Jon and Beanie and Ronin and Callie

Arapaho Kennel Club First Annual Obedience Trial
Held at Arapaho County Fairgrounds, Aurora, Colorado
25 September 2010

Ronin did his Sit-Stay!!! 

This was the first dog show, rally trial, and obedience trial for the new Arapaho Kennel Club.  The facilities were superb in our opinion. Ronin was as excited as I'd ever seen him.  The rings were nicely set up and there was a good deal of traffic through the area to and from the conformation rings.  There was no crowding however and the weather outside was beautiful: mild with a slight breeze.  This could be a really great show in the future.  As it was an initial show for the Arapaho KC one might have expected some glitches, but as far as I could see everything was going quite well, with no major problems.

Ronin needed a second command on the figure 8 exercise of heeling.  He decided he liked the judge and started to veer towards her, but a quick "Ronin!" corrected that.  The bugaboo was the Sit-Stay exercise.  We've been practicing this a lot (Thanks to Dr. Gail Clark, K9 Shrink http://www.k9shrink.com ).  Right before we went in we were practicing Sit-Stay and someone came up to talk to me and Ronin broke the Sit-Stay to greet her.  "Ah! Ah! Ah! RONIN! Sit-Stay!" was a mild rebuke that got his attention.  He knows better and you could see that he was feeling bad about breaking the Sit-Stay.  I think that final reminder helped because he was really solid on the stays.

As a result Ronin Qualified in Open B and took Third Place.  I was really happy we got the Sit-Stay, the Q and 3rd Place were gravy on that positive performance.

Cheyenne Kennel Club Obedience Trials, Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Whew! That was a tough one getting to, that second UDX leg. Yesterday Ronin went over the wrong jump on the second jump (NQ in Utility B) and went down during a sit-stay (NQ in Open B).

Today, on the advice of our coach, instructor, mentor, and trainer Dr. Gail Clark we worked on being calmer. Also, since it was getting warm, I gave Ronin a splash of cold water on his belly to keep him comfortable and alert just before we went in for the stays.  Ronin took Third Place in Utility B, so we were halfway there until Open B started at 11:00. We practiced drop on recall a bit and tried to remember that a sit-stay lasts a really long time, Jon. We did fairly well in Open B and got a Q. Yay! Oh, and a truck went by during out-of-site stays in Open B and I guess Ronin gave it a "Bark!" of warning, so that was a point off. But he did it! That meant Ronin earned his second UDX leg.  I owe Gail a steak dinner.