Obedience Humiliation

[Billand]

Thought I might share my experience from last nights Open obedience competition at the Adelaide Royal - I have never been so embarrassed by one of my dogs before!

I have smooth coat collies and they are not perfect at obedience nor are they that reliable. They like to do their own thing and they think that they know the best way to do everything.

To set the scene for our spectacular performance, we had a full audience around the ring, among them a number of experienced handlers, some with OC dogs, and my sister. During the healing exercise Jazz ran out of the ring to say hi to my sister and she cut through the figure 8 not once but twice so needless to say we failed that. She moved all but one foot on the stand for exam. For the retrieve on the flat, she placed her dumb-bell ever so neatly on the floor at my feet. For the retrieve over the jump, she ran around the jump, looked at her dumb-bell, came back and sat beside me. And finally for the broad jump, she walked around the jump and sat in front of me, she didn't even attempt to jump it.

BUT we did pass the drop on recall with a score of 28!

As she failed each exercise I could feel my face getting redder and redder! Jazz was enormously pleased with herself and the crowd thought she was great.

I was feeling so confident heading into the royal, she has been doing so well in training and had recently got her first open passes - I think the worst part of the night was when I had to do the walk of shame past the applauding spectators and the other competitors to get back to our seat. Jazz's tail my not have been tucked between her legs but mine certainly was.

I will back tonight for 3 rounds of agility humliation - wish me luck.

[poodlefan]

Must be something about Adelaide Royal.

Lil peed in the ring in the agility there. Never done it before or since. I told the judge (who I knew) that it must have been some kind of comment on the course. Lil dragged herself over the first couple of obstacles, did a long pee by the table and came home like a freight train.

Good luck in agility!

[PAX]

That's so funny.

I feel your pain, Go Jazz! Good luck for the agility runs.

Edited September 7, 2008 by PAX

[MissMolly]

This is why i have yet to enter in my first obedience trail...

One day you will look back on this and laugh...

[Jey]

"During the healing exercise Jazz ran out of the ring to say hi to my sister"

That is totally brilliant!

[Guest Tess32]

Don't worry, Collies will do that to you, hehe.

[ness]

Well my thoughts are with you. I was also there last night competing in open. Ness worked the round of her life and hardly put a paw wrong and was sitting on a score of 189 (third place to two absolutely brilliant Western Australian dogs who are also trained by two fanastically wonderfully kind individuals) but she got up on the down stay to have a scratch and sat up . To say I am and still am absolutely devestated would be an understatement but really at the end of the day my little girl can do it and match it with the best of the best here in SA and thats all that matters. If she had held that stay she would have placed higher then a number of SA's OC trialling dogs. I keep telling myself its not like it matters in the end as she has her CDX and our next goal is really her UD title but deep down it does hurt.

I have however told my friends they better not come next year as I intend on winning . Still makes me teary to think if only. My girl is the first dog I have trained and has her moments and its been a lot of hard work to get her to where she is today.

She gave me a lovely UD round on the Fri night and then to back it up with an equally outstanding Open round just makes me so proud of her.

Like you we are back there tonight to see if we can make amends and get over the line with a few agility passes.

Edited September 7, 2008 by ness

[Seita]

That round sounds alot like many of my novice rounds with my old boy. I could do a whole heel free with him 3 meters to my left and 2 metres behind me with his nose on the ground the WHOLE time and there would be at least one forray from the ring to investigate something or someone! It got worse but I'd be too ashamed to mention some of them!

But as they say, that's trialling for you!

[Ptolomy]

Hey come on you are not being very fair - the Royal would have to be the hardest place to trial. You are trying to work a dog in a ring where show dogs have been groomed and toileted, added to that the crowd sitting virtually on the edge of the ring, making noise, clapping and laughing at inappropriate times and you bring your sister, who the dogs loves and happens to run out to say hello.......... ARGH - I can relate to everything that happened and I have to say I feel really sorry for the novice and CCD dogs that competed tonight.

I guess you have a couple of choices

Don't do the Royal next year

Don't bring your sister to the royal next year

Spend a few weeks prior to next years Royal working your dog around the show dogs

PS well done on your recall!

Sal - you would have to be tickled pink with Ness's work at the Royal - not just on one night, but both nights. Glad to hear you have worn the video out watching it so often and have picked all the positives out and as for us coming back next year........now theres a thought LOL

[Miss Squish]

Sounds like Jazz had fun at the show

Looks like I have you to thank for our 3rd place in CCD obedience at the Royal Billand :p

I was going to pull my Pei Asia out of the comp. but after reading this thread I changed my mind, thought if an open dog could embarrass you, what do they expect from a CCD dog ;)

We passed with a 84/100 so it was great for a pei

Hope you did well in agility

Edited September 8, 2008 by miss squishy face

[Monah]

Sorry, just such a funny story!! I've never competed, I KNOW it would turn into a disaster But I can relate. We were doing a flyball demo in front of the whole bloody town, with celebrities specially brought in and tv cameras, when my viz decided to take her ball from the box and show it to my spin who was outside the barrier, then she came back in and continued over the jumps like nothing happened

[jinkispirit]

I love it! I had my first Novice ever obedience trial on Saturday and I could not believe the humiliation. So I'm really glad I'm not alone.

My little border collie, Ember, well we did a little practice before we went in and she was healing nicely. When we went into the ring - well it appeared I had a new dog.

Healing what was that?? - 5 metres behind me. When she was in a drop, I gave the 'heal command', she decided to stay there and eat duck poo!!!

On recall - I called and she just sat there, then decided again to eat the duck poo around her, eventually stood up, ate some more duck poo, and then slowly, oh ever so slowly came to me. At least I didn't have to call her again.

For stand for exam, she moved one foot (doesn't normally move any feet).

By change of position, I was so stressed, I forgot to listen to the judge, so when the judge told me to halt, I had already halted and so I gave the command for drop instead (surprisingly Ember listened to me and dropped instantly) - the judge just looked at me - I could nearly cry - in fact I did. It was a shocking moment!

I did stay for groups (well thought I needed the practice) and surprisingly, she didn't move!

We went home straight after groups - I did a little practice in the back yard and guess what - she healed perfectly and recall was great. Oh what a night!

[Tassie]

Obedience humiliation - oh yeah, been there done that - in fact, still doing it.

One of my best (or worst) depending on your POV, was when I was trialling my previous BC in UD on a cricket ground which was next to a tip, and was obviously a seagull roosting place. As we were doing the heeling for the seekback, I noticed this white stuffall over the ground, but didn't think much of it, until when I sent Sam out to get his article, he started stopping to eat whatever it was - and kept on, gradually making his way along, snacking as he went. He actually got to the article, but decided it was much less interesting than his snacking - which turned out to be regurgitated fish from the seagulls. Obviously highly nutritious and delicious. Guess I hadn't proofed him against that.

A friend had a really nice working corgi in UD at the same time. He was a super dog, and could turn in some beautiful work. But she would tell the memorable story of the day he ended up owing the judge points :rolleyes: = zeroed every exercise, including the groups, and also peed in the ring - which he NEVER did!

Seriously - as Ptolomy says, it wounds like it was a really difficult environment - so you should be pleased with anything your dog did well - and ness's mum should be really pleased with her gorgeous girl.

[ness]

Oh don't worry Tassie I am very proud of Ness's performance.

[Leema]

We passed with a 84/100 so it was great for a pei

Congrats!!

Ness, I'm surprised you haven't explained the big wee Ness produced in Open last year. :rolleyes:

Edited September 10, 2008 by Leema

[Lablover]

Never give up!!!!!!! Its a dog trial, remember.......not a murder trial.

Relax........yeah right!!!!!!!

Good luck next time.

[ness]

Why Leema - the rest of her work was good and considering all the show dogs pee in there so what. She more than redeemed her performance this year anyway :p . Last year we were on super early, dog wasn't settled and though she had been taking out to the toilet and given every opportunity to go outside she wasn't happy and just a bit stressed. Not to mention the fact it was the first warm day we had had in ages and the pavilion was warm. This year well her performance speaks for itself . She worked her black and white socks off over both nights and considering she was sore well what more can I ask.

Edited September 10, 2008 by ness