The Spaniel Annals

Recently I stewarded at an obedience trial, and was struck as I always am by the unstructured, unfocused way many teams enter the ring. Often the handlers will rush in to the ring, completely disconnected from their dog, and then suddenly attempt to get the dog into heel position, after the dog has been pulling on the leash, or been distracted/stressed by a steward or the crowded entrance, and the result is a disconnected, unprepared team. Guess what the rest of the performance often looks like?

Brian and I recently showed in a Graduate Novice class while we are preparing for the Open level of his obedience. Both days, I had a planned and trained ring entrance, but one of them gets a bit more discombobulated. And guess which performance went better?

Saturday’s run was quite lovely: the best heeling he’s done in a new space and the first time he’s done his drop on recall in competition. He had a jumping blooper both days, but for the most part successfully overcame a showing issue we’ve been working on lately. Overall I was very pleased with his work, as I regarded this weekend as more of a practice for Open and a test run of my upgraded mental management skills (more on that later). Suffice to say that ring entrances are a vital piece to train for competition!