Sunday, April 22, 2018

Barn Hunt Trial

Lync in yesterdays Trial
Lync and I were in a Barn Hunt Trial yesterday.  This was his first attempt at the Open level. There are 5 tubes, 2 with rats, 2 with litter and one empty.  Lync needed to find the 2 rats, do a climb and a tunnel.

In Trial 1 I was the reason for our NQ.  Lync alerted on a tube and I knew it wasn't a rat as the previous blind had a rat in the same spot.  Lync wouldn't leave it alone and I didn't know that I could say leave it and try to call him off so I called it.  I was really bummed to find out I could have called him off of it.  I do not have the luxury of training classes here so I learn as I go.

In Trial 2 it was Lync's fault we NQ'd.  I could not get him off of a tube that again I knew did not have a rat in it.  He kept pawing it and the tube was about to fall off of the hay bale so I had to grab it which caused us to fail.  The judge said I had no choice as the safety of the rat is number 1 and even though I knew there was no rat I still had to treat it as if there was one
.
I decided to pull from todays trial.  I don't want Lync alerting on every tube he finds and I feel that he is doing just that.  I am disappointed.  I really hoped to get at least 1 Q this weekend.  It is hard to pay entries and be done in a minute!

This summer a few of us are getting together, buying some hay and tubes and are going to do training, this way I can correct him for a wrong tube and get him really thinking before he alerts .
There is a trial coming up in Red Deer that I might go to if Brad has the weekend off so he can watch Kort and Ash.

I have decided I am going to try Ash at it.  I will need to teach him how to tunnel as he has never seen one, we don't do anything like agility so he has no clue. I think he will make a good ratter and it will be fun to have both dogs to trial.  I hopefully wont have to worry about him lifting his leg now that he is neutered , at least I hope not!

Sunday, April 1, 2018

Rally Workshop

Yesterday Lync and I attended an all day Rally Workshop.  It was put on by Judy Snowdon who is a Rally Competitor as well as a Rally Judge.
We focused on the new Excellent signs as well as the new Masters Class. Talk about mind boggling!! The new Masters Class is something I won't do.  I would like to get Lync's Excellent title but I am not wanting to go past that.  The thing I don't like is it is now becoming way too strict, much more like formal Obedience.  I love Obedience, but not in the Rally ring.  I feel that is a place where you can relax, talk to your dog if you want and encourage him.  Now you have to heel with your hand up at your waist, no patting of the leg or excessive encouragement. I do not agree with those that are constantly luring their dogs and begging them to work don't get me wrong, but the way it is set up now is just not fun.  Rally is loosing the fun aspect that I enjoyed with my dogs.  I am now rethinking if I want to enter Advanced in a couple of weeks.  Its got me all nervous and unsure if we are even ready to do it.  I know these signs were above what Lync is ready for but is he even ready for Advanced?? We have been practicing the new Advanced signs with success, at home. That's the key word, home. Is he ready for the ring? I'm not sure anymore.  I have a small window of time to decide so we will see.