Post show glory

First, Rah is allergic to NJ. Or my house at least - he's itchy, he has yucky eye goop. Yes, I did contemplate selling my house for 10 seconds before I realized it was purely impractical.

Ah, the afterglow :) First, I am tickled pink that I had COMMENTS in this blog... yay :) If I could figure out how to get all comments emailed to me so that I know when I get them, that would be even better... anyone?

Rah has been enjoying the life of a free dog right now - no training since Friday! He's getting lazy, I tell ya! Today I will get things back out and start working him - scent articles, some directed jumping, and figure 8's I think.

I'm really astounded and very pleased that Rah was able to perform as well as he did - and others are astounded I'm not out there entering him like crazy right now to finish his CD...

First, this was always planned as a test run - to see how far he had progressed, and to see what we needed to work on. I know now he HAS matured a lot, but I also know there are things we need to work on - his transitions and set ups have gotten MUCH better, but some of the training didn't hold up as well in the ring - for almost every set up, I think, I needed to do TWO to get one I was happy with. perfectionist? Yes - but if he isn't straight and giving me attention, I cannot expect a lovely performance from a less than lovely start. And while the figure8 was about 200 times better than it was this same time last month, it can still be better. Seeing Betsy and Dealer in the ring getting the 200 this past week, I want THAT... training with perfectionists means you want that.. *le sigh*

Which brings us to the time of year - it's the beginning of our outdoor show season here, always a drop in entries, a drop in performance standards for some of us (ahem, MOI), and of course a significant rise in the temperature and my sweating. Rah needs a lot more matching and training outside before we can be comfortable showing outdoors, so there's no sense in showing him in a
situation where I am not confident he can perform.

Then we come to those damned scores. Good scores are addicting. The AKC has decided that a dog can continue to compete in Novice A for 60 days after they complete their title before they have to move up to Novice B. The DPCA (Doberman Pinscher Club of America) has decided that a dog can qualify for the Top 20 in obedience only once from the Novice class, after that they need to move beyond - a qualifying score is anything above 195, with bonus points for HIT's.

So yes, Rah's score Thursday was a TT qualifying score - if he is capable of producing more, he is capable of potentially qualifying for the TT, which is a huge dream of mine (second only to him getting that OTCH). However, the TT calendar year is July-June, and that means this years is almost over - with virtually no chance of him making it, since there isn't even enough local shows for him to be entered in this late, to get him enough CHANCES< much less are we capable of that rigorous schedule and that level of consistency (which I do not believe we are, yet).

So, if things go well, I'm going after the first dream later this year, and we will seriously start pursuing a place in the Top 20 obedience for the blue blur... but I'm going to have to pick my debut carefully - I like certain venues, I want to be able to show the hell out of him in Novice A before we are forced to go into the B classes.

Did I really just say that?