This morning, I woke up an hour after I'd set my alarm. Forgot to turn
the sound up. Fortunately, I'd left plenty of time, so we headed down to
the Fair, unloaded, found a parking place only a half-mile away (straight
up a hill!), walked briskly to the check-in only to discover that someone
else had picked up my number. I checked the board, and it looked like
we'd missed Novice obedience anyway, so I just took a big, big breath,
decided that whatever happens, happens, and let it go.

Turns out, they found my number, and we hadn't missed Novice -- we were
next in. No pressure! Then again, I didn't have a chance to
"overschool", either. I can't really compare the off-leash heeling,
Ranger got "lost" twice and I had to give a few extra commands that
weren't noted on the score sheet, but he lost fewer points for the heel
on leash/figure 8 than at any point last weekend, and in a far more
distracting environment (think flocks of sparrows everywhere, manure-
encrusted sand underfoot, and people leaning over the ring eating their
funnel cakes and corn dogs). I tried really hard to stay "up" and kept a
little more (soft!) eye contact than before. He's still not quite with
me on the about turns, but I didn't meet him halfway down the side,
either. So that's ALL good! Everything else was very steady-Eddy.
Scored a 189.5, for 2nd place, but that wasn't the point.

Grad novice was, ummm, interesting. His on-leash heel was good. The
off-leash figure 8 was awful, bumping on the inside turn, lagging and
wide on the outside turn, but he always caught up and sat, so I'm not
unhappy with it. I despaired of the dumbbell recall, we've only
practiced a few times and he's NEVER managed to hold the bloody thing
until I could call him in, so I wasn't expecting much. He was perfect,
the brat. Held that dumbbell like he'd never, ever thought about
spitting it out, came promptly, sat straight in front, gave it up
politely, and even did a nice finish just to put a bow on it. I was
amazed, and very, very pleased.

Recall over the high jump. Pretty much ho-hum, did this last week (at
14" instead of 18", but if he's going to refuse a jump it doesn't matter
what the height is). Then we got to the broad jump recall, 3 boards
again, and he very carefully carefully trod in the exact center of each
board. We did it again, and I put more energy into calling him over, and
over he went. Very good old dog!

There were only 3 of us in Grad Novice, but one of the others was a 4-Her
and it was 30-40 minutes until she could be run to ground. I should have
put Ranger up and taken a nap, but because the schedule was so uncertain,
we did a lot more wandering about, checking back in, and wandering away
than was probably restful for him. OTOH, it might have been a good thing
that he was a little tired, it made the out-of-sight down-stay that much
easier. He did the stay, which we hadn't really practiced formally, and
seemed pretty relaxed when I returned. I was a wreck, but that's my
issue, not his. We placed 3rd (of 3), but I was really, really pleased
with his attitude.

By the time we got to Rally, he was tired. Chose to go around the jump
(but at least he went around it *with* me, in heel position!), and was
distracted by all the people with food hanging over the ring on the one
side, but scored a 96 and took 2nd place (on time) to a really nice mini
Dachshund who's almost as old as Ranger. I had to work very, very hard
to keep him with me, though.

All in all, I think it was a positive experience, and I learned a lot.
If he finishes Labor Day weekend, then I'll just haul him down to Des
Moines on Saturday for Grad Novice (or not) and leave him home on Sunday
so I can give all my attention to Duke. Of course, this all presumes
that we'll succeed, but I have hope that it'll happen.

Tomorrow, we nap!

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions or sent encouragement. I really
appreciate it.

"M Healey" wrote in message
...
All in all, I think it was a positive experience, and I learned a lot.
If he finishes Labor Day weekend, then I'll just haul him down to Des
Moines on Saturday for Grad Novice (or not) and leave him home on Sunday
so I can give all my attention to Duke. Of course, this all presumes
that we'll succeed, but I have hope that it'll happen.


Sounds very positive !! And like you WILL SUCCEED!! Exciting!