Second weekend in a row we went to Tallinn to participate Rally obedience competition. This time we were in grade 2 (RK2). Judge was Zaiga Elibird Zvirbule (LV).
For Minnie it was new dog hall to be.
1st course. The course had a big stuffed dog - witch was not a distraction but a scary thing. It was a bit smaller than Minnie. I personally find that the items in distraction 8 should not be potentially scary for the dogs. Anyway Minnie was in a good mood and up to the distraction 8 we only lost 2 points (because of 2x not sitting straight - that is a typical thing for Minnie). Half way in the distr 8, she saw the dog (-3p), it was disturbing her until the end. Still she did a good job with me. We got -10p from the spin after the distr 8, fully my fault i was too fast with my signals. in the next sign we earned -1, -1 and -3 points, she was not sitting straight, looking behind and staying behind from me (looking behind again). The on the turn around we got -2p, not good sits. jump was good and the 360 turn was marked with heart! Then -1p from the sit and until the end still -2p from looking the dog. All together we got 75 points (6th place).
2nd course. Start an first element were very good. Then in spiral she got -2, she was still looking the place that the fake dog was in the last course :). Then we got -3, because of hesitental sit. Then again -3 (3x -1) probably from not siting straight and because little hesitation...Then in the turn around she got totally distracted or I was giving mixed signals - anyway she left -10. Next sign, again two sits that were not straight (-2p). Then with the next turn we got -10. Im actually not sure why. There is an hesitation and then not straight sit. Ah anyway..it was not very good :) The next two sign were positions and turn around. We got from both -3p, again i dont know why from the first one...maybe not long enough sit? In the second - she was sitting as usually on this day. then after the turn around she got up from a sit (I had to put her again) -10. And lastly during the 270 turn, the judge made a very sharp move that causes Minnie to get distracted (-1). We were left only 53 points this time. But we earned 4x an heart = very good!
In summary I think this time the biggest problem was her sit I can say that in the second course this caused us over 70% points that we lost. In first course it was not such a big problem but still aprrox 25% of the lost points were cause by this. Im not sure why this was so prominent today.
And another thing - I did had no toys with me. Just the treats and I think that by the second course she was just too tired already. We started to drive at 8 in the morning and there were 16 participants. So maybe the lack of toys had their part. Anyway now we will rest from the obedience and do some agility again.
Videos from the courses: