The CDSP Obedience trial is on Saturday. I am nervous for a whole lot of reasons. This will not be like AKC Obedience, I have to keep reminding myself. CDSP is a "natural" style of Obedience, and you are permitted to talk to your dog in the ring. Ein, Perri and I really need that.
I charged into Obedience with Perri and did not even want to think about doing Rally with her at first. I didn't want to fall into the habit of talking to her in the ring. I did not want her to become dependent on hearing me talk to her. That line of thought was so silly and far from what we needed that I actually laugh about it now.
With Ein, I wanted to do agility. We ended up doing Rally and loving it. Loving it so much that we have been trialing in Rally for over a year now. Rally is his happy place, it is my happy place. Rally gave Ein confidence that I never imagined possible. Confidence that has allowed us to return and play agility again.
With that confidence we are going to try CDSP Obedience.
I am not worried about the heel on lead.
I am very worried about the Off Lead Figure 8. Lagging, leaving position and full on melting into the floor to escape the Figure-8-Post Ring Stewards are very alarming possibilities.
I am very worried about the Moving Stand for Exam. We have to pause in a heel and Ein has to stay standing. Ein wants to sit. That's five points off right there. Then there's the whole issue of the person touching his body, heaven forbid! It blows my mind to even imagine him allowing a SFE. I cannot imagine it being a successful performance.
I am not so worried about the Recall Over Bar Jump.
I am slightly concerned about the Honor Stay. (For the Honor Stay, your dog must remain in either a sit-stay or a down-stay while another dog is walking her heel pattern.) I am planning on a sit-stay and my only concern is Ein deciding to lay down. I am pretty sure that if I ask him for a down-stay he will sit up.
And don't even get me started talking about that poodle. Well ready or not, here we come.
You'll be FINE. Really! Fine! It's a familiar venue where both of them have worked before and good things have happened to them there, so that should help.
ReplyDeleteAlso Marguerite judged Sunday at the last CDSP trial I went to, and she is super super nice and should put you at ease.
ALSO if you looked at the runsheet, practically everybody there is either Novice A or Novice B. They'll all be in the same boat. Comparatively you're a seasoned veteran.
(Of course I say all this as somebody who totally had trial nerves like woah before my first CDSP trial too... but it only took one trial for the stress level to drop.)