Sunday, November 14, 2010

RNs, REs & CDs

The title of this post will attract readers who have something in common with us - obedience competition.  If you want to read more about what we've been up to in competition, stick around.  If you want to learn a little about competitive obedience, stick around.  For those of you who really aren't into following our performance activities, come back for our next post :)



Still here?

Great!

Last weekend Team Frenchie headed to a large local obedience and rally trial.  Both Brutus and Carmen had multiple entries, & boy - did they do me proud!!

Brutus & I had recently started working on our CD (Companion Dog) title, the first level of obedience.  It's much stricter than rally, as much higher level of teamwork between handler & dog is expected.  Only single commands allowed, no luring or extra encouragement to the dog.  You are alone in the ring with the judge, who calls out all the exercises of the 7-part test.  Here's some still shots (taken from the video, so pardon the quality) from our Novice A test on Saturday:

On-leash heeling
Figure 8
Recall
Not pictured are the off-lead heeling ("heel free") and stand for exam exercises. There are also group sit/stay (1 minute) and group down/stay (3 minute) exercises, where dogs go back into the ring in groups of 5-7 to demonstrate their ability to stay put in close proximity to others while their handlers are across the room.

For those of you with high-speed connections, here is the video of our Novice A exercises for your amusement. During the "heel free" exercise, Brutus decides to see if the judge had any cookies - so it's pretty funny!


There are 200 points possible, and teams need a minimum of 170 to Qualify.  It's been a challenge keeping Brutus motivated, do I would have considered it a success to just put in a decent run for us, whether we qualified or not.  We competed two days, earning qualifying scores of 185 and 189!   Not only did we place both days (3rd on Saturday, 1st on Sunday), but our performances earned us our CD title!!!  It has been a goal of mine to get that title with Brutus, but never dreamed we'd qualify in 3/3 tries and have our CD within less than 2 months of starting it!


Brute & I also finished his RE (Rally Excellent) title, and won that class with a 98!  Two titles and three placements in one weekend - woohoo!!

Brutus, CD RE NA OAJ NF CGC
Little miss Carmen also got to venture back into the rally ring.  You might remember seeing a video of her in our debut at Nationals.  Carmen bested her performance there, scoring a perfect 100 on our test and winning a tough Novice B class on Saturday.  We got our 3rd qualifying score on Sunday, tying for 3rd with a 97 (lost 3 points for handler error, ugh) - that earned Carmen her first title, Rally Novice (RN)!!  And she had yet to turn 8 months old!  So proud of my little princess and how much poise she had in the ring at such a young age!

Drama Queen d'Assisi, RN CGC
So here is Team Frenchie with all of their loot.  Five runs over two days, with 5 Q's, 5 placements, and 3 titles!  What a weekend - especially for "non-sporting" dogs!!


So what is next for Team Frenchie?  

Brutus has a few more entries next weekend (APDT Rally), but then will take a long hiatus from the obedience ring while we work on exercises from the next level (Open, the CDX title) - things like dumbbell retrieves, drop on recall, and directed jumping.  In the mean time we'll focus on our agility training, as we're entered in a huge agility trial the weekend before Chirstmas, where we'll have 4 days to start working on our AXJ (Excellent JWW) and OA (Open Agility) titles.  Our goal is now to qualify for the agility Invitational next year, which will happen in Orlando during December 2011.

Carmen will also be on a little hiatus from the performance ring.  She's started agility lessons & is LOVING them - she is already bounding through tunnels!  Carmen will be spayed once she goes through one heat cycle, which will be upon us any day now (a new experience for me).  For growth reasons - especially since she'll likely compete in agility - it has been recommended to let her go through puberty naturally to help close growth plates at the proper time.  Since I do not plan to breed Carmen, it is in her best interest to spay her about 2 months after her first cycle.  In the mean time I've decided to dabble in the breed ring (conformation) - might as well show off my pretty girl while she's still eligible to compete!  As you can see, Carmen will still have plenty to keep her busy this winter!

For those of you that made it through the post, thanks for your interest!  It'll be a while before I do another performance update, I try not to do more than one a month as to not bore our readers.  Couldn't help but brag this time, though - a perfect weekend (let alone with two dogs) is pretty hard to come by! 

15 comments:

houndstooth said...

Congratulations! It sounds like Team Frenchie is going strong! You're all going to be pretty busy this winter, and I hope you have fun!

Kari in Alaska said...

Congrats (to me the title relates to medical terms thanks to work!)

Kari
http://dogisgodinreverse.com/

Malissa said...

So amazing to see frenchies competing! Such super smart babies. So seriously I need your address so I can drive to your state so you can teach my pug and terrier some things, like basic obedience! I have zero instinct for training, so you should be proud of yourself for teaching them such amazing things!

Rocky Creek Scotties and Rocky Creek Ramblings said...

Congrats!!

XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh and Ruairi

Scooter said...

Hey
That is pretty cool stuff!! You two are soo talented.

wags
jazzi

Unknown said...

Congrats! What a great weekend for all of you! Days like those make all those training sessions worth it, doesn't it?!

Those pictures of Brutus and Carmen with all their ribbons are so cute! They should be feeling pretty proud of themselves!

Rugby needs some OTCH points to get invited to the obedience invitational, so thats not gonna happen this year. :/ Hopefully next year though!

Remington said...

WOWZERS! Congrats! You are awesome!

♥♥ The OP Pack ♥♥ said...

We know very little about any of this competition, except for what we have garnished from your blog and a couple of others, but we do enjoy watching. Congrats to Brutus and Carmen - VERY impressive work. Congrats to you too, as without you, it just wouldn't be possible. Lots of hard work from all of you sure has paid off.

Woos ~ Phantom, Thunder, and Ciara

Anonymous said...

WOOWOO! Way to go, Team Frenchie! I am just Most Impressed! You are both rock stars!

Guess what I'm gonna start this week? A Canine Freestyle Dancing class! Oh, I'm excited! I think we're gonna have fun. I'm just a little bit concerned that mom is gonna make me wear a tutu, though.

Wiggles & Wags,
mayzie

Brutus, Ellie, Pippa and Otto said...

Congratulations Team Frenchie!!

Pugs & Kisses,

Yoda & Brutus

julee said...

boy you guys have racked up the awards. Looking good.

Molly the Airedale said...

Congratulations Team Frenchie! You are both amazing!

Love ya lots
Maggie and Mitch

Anita said...

They are the two most accomplished frenchies ever!

I'm going to enroll Guinness into agility this winter. Just a basic course at a local obedience school. I'm excited. I think it will be fun.

Wyatt said...

My Heros! Great Job, Team Frenchie!

Wyatt and Stanzie

Baby Rocket Dog and Hootie said...

WowZer!! Congrats on all your winnings. You 2 are phenomenal! Did your daddy have to build you a new trophy case??
Smooches from pooches,
BabyRD and Hootie