Morgan's Show n Go experience

Today, I took Morgan to a show n go. At least we thought it was a show n go.
The flyer said that it was a B/OB Rally Fun match. It ended up being a B match. However, I told the judges that we wanted to show for exhibition only. Anyway, my goals for this show n go were to treat it like a trial in that we set up crates and chairs and water, etc. just like we were at a trial; to get her attention on me and see if she would play with me. Success on both accounts. Yay!

I had decided that I was going to take food in the ring because the goal was not to see how she would perform in competition but to train her out-of-ring behavior for now. Problem is that even though we could show for exhibition, we couldn't bring in food. I decided then to see if I could trick Morgan into thinking I had food. It worked for the on-lead heeling which was EXCELLENT. She realized that I did not have food for the figure 8 and that is when her performance started to fall apart. I gave her a pop out of sight of the judge but it didn't help. We tried off lead heeling and when she didn't halt, I put her back on lead. It was pretty bad but not as bad as her performance in Charleston. I guess there is something to be said for that. I had just lost all attention.

We tried Advanced Rally off lead, the thinking was that we did great at the agility show n go yesterday off lead and maybe if she had more to do in the ring she would do better. NOT. She was fabulous on the right and left pivots, the 1,2,3 steps in front position, on the moving down, and just about any exercise we had to do. Problem was that in between those exercises, she wandered off. She came back on command but she never really heeled. We had the offset figure 8 which had nothing in the bowls but she had to inspect the bowls but responded quickly to the 'leave it' command.

I learned a couple of things. I can get Morgan relaxed enough that she can pay attention to me outside the ring. In fact, she can play with me outside the ring, which is fabulous. I can get her relaxed enough so that she leaves other dogs alone. Also, I put her in a sit stay with my friend holding her leash and she didn't move the whole time I walked the rally course. Her out of the ring behavior is now at a point that I am VERY pleased. At the trial at the end of January, she was so horrible-jumping on people, sticking her nose in other dogs' crates. It was embarrassing. She doesn't do that anymore. Yay!

We will work very hard on training without food and playing in the ring. We will reinstitute the daily 5 minute training that we did with Sue Garrett's class this summer. As far as PCA is concerned, she will be entered in Beginner Novice so she can get her title. Even if her heeling does not improve, she will probably qualify for that. J I'll do the parade with Merlin on Tuesday and the Parade of Champions with Morgan on Wednesday. That is enough for me to do and surely enough money for me to spend J This takes the pressure off of trying to get her ready for PCA. I need goals but deadlines tend to be recipes for failure for me with my dogs.

Kathy