# Showing in Binghamton, NY This Weekend



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lily, Javelin and I hit the road just after 1:00 yesterday afternoon to drive up to Binghamton, NY. Traffic was terrible and we didn't get ere until close to 8:00 PM. It is unfortunate that I wasn't a little better organized and that the traffic was so bad because we missed the practice ring time we could have taken yesterday.

When I took the poodles out for the last time last night, Lily pooped and managed to step in it before I cleaned it up so she came back inside with one very messy foot. I had to cut off some hair from the bracelet and on the underside of her foot along with washing her foot so we could go to sleep. Needless to say I did not get as much sleep as I would have liked.

We got up very early this morning and went over to the show site, arriving around 7:15. I was lucky to get a good space for the crates near the ring we were showing in. Our first event was rally masters (2nd dog in) for me and Lily at 8:00 AM. We qualified (barely) mostly because I did a couple of dopey mistakes, but green ribbons are just fine with me. It was a big class and there were some very high scores so we would not have been likely to place anyway.

Then Javelin and I had a super long time to wait for beginner novice and we were the last team in beginner novice B. We didn't get into the ring until about 3:45. He was pretty good in the crate and of course I took him (and Lily) out a number of times but I think the long wait was just too long for him. He did a big time up stress crazy drill that was so bad on the heeling I asked to be excused. I just don't see any point in letting him think that behavior is okay. 

We stuck around for the last bits of the trial (beginner novice A, graduate novice) and then took a ten minute rental time in that same ring. A friend of mine acted as the judge and I corrected Javvy any time he amped up and I think he now understands that in that ring he can't act silly. We did nice heeling, the recall, the sit for exam and the sit stay walk around all at qualifying levels. Hopefully he will find the wait a little easier tomorrow since we have the same schedule. I also think I will take him for a more purposeful walk about an hour and a half before we are likely to show so that hopefully he gets a little energy off but isn't overheated or anything when we are ready to go in.

I didn't come to this show last year since both poodles were really sort of in between things on being ready to show, but I am happy to be here this year. The place is wonderful, well air conditioned, good judges, great club and stewards. I know a lot of the folks who show here. One of my friends finished a UDX with her black standard poodle yesterday, so it has been a good weekend for poodles here (and there are a number of them aside from Lily, Javelin and me along with Stacey and Mick).

I know this ended up being long, but I hope you all who are thinking about showing in a performance sport found it interesting.


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Always interesting to hear your adventures in the ring. Sorry about Lily and her poopy foot and that you didn't get as much rest in as you would have liked. Think your plan tomorrow with Javvy is great, hopefully he will do better in the ring with the exercise beforehand. Best of luck with the rest of your classes.


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

I always love reading your posts about competitions  Congrats on the Q in masters with Lily and for doing what was best for Javvy. I hope all goes very well tomorrow. Sleep tight!


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Good luck for tomorrow. I think your plan to give Javelin a nice walk before showing will do the trick - let some of his steam off so he can settle nicely. And congratulations on the Q with Lily.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Wishing you all three a fun day of competition tomorrow!


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

Good luck the rest of the weekend...nothing wrong with green ribbons!


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## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Very interesting to me thank you so much for sharing!! I would eventually like to do other dog sports and it is so great to see what others are like! Hope today went well ?


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Just waiting for your update report on how it went! ('Well' is good!)LOL!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We had a good day today!


The rally masters course was the first one I've had that didn't have a spin in it! Hooray for that since Lily still doesn't reliably spin in trials. I commented about it to the judge and he told me his dog doesn't spin either. We got a 91 today and although I will have to check I think this was our eighth leg (of ten) for the rally masters title.


It was showery this morning and I was concerned about whether I would get the mid/late morning walk with Javelin since I didn't want us both to get soaked but thankfully it stopped raining and we did have a walk where I mostly just let him be a male dog, sniffing and marking (decompressing his brain hopefully too). When I got back the judge was still doing rally and I was not too optimistic about how long we would end up waiting, but he was very nice about keeping things moving and just took a ten minute (barely) lunch break. So yesterday we didn't get into the ring until almost 4:00, but today we got in right around 2:00. Javelin and I were the last team for the class (of 11 entries). I took him out for a quick potty stop just before the briefing and put him back in the crate. After the briefing ended (and the judge was very nice on his brief too), I took Javelin out of his crate and did some attention work and then let him watch what was going on from a distance for a minute. Then I took him down to a relatively empty area (all the other rings had finished and were broken down, most exhibitors were gone too) to do a little heeling and a sit for exam set up, sit stay/walk around set up and a short distance on leash recall. Despite a little surprise encounter with a Bouvier and handler who were also in the same class he had a good warm up so I brought him back to where I had our crates and my chair to relax a little. I had Javelin on a relaxed down stay and he was being very chill. A couple of people moved somewhat close to where we were and one of them had a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever with her (also in the same class). I saw Javelin take note of the people and the dog and was just starting to tell him to attend to me when the toller went after him. Javvy barked and growled in return. There was no physical contact and one of the club member came and stood in the middle of us to body block the dogs. I just shook my head and asked a rhetorical "really?" of the toller's handler since she had not been watching him and he moved out behind her to approach us. She moved away, but I spent the next ten minutes thinking we were done for, but thankfully Javelin settled and we qualified! We got a 188.5. His heeling, sit for exam, and sit stay were all nice although he didn't sit at the end of the heeling pattern. The figure 8 was atrocious. He lagged, goosed a steward and didn't sit the first time, but it was passable. I also had to give him two orders for the recall. As I turned to face him and wait for the judge's order he looked towards the ring entrance and gave a big yawn (a stress releaser), so I suppose at some level he was still concerned about the toller. So that is leg 2 of 3 for Javelin's first obedience title. I will enter him at a local trial at the end of August.


We had a slow trip home with an accident on Route 17 coming down through the Catskills and then torrential rain for most lower Westchester county, the Bronx and across to Queens. It finally let up when I was pretty close to home.


Lily cme in the house and went straight to bed and Javelin is sacked out by my feet. I think we will go to bed now too.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Great ending for your weekend - congratulations to you and Lily and Javelin.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar said:


> Great ending for your weekend - congratulations to you and Lily and Javelin.



Thanks Skylar. I don't know how far a trip this show would be for you, but it is a really great venue. When you are ready you should think about going. They have great judges next year a couple of whom I've shown to and the year after they already have a great judging panel lined up.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'll keep it in mind - it would be a trek and an overnight stay, but air conditioning, well run, good judges all sound good.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Congratulations on a great day, especially with the complications. Javelin's return to attention on you was super, and I'm positive his exercise beforehand helped. Such a wise, thinking, owner handler he has .


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## Asta's Mom (Aug 20, 2014)

Congratulations and glad to hear that Javvy is on his way to his title. Sorry the trip home couldn't be better. All sacked out (as they should be after their adventures)


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar said:


> I'll keep it in mind - it would be a trek and an overnight stay, but air conditioning, well run, good judges all sound good.



For sure it would be a stay over. If you decide to go book at the Best Western or LaQuinta in Johnson City. All of the downtown hotels/motels in Binghamton proper are pretty weird. One place we stayed on the 4th floor ended up with Lily's food overrun by ants and some other odd surprises and lackluster responses from the manager. When we checked out the desk clerk knocked $50 off my bill because of the ants. She told me she didn't care what the manager thought since she was quitting when he arrived later in the day.


One of the best parts of this is that they have ring rentals in the trial rings you want to be in/will show in Thursday-Saturday. Practicing in the rally/beginner novice ring and giving Javelin a very clear message that bouncing and mouthing was unacceptable was a big part of why he didn't do it on Sunday. That is a rare opportunity.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Streetcar said:


> Congratulations on a great day, especially with the complications. Javelin's return to attention on you was super, and I'm positive his exercise beforehand helped. Such a wise, thinking, owner handler he has .



I was so proud of how he bounced back from that BS with the toller. Lily worries a lot about those kinds of things and if it had happened to her she would not have recovered enough to work well. I have tried very hard to keep both of them from having those kinds of negative experiences and I was really dumb struck that the woman didn't apologize (as the woman with the Bouvier did). These scenarios are often more complicated than one would hope for.


Asta's Mom, thankfully I had put new tires on my vehicle during the week. I would not have wanted to drive on my old worn tires. We are going to have a generally stormy week in the east I think. We all slept until about 8:30 this morning.


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## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

Overall a pretty good weekend I would say. Yes and there are "those" people everywhere who just don't pay mind to their dog. I am glad it all worked out well.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Three out of four entries with green is like a major league baseball .750 batting average, so yes I am very pleased. And guarding against "those" people and dogs should be taken seriously by everyone, then there might still be reactive dogs, but they wouldn't be getting any chances to practice at that behavior, right?


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Nice collection of green ribbons! Congratulations. You must be really proud of Javelin for shaking off the incident with the toller. I am surprised that a toller was aggressive - I don't know much about them, but most sporting dogs are pretty laid back.


Javelin has a wonderful role model in Lily - I'm hoping he accumulates a long string of titles after his name, too!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Johanna, yes, when I spoke with the judge after he gave the awards he noted how awful his figure 8 was and now that I think about it his big lag was on the outside closer to the ring gate where the other folks still there were waiting for us to finish, including the lady with the toller who didn't seem to have brought a crate. Also he looked over that way when I had him waiting for the recall. He gave me a big yawn as he looked back and ended up missing the first order. I said to the judge that I think he lackluster exercises were about his concern over that dog. The judge said he was surprised a toller had been aggressive too. I've never seen another one that was mean, but this one apparently has a reputation for being so.


Even with those bad exercises he otherwise showed me a lot of good stuff.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Congratulations on both dogs advancing this past weekend! Sounds like a very nice venue, except for the toller terrorist.


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## mashaphan (Sep 4, 2014)

Hmm,I will have to ask around about the Toller. The ones I know are past BN,and have great temperaments,so it is a bit surprising.Poor Jaavs-we have a couple of reactive dogs in class,and Otter is just a wuss. ("what? What did I do??")

Thrilled about Stacey and Mick-such heights to which to aspire!

Martha


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Martha, Dottie was there so I am sure she will know who it was.


I am so thrilled for Stacey and Mick. Check her FB. She has some nice pictures up.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

Yes, I guess things went well didn't they? CONGRATS big time are in order! I hope Jav doesn't have to meet that Toller in the future!


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I did get to talk to one of the other exhibitors in that class while we were all packing out. She told me the toller's owner is aware that the dog has problems and is trying to work on them, but that was certainly not in evidence on Sunday. A person with a reactive dog can't look away from what that dog is doing for a second if they really want to fix things. Javelin has his own reactive moments and Lily used as well. Lily now only really gives the business to other black standard poodle bitches so we stay away from them and she also will rarely react to really rude dogs, but that is really offered as a social correction. Lily has worries about certain dogs because a very similar situation a number of years ago scared her very badly. It was as if she had full blown PTSD after a rottie went after her in a very similar situation as what happened Sunday. I watch Javelin like a hawk every second he is out and about where there are other dogs. I stop him from offering stupid reactions and reward him for leaving things alone. He is improving, but everybody needs to be super mindful, not just me.


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