Riverside K9 CPE Day 1

Do you want the good news first, or the bad?
Let's start with the bad. Trial starts at 8. Judges briefing at 7:45. Time needed to set up and acclimate 30-60 minutes. Suggested arrival time: 6:45. Actual arrival time: 7:30. Ru-roh.

I got there, went in to get situated and get a crate space. I think I got the last one! The crate room is crazy-dogs and people everywhere. I bring Shelby in and leave her in the crate while I attend the briefing. We are in the first class, which is Snooker, a complicated class, and I think the 5th dog on the line. There is very little room for lining up, plus people are standing all around where they shouldn't be, so it's total chaos. I bring Shelby over and try to keep her attention with treats, etc. We're are doing ok so far. Then the gate steward is telling me I'm next. But I'm not-there's one ahead of me, so we're all confused.

We finally enter the ring and Shelby is waaaay distracted. They are sharpening pencils at the judges table and Shelby won't get set up. Finally, they say, just remove the leash and get going. So I do, but I can't get Shelby to pay attention. She takes one jump, but that's it and we end up with a "no time." Super disappointing, because I knew we could handle the course successfully. Thankfully we'll have another chance to play Snooker tomorrow.

We were not entered in the next course, so I had plenty of time to work with Shelby on the warm up jump, which was in the crating area with all the other dogs around. I also took her outside for some exercise and treats.

Ok, now for the good news.
Our next class was Wildcard, which is a standard course, with 3 options of taking obstacle A or B. I need to take 2 A obstacles and 1 B obstacle. This time Shelby was much more attentive while we were waiting and once we entered the ring she was ready to go. We had a perfect run. No bobbles, refusals or mixed signals. We completed our wildcards correctly and finished under time. I thought we had a chance to take first, but there was another dog who was 10 seconds faster, which is huge! I couldn't believe it. But we got our Q and our second place ribbon. Yay!

We were on our way out when a little situation happened. We were outside and there was a guy playing ball with his small dog off leash. Shelby was interested but I was holding her back, and he asked if it was ok to let the dogs say hi. I told him Shelby doesn't like all small dogs. But they greeted each other and it seemed ok and like they wanted to play together. I didn't want Shelby off leash, but he suggested a fenced area. I was hesitant, but he convinced me. Everything was fine, until he threw the ball. Shelby and his dog went after it, and his dog got it. While the dogs were running back to us, the other dog growled at Shelby, and Shelby grabbed the other dog's ear and didn't let go! Thankfully there was no breaking of the skin or blood, but I think the other dog got a little freaked. I was able to get Shelby calmed down pretty quickly. I felt a little bad, but not really, because I told the guy I wasn't totally comfortable with them playing, but he wanted to try it out. The only issue is this dog will be running right before us tomorrow, so I hope Shelby doesn't hold a grudge.