Rally successes

Took the crew down to Greenville to the big set of shows, but only showed on Friday.
Charlie and Nari both finished their RE's, so they are all done with Rally! Kestrel I found I had entered in the wrong thing, so we just did a RA leg for extra, and I'll try to remember she's actually in Excellent next time. Ah well. She was a happy clam though!

Charlie made me proud. During his honor down, we were placed in a corner, with the opening in the ring gate just behind me to my left. Also the crowd side. I'm glad I'm relatively aware of my environment while training, as at some point the husky doing the heelwork decided that it was either bored, too revved up, or wanted a new handler (didn't see anything wrong with its current one, but heck, I'm just a human). I heard the pounding of husky feet, unaccompanied by human feet (so obviously not doing a jump/handler run by sign) and looked at Charlie and said "Leave it". Just after that I caught a blur of red and white zing past my butt and out the ring gate at a high rate of speed - the husky. Charlie didn't even flinch. We kept our places until the judge came by and patted my shoulder and told me that we had Q'd, but could we do the honor again for another dog. "Sure!" and we got back into place and did another round of down on the end of a 6 ft leash for a nice....rat terrier maybe? Then we got to do another round of heelwork, where I tried to fix the things I didn't do quite right the first round - just for kicks. Charlie had a great time, I was proud of him. Focus and leave it to the rescue! I think I can also blame herding for practicing the self control while animals are running.

Malcolm had his debut, with very little training. He was a trooper - big show, lots to be busy at, and a long day to wait for a puppy. Other than being distracted at the first sign, he did great and we got an 85 I think, for his first rally Q. He, and the other pups, really need a ton more focus work. Just focus work. It is such an important thing and the building foundation for everything else we do. Focus focus focus. Heck, the poor guy barely has LLW down, doesn't heel per se, and is sooo busy and interested in everything and everyone. He wasn't bad in the crate, a few barks then he figured out that it wasn't a big deal if I pulled another dog out and worked them - it wasn't like ducks or sheep were involved, after all.