Today was a little disappointing, Joey ruined an exercise and cost us a placement, but I made some discoveries and was so happy with the rest of his performance, that I'm not too disappointed. To start with we found out we were not in the BN intermediate group like we thought. They moved the age requirements meaning that the 15 year olds were now the youngest of the senior age group which goes up to 18 year olds. And instead of 4 other competitors there were 18 other competitors.
We had to preform two BN runs. Our first run was under Judge Bobby Self. It was pretty early and I was combating National's nervousness so it was a little messy. We lost three points on the heeling because I forgot to wait to use my one praise at the about turn so Joey wouldn't lag, and because I took steps that were too long on the fast. We lost another point on the figure eight because somebody outside the ring dropped something and made Joey jump; I was happy with Joey though, even though he jumped at the bang, he came right back to heel with me and acted like nothinghad happened. Everything else went pretty good, I was especially proud of his recall. Total I lost 4.5 points.
My next run was under Judge Loise Botko. I was a little worried about doing two run in one day; the last time I tried that with Joey his second run was extremely bad and laggy. Today however, Joey heeling was excellent. We went in a Joey did the best heeling I have ever seen him do on not just the heeling pattern, but the figure eight too. I was so excited I thought "I've got this made". I might have a chance to place after all. Then on the figure eight Joey did something I've never seen him do, he shook on the sit walk around and just stood there as I finished walking in horror around him. Darn, there went our perfect run. Then we finish with another perfect recall. Our total score was 41.5. Forty for the walk around and 1.5 for the figure eight. Except for the forty, I thought that was an extremely good score; Louise Botko is a really strict scoring judge and this is the first time we've gotten a perfect heeling score.
Overall, I've discovered many things from the NJOC.
#1. Joey can do perfect heeling
#2. Always make Joey do a little trick between exercises to keep him form getting nervous.
#3. When doing fast run with shorter strides.
#4. If doing more than one run in the day feed Joey molasses, it seems to rev him up.
#5. Never, never think you have it made. Joey is extremly good at inventing new problems. And if he doesn't do something you will.
I'm happy I entered the NJOC even though I didn't place I've discovered somethings about me and Joey. I've met lots of new people and many of the obedience juniors. I feel like Joey's got the hang of competing, he no longer expects treats in the ring he just does it for me and the fun of it. Plus, I'm motivated to train again. I'll try and get videos up as soon as I get a computer that functions.
