No title :-(

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As Maxwell Smart would say: "Missed it by THAT much." In the obedience run of the first trial today, during the part where Dazzle had to go from a sit, to a down and back to a sit: When he did his "down" he was hovering his elbows about a 1/4" off the floor- barely enough room to slip a piece of paper between his elbows and the floor. He was working really well with a lot of drive/motivation and simply didn't relax when he got into the down position. He was wired and ready to go to whatever was next. The judge, Bonnie Hornfisher, said he wasn't "down" and gave us an "NQ" (Non-qualifying round.) That meant he couldn't get his C-wags obedience title this weekend.
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Given the rather LOW quality of some of the other qualifying runs and dogs that got titles (and I'm not exaggerating the poor quality!), I thought that was awfully picky of her for a Novice run. There were also some very nice runs that were very deserving of titles, so certainly not all bad.
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Our second time in the obedience ring today, I didn't "fake" the ball. Dazzle knew I didn't have the ball and his run was really sloppy and he was distracted. But he laid down fully and managed to do the required exercises (though it wasn't pretty) and he got a qualifying score. So, lesson learned: It doesn't have to look good, just get it done. Forget the drive and precision for C-wags.
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Our Rally run was nice and it was almost an identical course as the one yesterday (only about 3 signs were different.) We got a score of 91, but it wasn't high enough to place. I felt like the leash was really in my way and that it was a really discombobulated run, but a few different people said we looked really great and one said it looked like we were dancing, so it must have looked much more smooth than it felt :-) I found out after my run that I could have done it off leash. So for his other 2 runs he needs to get the title (at some trial in the future) I'll do it off-leash.
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Of course I didn't get any of the runs today on video because after I downloaded the videos from yesterday, I forgot to put the camera back in my bag! Grrr So the camera was at home when I needed it at the show grounds. I really wish I had the runs on video, but wishing won't make that happen.
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So I'm rather dissapointed to have lost out on the title over such a little thing. I know he did really well and that the ribbons and titles are icing, but it's hard when I think he shouldn't have missed it. Oh well. Enough whining. I'm going to go lay down and see if I can get rid of my splitting headache and maybe once I'm not so sore and tired it will all look better. At least Dazzle never knew he didn't get a title or that anything was wrong. He still got the ball reward and lots of treats, love and praise for the jobs well done.
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