novice moves. I don't have the signs set up in a course or such. Wilson has had one class over a year or so ago. Jimmy is brand new to it, has never had a class, but is catching on very quickly!

The reason I started tinkering around with it is 1) it's winter time and it provides the boys with something to do in the evenings, 2) I am toying with entering them in the Rally competition at the CWCCA Nat'l Specialty , and 3) In order to earn the boys their Versatile Cardigan Certificate from the CWCCA, a Rally title should be a reasonably easy way to earn some of the needed points/categories.

This past Sunday, I was signed up for my very first Rally run-thru given by the Capital Dog Training Club. It didn't go as smoothly as I anticipated. Each boy had 2 runs through a Novice level course. Jimmy went first. He had to sit at the very beginning and was confused when I didn't lead out like I would in Agility. He sassed me quite a bit, his heeling was a bit rough, and he jumped up looking for treats. Basically, a bit rowdier than what I see at home. Wilson definitely gave a calmer performance, but also was too treat focused. Obviously, I need to get my food rewards faded out! They are both way too eager for the food! On the second time through, both boys were noticibly calmer/better, but we still had the food issue. For Wilson, I removed my treat apron, and that helped alot. For Jimmy, I only rewarded a couple of times, which seemed to help.

As for me, I had a few questions about how to perform the signs, but wasn't too lost. There was nothing presented that the boys didn't know how to do, although a couple of the signs definitely need more practice such as the exercise where you call your dog front, back one step, front, back two steps, front, back three steps, front. That was definitely ugly!

If you are still reading after all this time, my question to you experienced folks out there is:

Do you think I can get the boys ready for Novice A in time for the Nat'l Specialty at the end of April?

Keep in mind these factors:

All my training will take place at home, maybe finding one more run-thru.

I am not a perfectionist, I just want to qualify.

The entry fees are hefty, I don't want to burn them up for nothing!

And my number one biggest concern is the schedule at the National. Rally starts at 9am and Agility starts at 10am. I am concerned these "almost sure to overlap events" will stress me out too much, degrading my abilities, and therefore degrading what the dogs do.

Entries close on March 28th, so I still have time to practice and decide.

I'm Going....Are You?

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