Obedience trials again

Hi! It's Cinnamon.

I entered obedience trials again on the weekend. As there has been no dancing competitions or demonstrations since my public dancing debut in April, my humans thought that it would be a good idea to enter obedience trials to get used to the competition environment.

As I reported in my previous post about my first obedience trial, I didn't get placed in the trial despite my great performance, because my mum made mistakes without knowing the competition rules. But, now that Mum has learned the rules, she has no excuse.


Now I am handing today's post over to Mum so that she can write about the weekend's trials, as she says she wants to keep the record of them.


Hi. This is Cinnamon's mum here. As Cinnamon has just mentioned, I am going to write about how we did in our trials as our trial record.

The trials we entered on the weekend were part of a championship event, AEC Benefit obedience Championship. You have to register your entries in advice in order to enter championships, but the Elementary class is not a formal competition, so we registered our entry on the day (Entry fee was five NZ dollars each day).

In Saturday's trial, Cinnamon's heelwork didn't go as well as it did in our first trial. Her attention was not focused, and neither was mine, because I hadn't seen Cinnamon do her business in the morning and I knew that Cinnamon cannot focus when she wants to go to toilet. Originally our running order was the second, but I asked the judge if we could change it to a later order, hoping that she would finish it by then. Fortunately the judge was flexible and agreed to make it so. But in the end Cinnamon didn't do it until our turn came.

Without having done a warm-up that we usually do before any kind of competitions, we went into the ring. I got a little panicky when I saw Cinnamon's nose moved downward, as soon as the steward asked 'Are you ready?' and I said 'Yes'. But, to my relief, she brought her head up soon after, and she started walking nicely. However, at the first about-turn, Cinnamon went a little too far from me, and at the end of the exercise she sat in a little angled way.




After our run, our dancing instructor Jan told me that my walking had looked like shuffling, which needs correcting.

In the recall, again her sitting position at the end was angled, perhaps because I was standing with my feet closed, giving no room for her to sit in front of me.



In the 30-second sit stay, I got a little panicky again, when I turned around and saw Cinnamon scratching her neck with a leg, but she held and stayed sitting without standing up. Good girl, Cinnamon!

In the 1-minute down stay, Cinnamon did really well, staying laying down, even when some of the dogs stood up after a dog barked.

Overall, we were placed the third and got our first ribbon!!




It was raining heavily on Sunday morning. I think the noise of rain hitting the roof somehow disturbed our concentration. Cinnamon's heelwork was not too bad, but in the recall, she took off when I was about to leave her after the final command, although she eventually came back and then did a nice recall.

It seems that Cinnamon wanted to go and check the next dog waiting at the entry to the ring. Actually this is her usual response when I release her soon after she sees a dog coming in her way or passing by. When we practise tricks and dancing in the park or a tennis court of a nearby primary school, she always does this, which I have been struggling to correct.

In the hindsight there might've been another reason for her take-off. Although I knew that Cinnamon responds better to hand signals than to verbal commands, I forgot to use a hand signal - placing a hand with the palm open in front of her nose - in the recall.

In the stays I was very impressed with Cinnamon's behaviour. When the dog next to Cinnamon stood up as soon as the 30-second sit stay started, she looked at him but didn't stand up!



She looked very relaxed even when she was doing down stay that she hates. Usually she starts shaking, perhaps from stress, as soon as I put her in a down stay. But, this time, she was so relaxed that she was even resting her chin on the floor, which she rarely does outside.



Overall, we weren't placed of course, because of the big deduction for taking off in the recall. But, otherwise, Cinnamon did very well again I think.

Considering that Cinnamon has to perform off lead in dancing, we will have to work on her response when she is released from the lead. Also, maybe we should attend some obedience classes to get better understanding about obedience trials.

Lessons learned:

* Don't worry about toilet. Cinnamon can wait. Trust her
* Use hand signals especially when putting Cinnamon in a stay or wait

Issues to work on:

* Angled positions when heeling and sitting
* My shuffling walking in small steps in the heelwork
* Cinnamon's response when released from the lead