Raising a Riot

Riot’s First Agility Trial

Riot, Cisco, and I are up in Cleveland, Ohio for the Crown Classic Dog show. I decided to enter him no realizing exactly how chaotic it was going to be — big noisy building with lots of dogs and people and noise.

Day 1

Riot seemed to have a few ring nerves this morning in JWW. He was looking all around and sniffing the ground and I had a hard time getting his attention. Because of this, I moved closer the second jump than I had been to get his attention and then pulled him off the second jump when I was moving out further (it’s so easy to pull him off things sometimes). After we missed that jump, he kind of took off to investigate. I was able to call him back, but he back jumped that second jump giving us a wrong course. Oh well, I’m just happy he came back. We took jump three and then ran out to investigate the cone for the weave poles. I brought him back, he did the poles and ran beautifully for the remainder of the course. His time was 42.10, SCT was 45 seconds.

For his Standard run, I was completely freaking out beforehand. I couldn’t believe I had entered him him Std when he’s see a standard course twice before, there is no way he’s ready for this. Well, he totally proved me wrong. The course went pretty much as planned. I wish I had taken the time to hold his contacts longer (he was 25 seconds under time, I had time to spend on contacts). And I had planned a front cross between jumps 3 and 4 well, that didn’t happen.

Day 2

Day 2 again started with JWW. I got a two jump lead out and pretty much ran the course as expected. He was clean on paper since the don’t count refusals for weaves in novice  but he did enter the weaves at the second pole and had to re-do them. He did the course in 10 seconds under course time even with re-doing the weaves.

It was a really long wait until Standard. We didn’t run until 6 o’clock. I took him out a little early and I didn’t bring enough treats over with us so I had a little bit of trouble keeping his focus while we were waiting. By the time the dog in front of him was going, he could barely contain himself. I got two barks while the dog ahead of us was finishing up and one more at the start line. He did hold his stay, but the rest of the run felt as frantic and hinging on being out of control — the way I’ve felt the few times I’ve run someone’s border collie. I’m not happy with the way I handled jumps 5 and 6. On paper I was thinking a cross would have provided a better line to the table, but when I walked it, I didn’t think it was necessary. With Cisco, it wouldn’t have been necessary. With the wild child, I should have figured a way to get it in there. I did learn, that I can call Riot off a jump though. His contacts were a mess, he did stop on the dog walk, but my intention of having him hold it was shot when he decided to fly through the tunnel. His a-frame, I released him almost immediately because I was pretty sure if I didn’t he would be releasing himself. By the time we got to the teeter, I was just barely hanging on — my brain does not work that fast! We again has issues with the weaves — he started with the poles on his right instead of left. Which, I have suspected we need to work on collection on courses — something we have not had practice with. But the run was clean and he got first place (he was also the only 20 inch dog to qualify).

Day 3

I’m happy to report that Riot hit his entrances to his weaves the first time both runs. But I didn’t get his runs on video.

JWW was really nice except  I totally blew it and did nothing to indicate the last jump (he’s been doing so well I forgot he was a baby dog and assumed he’d take it). So I cost him a clean run and we ended up in 4th place. He still had the second fastest time at 23 seconds, but did get smoked by a BC.

Standard was a gorgeous run. I held his dog walk and a-frame contacts for a long time after the chaos the day before. I was convinced the judge wanted to tell me to move on the a-frame.

Day 4

Today started with a 3:30 am wake up from Riot that he had to go out. This was followed by him getting sick at 4:30. I took him out and again and proceeded to lock Riot and myself out of my cousins’ house. We ended up not leaving until 7. I got there and took Riot and the entry papers out of the truck, got in, put him in his crate, and managed to get the last 3 minutes of his walk through. I went got Riot, gave him an imodium, let him pee, and went to wait his turn. I was hesitant about running him, but at the same time he was acting like himself so I decided to go ahead and try and if I saw any signs of pokiness or stress, I’d pull him. Well, he did great (he really loves this game), I was so busy watching his beautiful weave entry that I forgot where we were going and got lost on course. He saved my butt by choosing the right jump and we went on to run clean.

I took him out a little later and his stool was still not right, so I decided to pull him from his first Open Standard run and come home a day early.

I’m not sure if his tummy issues were cause by the stress of the environment, the number of treats and the different kind he had had the day before or he caught something at the show. He’s still acting like himself so I’m not too worried, but at least he’s home relaxing tonight instead of trying to play with his 2 yellow lab cousins.

RN! - Riot’s First Title!

Riot and I went to the Richmond Dog Obedience Club’s trial in Stafford, Virginia. The Rally trial was held from 3-10pm on Friday and Saturday night. I think more trials need to start at 3pm.

We were a little rushed getting there on Friday as Stafford was further away than I remembered it being and as usual 95-S was a parking lot. We got there just about 3pm. Fortunately, Novice B went first and then Novice A had a separate walk through after they were done. I checked in and went and got Riot’s crate out of the car and set up.

The facility Colonial K9, was really nice. There was the big room where all the activity was going on and then right next door there were the day care rooms that were also available for crating. I set Riot’s crate up in a daycare room where it was much more quite.

After we got situated, I took Riot into the big room and let him smell around and get accustomed to the noise — there were a lot of echoes in the room. Riot’s attention was okay, but not nearly as good as it could be. We went back over to the daycare room and started working. Initially he was still very interested in his surroundings, but as we worked his focus got better and better. We then went back to the big room and did some work in there. Much better. I put Riot back in his crate to chill and went and watched the rest of the Novice B class — they all qualified!

After our walk though I got Riot out for a potty break and then did a little warm up in the daycare room. We then headed to the big room and did some more warm up work. I had a moment of panic when I realized I brought him out way too early and if I kept working him his brain might get fried or he’d get bored and distracted if we just stood there. I put him in a down stay and watched a couple of dogs in front of us and then did just a bit more warm up with lots of treats right before it was our turn.

Riot did beautifully! His attention was great. I couldn’t have asked him to do any better. We got a 97 and second place for the run (first place was a 98 and there were 10 dogs in the class). I know we lost a point or two when he jumped on me in the Call Front, 1, 2, 3 Step Backward exercise and maybe for a really crooked sit? But I can’t complain at all. He did so well.

Saturday was much more chaotic as the obedience people were there in the morning and there were more than twice as many crates and chairs set up in the big room. We followed a similar routine to the day before except warming up in the big room was a bunch more difficult — I think we need a lesson in obedience trial etiquette as I think a few ladies were getting annoyed we were in their view of the ring and we came close to interfering with a few people trying to walk by with their dogs (I was trying to stay out of everyone’s way).

Riot had been much more distracted all day. Even at home before we left, his nose was on high-alert that there just HAD to be things on the floor. I’ve never seen him do that before. That distraction continued all day and even through a lot of our warm-up. We ended up with a 97 and first place, but I think the judge was quite generous. I would have called us for a tight leash about 3 times, forging twice, maybe a lack of team work on our serpentine as his focus was no where near me, and we had an absolutely horrible About “U” Turn. We got out of the ring and a guy said to me, “You did better than you think you did.”

That’s the second time someone has said that to me coming out of the rally ring. I wonder what kind of expressions I make when doing a course.

Overall, I couldn’t be more pleased with how Riot did, how well he’s handling the chaos of a show environment, and how despite the chaos, he’s able to focus one me (well at least this weekend was a lot better than the PVGRC speciality). And that’s really the whole point of having him out right now.

It turns out Rally is a lot of fun. Now we need to find out what else we need to know for the Advanced level and start working all this stuff off leash. We’re also going to work with Cisco and Berkley so they can play too.

Rally Novice A - First Place

Riot and I went to the PVGRC Speciality yesterday. Riot was entered in Rally Novice A. It was our first time doing an AKC Rally course.

The trial was at the Howard County Fairground and it was really rainy outside. We set up inside the building and I brought Riot out various times through out the morning to get used to the the surroundings. There were so many good things to smell. Riot’s focus was pretty limited at first when I tried to practice with him, but the more we worked the better he was doing.

Shortly before we got into the ring, I thought we were doing really well as our concentration had increased and we had some pretty nice heeling going on. Well all bets were off as we stepped into the ring. There was a new surface and new smells. Riot did pretty well through most of the turns, but any straight heeling pattern he was pretty unfocused.

We lost 10 points for an incomplete exercise — I think it was our little sniffing adventure in the middle of the serpentine. I thought maybe I should have started over, but I wasn’t exactly clear on the rules, so I got him back where we were and continued. Our final score was an 82 (out of 100 — needed 70 to qualify). We had a few points off for lack of team work (sniffing), lagging and forging. 3 of the 5 dogs in Nov A qualified. We tied with 82 points with one of the other dogs, but got first because we had the fastest time.

Everything we’re doing is for fun and exposure to new surroundings at this point. We need to take our heeling practice on the road. For a 9 month old, he’s doing great, but we have a long way to go.