- Location
- East Sussex
I've had a weekend away with Tess in Somerset (between Glastonbury and Bridgewater) for a Rally show at a super venue - so much space to walk your dog off lead well away from the competition rings. Another huge plus was that the competition rings were fully fenced. Most shows I've been to this year have just had tape on the ground to mark the edge of the ring and this makes it considerably more difficult.
We scored 184 and 187 at Level 3 and gained 3rd place in the latter. These are the final qualifying scores that Tess needed to give her her Level 3 title.
We scored 184 in one L4 class but didn't qualify in the other.
So if we want to we can now start L5 as well as continuing with L4 - but I won't be going to any more shows until next spring.
Obviously I was pleased to get 3 qualifying scores but I still felt a bit frustrated as Tess in training is much more engaged than she is at shows and I thought I had devised a training plan to solve this. (We've been training without treats on me and running to her ball after variable amounts of exercises for a few throws.)
I pondered at the show and it struck me that one difference is that in training I maintain eye contact with Tess but in competition I tend to be looking ahead to the next sign. So in our last class (L4) I tried hard to maintain eye contact and this helped a lot - the only drawback was that I then did 2 signs incorrectly because I didn't read them properly! (On one I walked around Tess when she should have walked around me!) So getting 184 was actually ok as I'd lost 10 marks on incorrect exercises.
So - yet another training plan! In training I'll try glancing away and back and then rewarding. And at the next show I'll try to concentrate very hard on the walk through and notice signs where I might mistake it for a different one.
We scored 184 and 187 at Level 3 and gained 3rd place in the latter. These are the final qualifying scores that Tess needed to give her her Level 3 title.
We scored 184 in one L4 class but didn't qualify in the other.
So if we want to we can now start L5 as well as continuing with L4 - but I won't be going to any more shows until next spring.
Obviously I was pleased to get 3 qualifying scores but I still felt a bit frustrated as Tess in training is much more engaged than she is at shows and I thought I had devised a training plan to solve this. (We've been training without treats on me and running to her ball after variable amounts of exercises for a few throws.)
I pondered at the show and it struck me that one difference is that in training I maintain eye contact with Tess but in competition I tend to be looking ahead to the next sign. So in our last class (L4) I tried hard to maintain eye contact and this helped a lot - the only drawback was that I then did 2 signs incorrectly because I didn't read them properly! (On one I walked around Tess when she should have walked around me!) So getting 184 was actually ok as I'd lost 10 marks on incorrect exercises.
So - yet another training plan! In training I'll try glancing away and back and then rewarding. And at the next show I'll try to concentrate very hard on the walk through and notice signs where I might mistake it for a different one.
Well done, what a good girl Tess is !
. When I was a little girl, my dog Smokey Joe looked the image of Tess.
