A Promise

Well this weekend did not go as I had planned.
I had hoped for Kort to make his debut back into the Obedience ring after his years absence.

On Friday night there was a Fun Match which I entered.  Kort & I approached the ring after a great warm up.  Kort had wonderful focus & energy until I set him up at the ring entrance.  Immediately his head went down, away from my eye contact, & he looked at the floor.  I left the ring entrance &  played with him a bit, then approached again, after a moment of not looking at me he looked up. 
His heeling was unfocused for most of the time, looking away, at the floor & lagging, even with encouragement, play, & food.  I did not do a full routine.   After the heeling I ran him over the high jump a couple of times just for fun, no dumbbell,  he liked that!!

When it came to the long sit, I left his sight for approx. 30 seconds, went back & rewarded him with a treat, then left again, about a minute later he went down :( 
I quietly went back, got him to sit, then stayed in the ring until the 3 minutes were up.  I praised him & left the ring & did not do the long down.

I decided right then that I was pulling him from the trial.  I made a promise to Kort to never take any of this "stuff for me" seriously again.  If he was stressed then we just would not do it.

Maybe Kort is not meant to be my first CDX/UD dog, or maybe he is & just needs more time & training.  That is ok, he loves Agility &  Scenthurdle, & we are about to start Tracking. 
I have lots of other sports I can do with him.

It is all up to Kort, & I'm keeping my promise to him :)