Katyusha and Zastava
- Thread starter Katyusharocket
- Start date
Today we didn't do conformation, but I bought trial 1 and 2 entries for tomorrowAwesome!
Did you do conformation too?
Thanks! Proud is most definitely accurate, proud of us as a training partnership, proud of our performance, just everything, but there are additional emotions riding with that. A huge sense of happiness of knowing our partnership is working. And that didn't have to happen in a competition, although it did for us. You often mention how hard Ragnar was and those feelings of when you guys were able to settle in and be more in public together, and the reactivity subsided, and I'm sure you felt those additional emotions then. Just the sheer power of a success story and knowing without a doubt you nailed it together! That was today for us.
Thanks!
Oh this is totally accurate! Fun and games for them! Less so for me today, because experience is what you get right after you needed it the most. To expand on that, we learned a lot today. The thing I learned after both trials were complete was that: 1. I don't trust her enough, and 2. Im slower at picking up on her communication than she is to communicate to me. In both trials, she found something and made eye contact, and I thought "it cannot possibly be this easy" so I commanded her , once again, "SEARCH!". And she went to the next car or next container, then went back to the eye contact car and container so I hollered "alert!". And both times the judge said "yes.".
What i also had never been told until both trials were done, is that in novice A, you get a do-over if the judge says no. Tomorrow will be my time to let down and get it wrong, and test my theory about how she communicates with me that she has it and knows it....
We were happy with each other today. We are exhausted but quite happy. And we are looking forward to tomorrow's new challenge of conformation. If she bests one other dog in that and makes a qualifying run at nosework, I gather she will also gain UKC "Total Dog" status. I don't know if that is a title, but someone described it as a way to chalk up that your dog is "both beauty and brains".
Edit to add, I will have container results in the morning tomorrow. We had been there going on 11 hours plus 3 hours round trip driving, and we both had enough for the day, knowing we can find the results come morning.
And that would be a big accomplishment; especially for your first weekend out.
If we make those requirements. Im not a high pressure dog dad, as far as I can tell. But she's getting a boatload of treats if we leave with that. Hell, she'll geat a boatload of treats just for trying conformation tomorrow. A judge from conformation from today spent a little time with me after all the work was done giving me tips specific to us. It was really helpful. Also z was the only Doberman on the grounds today . That could change tomorrow, time will tell. But the judge helping me after hours today told me that tomorrow's judges are helpful also, and the dog that I brought today is a very "good dog". We will learn more about her interpretation tomorrow, I guess?
What a treat! I've not heard of that from the AKC venue-goers.
this is common, especially for first-timers. My first teacher via online when Asha was about 8 months old said many times, Trust Your Dog, it's a mantra with nose work! I can expound on this topic after your weekend is done, but you will learn so much by these trials to see her actions in odor and then the alert. If you are holding her at the start line sometimes they will indicate that they have caught the odor before you even say search, by staring a certain direction at the boxes or flaring their nostrils.
Best of luck today, enjoy and have fun!
I don’t know how else to explain this feeling, this sense of accomplishment other than the daily training I did with my daughter playing soccer. She was an okay player but not good enough…we trained daily and trained hard until she exceeded the normalcy of other players. The time, energy, the frustrations all come to an understanding when you see the change happen. She is now playing D1 college soccer.
I truly hated the saying “One must fail in order to succeed”…Bullshit- I have to succeed everytime or I am not gonna do it. Wrong wrong wrong. Learning how to suffer and struggle and yet forge on through failure is what makes one successful. Not trying to sound like Aristotle here, haha. My favorite saying is what you put into them is what you will get out of them. Really proud of what you’ve done there, went out of your comfort zone and ventured into something very new- did the work and now you and Zastava have something to be very proud of.
Good for you.
That's another thing I love about UKC when everyone is so helpful, including the judges.
They were sooo helpful! Our actual judges today were judging my dog, but slowed the process down to give me pointers to better us as a team, too. I didn't meet one unhelpful person there. In our trial one, we used the equipment i owned and a group of 3 other competitors rushed me when we came out and they hooked me up with a better sized show lead for her and a few other safety tips. After our second time thru, two more came up and offered me more advice, and it all seemed solid. The one that didn't work for us was baiting, Z smelled it and lost her sh!t, so i had to feed it to her. Everything was really constructive.
How it started as of Friday.
How it's going now.
She scored 2 best of breed, 2 3rd place in her group (there were only 3 in guardian, I'll keep it honest) 2 best female, and 4 qualifying runs and 4 first place, one for each element in nosework (and those weren't even close). I just hoped we would bring home one dang ribbon.
Granted these were a lot easier to gain than I thought they would be, TBH, but still, just hoped for a ribbon.
She didn't best any dogs in conformation, so, no chance at Total Dog. I'm OK with that for never having put tons of effort into her just yet for conformation, but lots of work into her for nosework.
How it's going now.
She scored 2 best of breed, 2 3rd place in her group (there were only 3 in guardian, I'll keep it honest) 2 best female, and 4 qualifying runs and 4 first place, one for each element in nosework (and those weren't even close). I just hoped we would bring home one dang ribbon.
Granted these were a lot easier to gain than I thought they would be, TBH, but still, just hoped for a ribbon.
She didn't best any dogs in conformation, so, no chance at Total Dog. I'm OK with that for never having put tons of effort into her just yet for conformation, but lots of work into her for nosework.
It sounds like you had a great weekend and for your first shows that's extremely impressive! Conformation is very competitive around here and I'd put money on it that some of those in the guardian group are some grand champions I've competed against who are tough to beat. Like I said, the judge won't place you if they don't think you have a nice dog.
Big Congratulations!!!! So proud of you for getting out there and seeing what it's like, learning and having fun with your dog. I think a lot of people think I train and go to trials to "prove" something, but it's really just to set goalposts that I can look at and work toward. Without a goal in mind I think it's much harder to get out and do something with your dog.
Thanks! It was a fabulous week and weekend. One was a Tibetan Mastiff that we competed against in Guardian, don't know if that rings any bells for you of dogs you have competed against.
Thanks! I completely agree it's much harder to get out and do something with your dog without goals, and they are important for me too. After I learned Z had taken 1st place in vehicles, I met 3 people and one of them told me she has been a dog handler for conformation for 20 years, I believe she had said. I had an interaction with Z, that was noticeable to her, and she said "I feel so sorry for people who never live these moments with their dogs". And those moments are much of my motivation for doing these things, these extra things, and the bond building that happens with each achievement. In the moments and days after these kinds of instances, I have a pretty big dopamine rush, and I'm pretty sure it happens for the dogs too.
No I've never seen one of them at a show but they're very cool dogs. A couple of the grand champions I compete against are an American Bulldog (owned by a judge) and an Anatolian who is also owned by a very experienced handler.
How cool is that? I know that one of the girls from our club, from Bemidji was there and she's been an experienced breeder handler for many years and I could see her saying that. She's also well established in the Bemidji club and another big reason I love that show. She's actually a bit older than me, but I still call people that age a girl. LOL
Yup. Those are my thoughts too.
I do that often, too.
This girl had an English Bulldog in the ring, I talked to so many people that I can't remember if she said she also was a breeder? The entire show was a really positive event for us. Not one person was a jerk to either of us. Lots of experienced people who were willing to share tips and advice. Even the judge who judged us in the first one, looked at me and said "I'm really partial to Dobies, my heart dog was a red one, and I miss him". Dobermans are real conversation starters, even at dog shows.
Well there's another dog I've never seen at a show before. LOL The one I was thinking of has GSDs and Collies.
That's what I love about UKC. I've heard many people saying that people have shamed them to tears in AKC when they were so mean and they said they'd never go back to another show. I'm just talking conformation there since I think performance events are much different in both venues and not as uptight.
