Very first official Rally Obedience competition, although last summer we went to an exam. This time it was held near Tallinn and the judge was Karin Lassmann.
I started to drive from my home already at 6.30 in the morning. The condition of the roads were not great. Anyway I arrived well.
Minnie was participating in grade 1 (RK1) and was first in the startlist. I like to be first in obedience.
1st course. Minnie was great. Good contact with me. In the second half of the course I made a handling mistake by not making sure that she is ready to come with me after laying down - she was convinced that I should give her some treats after this nice "down" :) So we earned -3. After that at the next sign, she needed some extra convincing to sit. There came also -1. But rest of the course was good. I was not giving any treats as I know that it might create more possibility to loose points and Minnie can work the course without it...or well - we lost 4 points because of it :D. Minnie got in total 96 ponts and 2.place. An we were also very fast 40 seconds faster than the next not my handled dog.
I was also at the competition with another dog Debbie who got 1st place!
2nd course. This time i played with tugging toy before the course (not the ball - this has proven to over excite her for obedience). She did a perfect course - except in one sign where she was going down from sit when shouldn't have. Unfortunately it was -10p. I saw it coming already earlier in a course where she went to a pretty fast down from sit - but fortunately then the sign was "sit-down" :) . This a a bit typical for her currently - it seems to me that she just thinks "how can I earn my toy?" And starts to offer positions. I need to work on my oral praises to give her confidence that what she is doing is great and she doesn't do anything wrong. That the treats and toys coming after the course :) Anyway we ended up with 90 points and 4th place.
Here is video of the two courses:
Next time we change move up in competition grade!