# One more rally masters leg today



## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

I took Lily to a nice smallish local rally trial this morning. Despite her only doing one of the two spins in the course we qualified and got leg number 4 of 10 for the rally masters title. We also should get two legs in Syracuse in early June and then there is a three day trial in Binghamton, NY in late July. If we Q all of those we would have nine legs at the conclusion of Binghamton. Either I will go to the cluster in West Springfield, Massachusetts over the 4th of July for a day or two so we can finish in Binghamton or I will hold off for my own club's December rally trials to try for the tenth leg.

Now let's just hope that the slightly distracted girl I had this morning brings a nice clear head to utility in the same location tomorrow.


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## Johanna (Jun 21, 2017)

Congratulations! and best wishes for Utility - you do your very best, Lily.


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

YAY Lily!!! And Good Luck tomorrow!!!


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Congratulations, Catherine and Lily! Hoping for another great (and more focused) day tomorrow


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

zooeysmom said:


> Congratulations, Catherine and Lily! Hoping for another great (and more focused) day tomorrow


Were you also doing rally this weekend? If yes, how did you and Frosty do?


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

lily cd re said:


> Were you also doing rally this weekend? If yes, how did you and Frosty do?


Thanks for asking--we scratched due to the heat and ring conditions.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

zooeysmom said:


> Thanks for asking--we scratched due to the heat and ring conditions.



I'm sorry to hear that. Dealing with the heat can make things a no go. For today and tomorrow there isn't a lot fo crating space and most of us work out of our cars since it is very close between the parking and the ring. Earlier in the week it was in the 90s here and I probably would have scratched too, but thankfully it was just barely 70 today and tomorrow it is supposed to be showery and not to crack 60. It is better to be safe than sorry on those decisions.


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## Dechi (Aug 22, 2015)

Congratulations and good luck tomorrow !


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

Congratulations on today and merde for tomorrow !

(Desperately hoping Lily CD RE knows what I mean by that.)


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Thanks, Catherine. Always better to keep them happy and comfortable, for sure. And I don't think he minds being home instead of still waiting in the heat at the show LOL


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Streetcar said:


> Congratulations on today and merde for tomorrow !
> 
> (Desperately hoping Lily CD RE knows what I mean by that.)


I see there are a couple of definitions of "merde" with VERY different meanings :lol:


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Nope he doesn't look disappointed at all.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Streetcar said:


> Congratulations on today and merde for tomorrow !
> 
> (Desperately hoping Lily CD RE knows what I mean by that.)


I am guessing the dancers' good luck meaning is what you are aiming for, but we could certainly do the other meaning (figuratively) too.


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## Streetcar (Apr 13, 2014)

lily cd re said:


> I am guessing the dancers' good luck meaning is what you are aiming for, but we could certainly do the other meaning (figuratively) too.


Yes indeedy, the dancers' good luck meaning is exactly what I intended. That it had a potential extra meaning of something to hopefully get out of the way before ring time wasn't lost on me, but wasn't top of mind at the moment .


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

Congratulations to you and Lily on getting another leg. I hope tomorrow goes fabulously.


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## Mfmst (Jun 18, 2014)

Yay, Lily and Catherine! Best wishes for ‘all business’ tomorrow.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

We are home. Thank you everyone for your good wishes. We didn't qualify, but we had some good moments. The order of the exercises was directed jumping, moving stand, gloves, scent articles and then heeling and signals. We didn't Q on directed jumping or signals. For the jumping part of it was totally on me since for the 2nd go out I said "Lily fly away." Huh I never say her name to send her for go outs. She went about half way and turned around and stood there looking at me like I don't understand what I'm supposed to do here and who can blame her since I screwed up the order? Her heeling was just awful and she knew it so when it came to the signals she decided she was done and walked way in before she dropped. All of the other exercises were really nice though and today's judge and the steward who was yesterday's rally judge were both very nice and encouraging. Ten were entered, nine showed and two of us NQ'd and the other NQ was a person who has had a NOC (so we were in good company in the no ribbons crowd). On to Syracuse in June!


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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

Aww, it happens! Nice effort, and good attitude about it


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

That's too bad - but that's why its call futility. If it was easy, everyone would pass and there wouldn't be any challenge.

Whats really good is you have insight into what happened and you have the right attitude when you leave the ring.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

It was really very nice of the judge to be so supportive and she was through our routine where somewhere along the line I got in that we are trying for a UD from B so Lily doesn't memorize the order all the way through when she said I was being a good sportsman to come in to acknowledge the awards even though I wasn't getting one. Before she announced the placements she took one more look in my direction and noted that this is a very hard class. I was very grateful to her since there have been a couple of times I have left a utility ring feeling sort of humiliated.

Thinking about it a bit more I also realized the go out at this place is a hard one since it goes towards a mirrored wall and the ring gating has feet on each section instead of the style of stanchions we usually see. Everything that is different matters to a dog that is sensitive and prone to worrying as Lily can be. There is also a small fall trial at this facility. If I enter there I will try to go to some of the summer utility classes that I normally can't make because of my fall/spring semester schedules.

One other thing I got out of being there this weekend was to make some tracking related connections. One of the folks from the host club (English Springer Spaniels) is someone I know from obedience/rally and agility. I did not know that she also tracks until yesterday. I really need some buddies to work with to get ready for a tracking test. So maybe this summer we will finally get there.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

In one of my clubs, where they hold obedience trials, they always cover the mirrors with tarps - completely covered so they aren't a distraction. It's a shame they don't have theirs covered up. It can be hard if the dog looks up and sees another dog jumping - that's intimidating if they aren't used to it.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Skylar the go out was towards the mirror and actually I don't think she minded that as much as the different view of the ring gates/stanchion (even though I've never taught either her or Javelin to touch the stanchion). We have mirrors on the wall at my trainer's facility and we don't cover them for go outs. It just goes to show that they notice EVERYTHING!

Way back in our early days doing agility we were practicing in a place that had some spots with mirrors and the dog walk was facing towards one of them. Lily saw herself in the mirror and did a 180 about turn on top of the dog walk to avoid dealing with the dog in the mirror.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

lily cd re said:


> Way back in our early days doing agility we were practicing in a place that had some spots with mirrors and the dog walk was facing towards one of them. Lily saw herself in the mirror and did a 180 about turn on top of the dog walk to avoid dealing with the dog in the mirror.


That could have been dangerous for some dogs. There's no mirrors in the three agility training facilities I've been in. I'm glad Lily turned around safely.

We do recalls sometimes into the corner of the room where there are mirrors on both walls - when the dogs come in they see multiple images of themselves. It's always funny to see a new dog react to that - once they get used to it they do seem to ignore it.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

She was super careful on that dog walk, but I agree it was really scary. Thankfully I was right there with her when she stopped and then decided to turn around. The floor was a mixed use floor for agility, obedience and breed handling. They have moved to a new building since then, no mirrors and they just got a new floor.


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## LizzysMom (Sep 27, 2016)

Congratulations on leg #4, and, too bad about the NQs. (This is what happens when you don't sign on for a few days - you have to play catch up!  ) I really appreciate how you share both the good and bad, and with such a good attitude, though. I think it's really helpful to "newbies" to see that even experienced trainers such as you don't get perfect results every time.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

Lizzy'sMom thank you so much for those kind words. I won't say that I wasn't disappointed to get yet another utility NQ, but it was a day for me and my special girl to have a girls' day out and what could be bad about that? One thing I think we need to remember is we decide to play at these sports not the dogs and we should treat them as games that make for better happier relationship and more stable fulfilled dogs. If we get mad at them for a failure then we aren't doing that.


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