Bionic Bodi, the Self-Employed Vizsla, takes a trip to Sarnia
CKC Rally Novice title!
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Napping with my new toy on Sunday afternoon
We were inadvertently given an Obedience rosette (wishful thinking). |
A great big thank you to the most patient of judges:
Diana MacKenzie and Del Lunn
Kudos to the judges and all of the Sarnia KC members who worked so hard
in sweltering humidity to keep things moving along at a brisk pace.
GIGANTIC SPOILER ALERT !
If you believe me to be perfect and infallible, please do not proceed FORWARD.
HALT
SIT
DOWN
WALK AROUND
(do anything but read further)
270 Right
away from your screen
if you choose to
360 Left
be prepared to
take
3 STEPS BACKWARD,
SPIRAL
out of control
and
toss your rose-coloured glasses!
Thursday Morning
In the 15 minutes I spent in the man-cave while Mom went to
fill up
the vehicle and pick up bags of ice for the cooler this happened!!!
Once again, I was framed by the most evil of evil Bowser beds!!!
You see, I
had to go-go and in the name of self-preservation, the evil Bowser bed
decided to distract me by unzipping and spilling its contents
everywhere!!!
Thursday Evening - Monday
On Friday morning, we needed to be in 3 rings at the same time so the decision was made to scratch my first Rally and Pre-Novice runs. Although they would have held up the Rally and Obedience rings and waited for us to return from the conformation ring, based on Thursday night's correction match, it did not seem fair to make the other people and dogs wait in sweltering 100% humidity for half an hour just to witness a Vizsla hell-bent and determined to perform the best imitation of a Bloodhound in recorded history. (A video clip of such has been submitted to the Academy of Canine Theatrical Arts for consideration in the category of Best Imitation of the Hallmark of Another Breed.)
Evil Bowser bed aside, filthy floors are my arch nemesis!!! My 125 million (or more) turbinates were like magnets to the mats (judging by my stellar imitation, I may actually possess closer to the 500 million turbinates of an actual Bloodhound). For some odd reason, many people suggested that my pair of you-know-whats was to blame - this I do not understand as they are nowhere near my nose (well, most of the time, anyway)!!
You know your run is not going well when you lift your nose off the floor and you hear applause! SIGH! Mea culpa, mea culpa but dang that floor was intoxicating!
On Saturday afternoon, the lightbulb finally turned on and we earned the first Rally leg with a score of 81. I will take credit for losing 9 points and only 9 points. The other 10-point loss sits squarely on the human's shoulders for becoming discombobulated with shock and disbelief when my nose came off the floor at station 5 and she led me off-course toward station 13 (good thing she immediately returned us to station 5 and got us back on course)!
 |
| I did it! I did it! |
Many thanks to Michelle Ross for helping to turn on the lightbulb by sneaking up on me and pinching my butt!!!
Perhaps if my one Pre-Novice attempt had been on Monday instead of Sunday I would have passed. As it was, my heeling pattern looked more like tracking but I performed the figure-8 reasonably well, held my sit for exam and passed the group sit (only once did I glance longingly at the floor but my nose did not fall below the level of my belly button). The recall (the only off-leash exercise of the weekend) started off with my signature full-throttle bionic leap in the air but ended up with my nose planted on the ground instead of my butt!!!
Although I know all the Rally exercises through Excellent, it was deemed unwise to move up to Advance for our 2 runs on Monday. It wasn't worth the risk of practicing more bad behaviour as the freedom of being leash-free would have provided the opportunity to explore all the nooks and crannies that were out of reach on a 6' (now 9') leash.
To be fair, on Monday, I was in the conformation ring (outdoors) within 10 minutes of finishing a Rally run ("indoors") and showed beautifully. For a young (male) dog, this, in and of itself, was a stellar accomplishment. My second Rally run of the day (and last of the weekend) was about 2 hours later and I would have had High in Class (with a 91) had I chosen not to sniff the floor during the Halt-Down-Walk Around with my elbows in the air!!!!!
On Sunday and Monday,
the lightbulb flickered a little (okay, maybe a lot) but at least I
finished the weekend way, way, way better than I started it (and way, way, way better than anyone would have predicted on Thursday evening...Friday...Saturday morning).
Lesson Learned
To overthrow my arch nemesis, I must start training in a barn!!!!!
