C-Wags competition

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Dazzle and I went to the C-Wags competition yesterday and Saturday at Kuliga in Cincinnati.  We originally only entered the Level 2 obedience on Saturday.  There was only one level 2 class offered during the weekend and I was hoping to get the first of the 4 Q's (Qualifying runs) needed for the title.  But Dazzle had other plans :-)

SATURDAY:
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We did GREAT with the obedience portion, which includes (in any order except where noted):

• On-leash heeling pattern (always the first exercise)
• Off-leash figure 8 around two people
• Recall over a jump to front then finish
• Call to heel (handler leaves dog on stay, walks 6' away and calls dog into heel position without turning around)
• Position changes at distance (handler leaves dog on stand stay, walks 6' away and cues dog to down then sit, then handler returns to the dog)
• Stand Stay- exam (handler leaves dog on stand-stay, walks 6' away, returns and runs hand along dog's back, lifts a foot and touches the pads, and shows the dog's teeth to the judge)
• Leave dog for leash -always the last exercise for obedience part (handler places dog in stay in position/place indicated by judge, walks away to get the dog's leash and clips it on before the dog is allowed to move.)

 He would have gotten a 95 out of 100 on the above, but was not able to complete the final exercise called "honor".  The dog needs to stay in the place/position indicated by the judge while the next dog does it's on-leash heel pattern.  It was my mistake, because I thought the "honor" was always done with the handler sitting and the dog in a down.  So that's what we practiced. This judge had the honor dog sit stay in heel position.  I think Dazzle thought he was doing something wrong because we weren't moving.  He tried laying down, which meant the entire run was an NQ (Non-Qualifying) run. :-(  
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I wasn't too dissapointed because when I found out what the honor position was, I had a feeling he would blow it.  I was VERY happy with how well he did on the obedience part. The stay will be easy enough to practice :-)
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Later that day, they had an ARF class.  After watching it, I decided to enter Dazzle in ARF on Sunday.
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SUNDAY:
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ARF is a combination of Freestyle dance, Agility and Pro level Rally.  It looked like fun!  So I signed us up at the start of day 2.  It was offered twice on Sunday, but we only did it once :-) I think we'll be doing more of this in the future! The course was not easy and was made extra difficult because the ring was 10 feet smaller than it was supposed to be. As the judge said, if some of the signs could have been just outside the back wall of the building, the flow would have been much better :-) She also had to work around a pole in the center of the course. 
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This was definitely not our prettiest run, but it's only his THIRD time in a ring competing off-leash and the second time was the day prior in obedience!  So I'm thrilled with how well he did, especially since his favorite agility obstacles were involved. :-) I had the run videotaped, which should help save me a lot of typing trying to explain it. :-)
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I have on the video that only 1 other person qualified, but I don't think that was right.  I was working as the ring steward all day both days, and I think I'm getting the number of Q's from the ARF run on Saturday mixed up with our run on Sunday and the other ARF run on Sunday.  I know several people tried the course we ran, but I don't recall for sure now how many actually Q'd on it.  I know Candy and Ted were trying for their 4th Q and got it!  But our score was highest, so Dazzle got first place! That I'm sure of because of the ribbon :-)  I was very surprized and proud of him!
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VIDEO: C-wags ARF (1st place)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5VnPJJ1oyA
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