Becca (Ch Aragon Morning Mist RA CD) Earns Her 1st Leg in Graduate Novice!!! by Donna Arcaro

After Becca earned her CD title, I(Donna) wanted to continue on with her obedience career.  The Graduate Novice class is a nice transition between the CD and CDX classes.  Becca had come close to getting a qualifying score when previously entered in the Graduate Novice class, but unfortunately she would fail one exercise—often a difference one each time. 

 Happily at the Greyhound Club of America Obedience Trial in Lompoc last weekend she got a qualifying score!!!  The ring condition was a challenge because it had wood chips filling up the many, many holes.  The judge was attempting to have Becca avoid these wood chip areas for the drop on recall exercise and gave me the drop command when Becca had almost reached her—since she was so close to her handler, often a dog will think it’s a regular recall and not “drop” when asked to do so.  But Becca prevailed--she especially enjoyed the two jumping exercises. 

Breeze Obedience Practice for her CD

Breeze and I are trying to get ready for her obedience debut at the 2014 Greyhound National Specialty in Lompoc Ca. Due to her injured and then twice reinjured toe, agility and obedience have been on hold for months. Between her injury and my depression over losing Lyric we have barely trained. The times we have trained have not gone well. Normally she has a strong work ethic, loves the time doing things together and rewards.

 Once we went back to training she has had a short attention, quiet and low energy. I actually wondered if greyhounds can get depressed without running.
Recently she has been allowed to run, tug and play in a foot bandage and her focus and energy seems to be coming back. Knock on wood her foot looks great and her attitude is excellent again.
However to have our first run through days before a show, minimal training distractions and no matchs under our belt is more than I have ever asked from any of my dogs.

Her first run through was excellent... now if we can pull it off after traveling out of town, staying at a hotel, and performing in a different park....

Tanner earned his CD!

I am very proud to announce that Tanner is now Ch Aragon Silver Oak RN BN JC CD!

He earned his 3rd leg on his 4th attempt at the Mt Bachelor Kennel Club Show in Redmond, OR on June 27.

We scored 189.5 out of 200 and placed 3rd in our class.  We lost 5 points on the heel on leash, 4.5 points on the heel free and 1 on the recall (crooked sit).  I was so happy with how happy and peppy he was.  I can't really complain!  

I love the video because it shows me the areas where we need to do more work.  For example, there are a couple places in here where I don't give the right cues to Tanner (the halts where he doesn't sit, for example), I need to work on that!  Tanner, needs to work on driving around the about turns.  It also shows us what we did right. Tanner did a beautiful job getting himself back into the correct position after the no sit before the about turn on the heel free.


Afterwards, Tanner was treated to a hamburger from the drive through of a local fast food place. He thought it was pretty yummy!  Then we went back to the hotel to rest.  We still had two more days to show!

I was particularly proud of Tanner because he showed well all three days at the show. Originally, I was unsure whether it was wise to enter all three days.  Some dogs can't handle three days of showing.  Particularly one that requires traveling and staying in a hotel.  In the past, this has negatively affected Tanner's attitude.


I think part of what helped Tanner be successful was that we traveled to the show with our training partners, Ellen and her hounds. Tanner was comfortable hanging out with them.

On top of that, most of the people and dogs that we train with at proofing group each week were there. As far as Tanner could tell, his entire of village of people and dogs had picked up and moved.  I think it helped me to have the village there as well and am grateful for the help we received from all of them.  It was a fun weekend with friends and dogs.

Now, on to open and the CDX title!

Breeze and Obedience

Recently Breeze has been working more on obedience than agility. Our National specialty is in July in Lompoc California in July.

I am trying to get ready for Breeze's debut in Novice obedience. It is nice to be able to show off and compete against other greyhounds. However it is nerve wracking to perform away from home for the first time. It seems like I have always done this with all of my dogs. Some success, some failure but always fun.

Last year Echo made her Open debut at Lompoc and finished her CDX a few months later. This year she isn't ready for Utility so it all depends on Breeze.

Below are a few video clips of Breeze practicing heeling and her recall. Distractions were the order of the day. Once we set up the ring, people arrived for a basketball game right next to the ring.

Recall





On Leash Heeling



On Leash Heeling and Recall



Practice makes perfect and we have a ways to go!

Breeze's MACH journey

Recently Breeze has had two milestones on her journey towards a MACH. She earned her first MACH points at a trial. Although we have a long way to go to become a smooth team, she and I are getting there. She is fast and fun to run. Her first Jumpers run after her Excellent was this run and she earned her first 14 towards the 750 points needed for the MACH.




Her second milestone and by far the hardest is earning her first QQ. To QQ a dog has to qualify in both jumpers and standard on the same day. The faster the dog, the easier it is to make a mistake and non qualify on a run. She earned her first QQ towards the 20 needed for the MACH.