# Luna’s first time in obedience and rally rings



## Click-N-Treat (Nov 9, 2015)

I'm glad you had a good time. I don't think Noelle would sit in wet grass, either. Indoor shows are all I've done so far. I don't know if I'll ever sign up for an outdoor show. You're braver than I am, for sure. 

Keep practicing. And consider showing again. I want to hear more of Luna's journey.


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

You were very brave to enter an outdoor show in those conditions. We’ve only done inside ones. 

Congratulations on your first leg in rally under such difficult weather, that is a very special achievement. Obedience is harder and you were fighting too many distractions. 

Next time let your trainer know ahead of time to be well hidden or not to be in the building when it’s Luna’s turn in the ring unless she is present often when you practice. I’ve seen so many dogs NQ because daddy or grandma came to watch a competition but never watch practice. The novelty of having a favorite friend in the room is just too much for many dogs. My DH never comes to our competitions. He would love to go to a competition but He doesn’t want to go weekly to class so the novelty of him there would be a distraction. 

I have a friend who got her first rally leg under similar conditions to you. They were the first dog in the ring after the rain and they got to a sit sign which was in a huge puddle and her dog refused to sit for obvious reasons. That’s when the judge realized that no one had looked over the course after the rain to make sure there weren’t any problems like that. I will never compete outside, too many potential problems.

Editing to say we will be competing in nose work outside but we train for that including looking for scents in puddles. I’m not going to train obedience or rally outside in all kinds of weather, but I will scent work.


----------



## Mufar42 (Jan 1, 2017)

Well congratulations! I think its great you got out there even in the nasty weather. And it sounds like you enjoyed it too, so all in all a win.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

An A match is an exciting thing for a club since it gets you your approval to hold trials down the road. I was the rally judge for one of our local club's A match. I had a great time and was happy to help the club. You guys did a great job pulling that off in the rain. We mostly have indoor shows around here.


Lily would never want to sit or down in those conditions either. Javelin would if I told him he had to. It is very understandable that Luna didn't want to do the sits in the wet grass. It is an unfun idea, but if most of your trials near home are likely to be outside you need to practice outside in the rain to work through that issue. I tend to use lousy weather around home to proof Javelin on sits and downs, drops, etc. If he can do it in cruddy weather then he has had a chance to show he really understands what the orders are about.


As to scoring for obedience you need to get at least half the points allocated to each exercise and at least 170 points total to qualify. Usually you would not know your total points if you NQ. You would know how many points you got for the exercises that you qualified for and the judge's book would just say NQ for those exercises you didn't qualify for and overall an NQ for the routine.


And as to friendly folks who distract you dog, BF came to Lily's first obedience trial and has not come since then. He is way too much of an attractive nuisance for her to focus. Aside from that he found it boring to have to wait around for things (he showed Peeves in conformation that day), so he is happy to hear about results without being there live. I also have sometimes had my mom travel with me, but we always practice with her around before any such trips. Now that she has decided not to continue in rally with her mpoo she is also not too likely to come. You either need to make it clear that you don't want distracting people to approach when you are warming up for a ring or train with those specific people around all of the time so they are no longer distracting. You also want to develop a routine for getting ready and entering your match or trial rings. Watch experienced handlers. You will see they are totally focused on connecting with their dogs and doing things to help support the dog's relaxed yet prepared to work state of mind. Other experienced people will recognize and keep their distance from teams that are getting ready to go in, but people who don't understand the sport may try to approach at that time and generally they will get waved off without the handler breaking contact with the dog. I generally say something to the effect of we are working but will talk with you after we show if I need to really get someone out of our warmup space and routine.


You will be ready to enter when you have Luna to the point where you are the most interesting thing in the world in the face of all of those distracting bits, like wet grass, your breeder, friendly strangers and such. 



I love that you are working on this since you along with folks like Mysticrealm show the world that poodles are way more than just another pretty face!


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

You and Luna did so well considering those terrible conditions (weather and breeder interfering!). The sit/stay/walk around was perfect and her heeling was absolutely lovely when she wasn't distracted. Keep it up :thumb:


----------



## Moni (May 8, 2018)

Oh you poor dears - these conditions are just too rough to overcome. To ask any lady dog to put her lady parts on wet grass, not a chance....to ask a Poodle Lady - well what were you thinking.lol. Boy dogs probably would mind it, but do it if asked...


----------



## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Thank you all very much for the reassurance and suggestions. Just to be clear, since it was a match we didn’t actually get our first leg for rally. We just “would have” I guess if we had been at a real trial. And I’m not sure why a score was put into the results for our obedience since we NQed. Probably due to our club members still learning how to record everything. 

It was fun but I did feel very flustered during both. The judge kept being nice and giving me tips during obedience but that made me even more nervous and aware of all the mistakes we were making. I do know now about keeping people away. It was a rough lesson to learn but it was learned quickly and my breeder felt very bad after, she just wasn’t thinking at all. I think it will help me if I read the rules for each and watch YouTube videos and such. Plus we haven’t been to an obedience or rally practice since August so we were so rusty anyways and really just felt clueless. I am considering putting the full videos on YouTube to share the links but they are embarrassing so I will have to keep thinking about that. I had considered showing her in one or both in Las Vegas at the end of March (it is outdoors) but I will be assisting a handler there getting poodles ready for conformation so I won’t have the time to show Luna. Other than that we have 2 clusters of shows in northern Utah 5 hours away during the summer. And I don’t know if we are dedicated enough to travel that far. So our next performance may be at our clubs next A match in the fall. After that A match if everything goes well we will be sanctioned to hold a real show next fall. Pretty exciting!


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Feeling flustered is natural when you are new and you know someone is watching your every little move. "A" matches do have to be scored, but are supposed to be scored like trials. In the rally match I judged for our agility club to become an everything club I had to excuse someone from Advanced B because she was harassing her dog and causing problems for the novice dogs in the adjacent ring who were doing sits and downs. This woman is strange to say the least and she was none too happy with me over it (understandably at some level) but it had to be dealt with. It took several years before she ever spoke to me again, let alone coming to a match that I was judging. 



Look up Brenda Riemer. She has a PH.D. in sports psychology and a successful history showing in obedience. I went to a ring nerves/stress reduction workshop with her in the fall. Skylar just signed up to see her in august.


----------



## chinchillafuzzy (Feb 11, 2017)

Someone’s in our club took a few pictures of Luna and I during obedience so I just thought I would share. They aren’t great but give an idea of what it was like. Also you can’t tell from the pics but it was raining quite steadily at the time.

Catherine, thanks for the suggestion, I will look her up.


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Looking at those pictures I see she was giving you good attention part of the time, but definitely not much in the first on course picture or at the last on course picture. If the first on course picture is at the start and you don't have attention when the judge asks "are you ready?" remember you can and should say no! Say Luna's name and tell her to look up then quickly say ready, wait for the "forward" order and take off.


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Luna looked fabulous in the ring with you and I loved her heads up attention.

I was taught when you enter the ring, you only look at your dog, don't look at the judge. You can hear and speak to the judge without looking at them. Get your dog to sit in heel and get their attention - my cue word is "ready". When the judge says "are you ready" I was taught to say no if you aren't ready and to take your time until you have the dog's attention then you can tell the judge you're ready. But it's not clear if that photo of you at the start line with Luna was exactly when you started or was that you just walking in and you're not prepared yet to start the course?


----------



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar you are right about not disconnecting from your dog. If you watch videos of top competitors like Betsy Scapicchio, Linda Brennan and Petra Ford you will see they never make eye contact with the judge, only with their dog.


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> Skylar you are right about not disconnecting from your dog. If you watch videos of top competitors like Betsy Scapicchio, Linda Brennan and Petra Ford you will see they never make eye contact with the judge, only with their dog.


I have to say it felt so weird and rude at the beginning not to look at the judge when they spoke to you. It took training to make this a habit when entering the ring.


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Skylar said:


> I have to say it felt so weird and rude at the beginning not to look at the judge when they spoke to you. It took training to make this a habit when entering the ring.


The only exception to the rule is if you get Jill K. Jones as a judge. You must make eye contact and say good morning to her before keeping focus on your dog. West Coasters, beware!


----------



## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

zooeysmom said:


> The only exception to the rule is if you get Jill K. Jones as a judge. You must make eye contact and say good morning to her before keeping focus on your dog. West Coasters, beware!


Wow. In normal every day activities I can see someone being upset. I hope she doesn't come to judge in the northeast.

Have you shown before her?


----------



## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

I have not, but I read comments on the rally judge reviews FB group and I remember everything I read about each judge just in case I have them one day.


----------

