One-Legged Dog, Part 2 – Guest blog by Diane_in_MN

 

I had shown Teddy in our club's rally trials two years ago, at which time he had refused to go into his portable canvas crate because it was new and therefore scary.  Since it was too cold for him to wait in the car, he had to be held on lead all day, which was a nuisance.  So in addition to a quick private obedience lesson, we had crate practice at home for a week before the trial.  This consisted of setting the crate up in the living room and giving him a chance to find out that it wasn't a death trap.  Luckily, it worked; the rally trials were scheduled in the morning on both days, and the Novice class was, as usual, scheduled last in the obedience trials, so he really needed a comfortable place to spend the day before competing.

Saturday started out well.  Teddy waited nicely in his crate during the rally trial, and when I took him out to warm up once the obedience trial started, he was paying attention to me pretty well.  (Ted loves all dogs and wants to greet every one he sees, so I am not necessarily his main interest when there are new dogs to be investigated.)  I was happy to see that the obedience judge handed her clipboard to one of the stewards before approaching the dogs in the stand for examination exercise, because Ted doesn't like clipboards* and might well have edged away from it, thus failing.  When we entered the ring and started the heel on lead, he stayed in good position and gave me quick, fairly straight sits.  He did a beautiful fast recall with a straight front and a perfect finish.  When we left the ring to wait for the group stays, he was working on a very nice score.

Things went downhill when we went back into the ring for the group exercises.  Once the dogs are lined up for the sit-stay exercise, handlers are required to place their leads and armbands behind their dogs; this allows the judge to identify any dog that breaks its stay.  I had removed my armband and carried it into the ring, but Teddy caught a glimpse of it as I set it down, and he wasn't at all comfortable with this white paper menace behind him.  He didn't want to sit with his back to it, and it took several circlings to get him to face out into the ring.  Not good.  The stay exercises require the handlers to leave their dogs and walk across the ring, then turn and face their dogs.  Usually the dog will look towards the handler, but Ted wanted to watch the armband to make sure it wasn't sneaking up on him, and kept his head turned back like an owl.  But he held the sit for the required one minute and didn't move when the handlers were sent back to heel position, so even though we had lost some points, we were still on track to get a qualifying score.  The final exercise is a three-minute down stay, again with the handlers across the ring from their dogs.  Teddy went down, but his ears were back and his eyes were nervous, and it was clear that he hadn't become resigned to the armband.  He stuck it out for two and a half minutes by my count and then it was too much for him, and he came to me.  Failed exercise, NQ, aaargh.  Not unusual for a novice dog at his first trial, but still—AAARGH.

So Saturday night, after we got home, we had armband practice.

The Sunday judge had been the judge of a rally trial earlier in the year at which Teddy had NQd spectacularly**, so I really wanted him to perform decently in her ring.  The fact that she examined the dogs while holding her clipboard behind her back rather than handing it to a steward was not promising, but one can always hope.  So we went into the ring for the individual exercises hoping for the best.  I could tell that Teddy wasn't performing as well as he had the day before, and he didn't give me quick and reasonably straight sits until the end of the on-lead heeling exercise.  And he was lagging.  But he stood still during the stand for exam in spite of the clipboard—yay Teddy—and stayed with me during the off-lead heel even though a heeling pattern that runs down the middle of the ring gives a dog a lot of opportunities to stray.  He had another nice recall and good finish, so we were looking okay going into the group exercises.

I carried my armband into the ring again, and was careful to put it and my lead closer to the wall behind the dogs than I had done on Saturday.  I was hoping that this would keep Ted from seeing it out of the corner of his eye.  For whatever reason, he did sit in place immediately, and he did look at me during the sit-stay exercise.  This can be a long minute, because it's easy for a dog to get bored and lie down, but it passed successfully for us and we had just the long down-stay to go.  Again he went down, again I crossed the ring, and if looks could nail a dog to the floor, mine would have done that to Teddy.  At the same time I was trying to count out three minutes, but I got well beyond 180 alligators before the judge's stopwatch called time.  Hearing "Back to your dogs" was welcome, but nothing like as good as hearing "Exercise finished" with my dog still lying down where I'd left him.  YAY TEDDY!!  We qualified!!

At the end of an obedience class, all qualifiers go back into the ring to receive class placements and qualifying ribbons.  We didn't get a placement, but qualified with a very nice score of 187 out of 200.***  When one is working on a title, a qualifying score is referred to as a "leg".  I am happy to say that Teddy is now a one-legged dog with a green ribbon to prove it, and hopefully will be a three-legged dog with CD behind his name before he's too much older.

Teddy relaxing at home with his winnings.

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*   Remember distraction = paranoia?  This is more paranoia.  As far as I know, no one has ever tried to kill him with a clipboard.

** Grooming area with blow-dryers going full blast ten feet from the ring.  Need I say more?

***  This score also gave Teddy the award for high-scoring Great Dane in the trial.  Since he was the only Dane in the trial, this is less impressive than it sounds, but it got him a nice stuffed toy that lasted two entire weeks before he destroyed it.