We competed this weekend in the "Paws A Rockin" Freestyle event in Marion OH. The photo above is blurry, but that's the best my little camera could do since flash photography isn't allowed and my flash wouldn't have carried far enough anyway. A sincere thank-you to those who took photos for me, I know it's not your fault the photos are blurry! Good news is that a private pro photographer was there taking photos of another dog and she was willing to also take some photos for me- for free! A huge thank-you to Amber Scott of All In One Studios in Franklin OH. Her website is http://www.allinonestudios.smugmug.com/ I will soon be getting a disk with some much better quality photos on it and I gave her permission to put the photos on her website too. I'll post some here later when the disk arrives.
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We had a Belgian flag design and did our routine to the first 2 min. of "The Belgian Song" The whole song can be heard on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTrNh3BlBLk I'm working on the videos of our routine. I may or may not need to wait till I'm back home to upload them.
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Dazzle did REALLY well and performed off-leash, in the new place, with great focus on me. Focus and performance were actually better on Sunday, but the scores don't reflect that for some reason.
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On Saturday, we got an 8.7 for Technical Merit (out of a possible 10) and an 8.7 for Artistic Impression (out of a possible 10). Great scores for a Beginner routine!
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On Sunday, we only got a 7.9 for TM, even though I thought it felt much more precise and smooth, but the AI score was higher than yesterday- 8.9
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I am thrilled with how well he did in a new place, off-leash and with an audience clapping during the routine for parts they liked, etc. It earned him a new title of: W-FD/MF (which stands for: WCFO- Freestyle Dog/Musical Freestyle) WCFO stands for World Canine Freestyle Organization. On Saturday, we got a "judge's choice" award (a wrist watch) and a tug toy (though that was a separate award and I didn't write down what it was for, so now I can't recall). On Sunday, we got a "highest scoring beginner A" prize (a book of tricks) as well as a nice trophy.
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Anita was nice enough to let me stay with her on Saturday night (Thank-you Anita!) and her dog Ceaser really enjoyed having Dazzle for a sleep over :-) They played all evening in both the house and the yard- running and wrestling and having a blast. I was worried that Dazzle might be tired and cranky for his Sunday routine, but I let him sleep in the van all morning till I was just about to take him in the ring. Seems to have worked well!
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I'm looking forward to future freestyle competitions! It's a great group of fun and friendly people. It's also a more laid-back pace than most of the shows I have attended. With about 24 compeditors each day and only 1 judge (who had to take a bit of time to do his written eval of each performance) there was plenty of time between routines and to get the next dog ready without feeling rushed.
