Show n Go- Obedience

I took Dazzle to an obedience Show n Go today and was pleasantly surprized by how much clicking and treating and genuine praising I saw! People not getting upset at their dogs for mistakes, just retrying or making it easier. It was a really nice surprise. Only a few leash pops that were strong and one person doing an ear pinch retrieve correction (twice) that made the dog yelp. Thankfully Dazzle was snoozing in his crate. So just had to give kudos to the folks in this area training positively!


I originally signed up for one run. When we got into the ring for the heel on leash, all was going fine till the "fast" (second direction from the judge). Daz grabbed the leash and started playing tug, refusing to let go. I went back to the start line, managed to get the leash out of his mouth, took it off and tossed it outside the ring and for the remainer he did beautiful heeling :-)

I've been working on Denise's hand position method and even though I had my hand at my waist, his head position was higher and he wasn't forging. So it's clearly working! However, it's apparent that I don't do NEARLY enough training with a leash on! I really hate it and it gets in my way, but I guess I'm going to have to keep it on a lot more.

The rest of his obedience was great! So I'm really happy about that. He gave the judge a quizical look like "why are you petting me during obedience?" on the stand for exam because in training alone, that's another thing I don't practice much. :-) But he didn't move. Even the judge said, "He thought that was a bit weird" :-) Stays were perfect and not nervous- VERY happy about that since again, we don't practice it with other dogs he doesn't know.

I ended up paying for a second run just so we could work on the heel on leash. He tried to get the leash in his mouth as we entered, but I stopped and gave a quick "ahh" and he spit it out. I had a tug in my right hand and he did a nice heeling pattern, got the tug and we exited the ring :-)

Over all, a nice practice run to see where we are in the training. I forgot to give my camera to someone to get photos while I was in the ring, so I had Diane gets some photos of the stays :-)
 
He was tugging the leash again going in for the stays so I think that's why everyone gave him "extra space" :-)
 

 But his stays are very solid (as long as no one throws a dumbell :-)

 He had his butt shifted one way and his shoulders shifted the other. :-)