Last weekend (July 18-20) Taffy and I went to Omaha to the Nebraska Kennel Club trial. It was a big trial with Conformation, Rally, Obedience and Agility all in one place. We entered all the Agility events and decided to give Rally a whirl. I figured she's an obedient dog, she should be able to do Rally, right? Well, she can do it but turns out I'm not so hot! The first day of Rally I was extremely nervous. I'm certain I did several commands totally wrong. There was a "down, walk around" and I think I put her in a sit because later on there was a "sit, walk around" and I remember thinking to myself "Why am I doing this again? I don't remember it being on the course twice." But I actually managed to Q just by the skin of my teeth! We got 4th place with a score of 71. Whew! Day one of Rally was an eye opener. I'd done Rally once before but obviously they'd made the course super easy because it was Nationals and they wanted everyone to Q. There were some stations I wasn't prepared for on this course. So that afternoon and evening we practiced our finishes and turns and were better prepared for day 2.

Now it's day 2 of Rally and I'm less nervous. I was more confident and felt much better about our performance. We almost had a score of 81. Just as the steward was about to write the score on the board the judge said "Wait!" He took the sheet back and crossed it out and NQ'd me. He told me that there was just too much dragging. He was right. That's a problem I have. Taffy's the same in Rally as she is in Agility. She's a slacker! She does great in class and at home, but get in the ring and her nose is on the ground and she's lolly gagging. Unfortunatly I didn't resist the urge to give her a tug. But another mistake was that I had a short lead. Even when there was slack in the leash, it didn't appear that there was. I was okay with the NQ because I did "encourage" her way too much plus I shouldn't have used a short lead. That short lead was my fault also. I don't like a lot of leash pleated up in my hand so I chose a short lead. After my NQ I went right over to the conformation vendors and got a regular 4' lead that was one of those little skinny ones so it wouldn't put a bunch of bulk in my hand but would show the slack in the leash. Lesson learned. Day 3 here I come!

Day 3 rolls around and I've practiced even more. I've got a new lead and am now determined to do much better. If Taffy is slow, I'll be slow and encourage her with my voice, not the lead. We know the signs; we're ready. This time I'm much less nervous and Taffy, while still slow, seems more focused. This time our score is 93! We took first in our class!!! Woo hoo!!!

I have to thank the judges for the lessons learned. I think I learned much more from this trial than I have in class.

On to Agility. Oh my heavens. What a hoot! Taffy was in rare form. Taffy is a Daddy's girl and Daddy couldn't come with us to this trial. Normally she runs with him but he's currently undergoing hyperbaric chamber treatments for a wound and can't leave Kansas City right now. So I had to take Taffy to the trial. I'm a poor second as far as she's concerned. Sometimes she surprises me and is a little corgi bullet but other times...not so much. I'll just make quick work of Novice FAST. NQ, NQ, NQ. Little velcro dog doesn't do sends. Enough said.

Now on to Open Standard and Open JWW. What a mixed bag! On Friday we didn't Q on Jumpers because of 2 refusals. She to check out the judge and she also stopped to check out one of the ring stewards. It was funny. The second time she stopped I clapped my hands and she kept gazing at the steward and then all of a sudden woke up. It was like when you're day dreaming and then sort of snap back to reality. I had to laugh. However we Q'd in Standard with a totally beautiful run. She did every piece of equipment marvelously. But then, there was no audience on Friday. There are bleachers at ringside, but they were empty. No crowd. Bummer for Taffy as she's an attention hog. But without an adoring audience, we managed to Q. Yippee! On to Saturday.

We were running in Open JWW first. What a fun course! It was challenging but doable. I came up with a plan that I figured would work for my little velcro dog and it was flawless! The only problem was the mosey factor. She starts out slow for me and then speeds up. We had no faults but were 4 seconds over SCT for an 8 point deduction. That's a Q! Yippee! We moved up to Excellent A with that Q. And, when I picked up my yellow sheet, I found out that Taffy was one of only 3 dogs who qualified on that course. Way to go Taffy! Now on to Standard. Well, hmmm. How to describe this run? "Crowd pleaser" I guess would be good. You can see a picture of one of her antics in our pictures section. She stopped right in front of the weave poles and scratched! Of course the crowd loved that. I was thinking I was going to have trouble on the dog walk because it was very close to the bleachers. Nope, she stuns me and trots right across. What I didn't realize was that the table was a much better venue. It's directly in front of the center of the bleachers. On Saturday the table was a sit. Wonderful. She hops right up and sits right down. Unfortunately, her back is to me and she's facing the bleachers!!! I'm certain from the laughter she's giving them a big smile. What a ham!!! After that I couldn't walk anywhere in the facility without someone stopping me and telling me how cute Taffy was. Yes, I have to admit, she is cute. A crowd pleaser for sure. Anyway, that's an NQ for too many faults and over time. On to day 3.

Sunday's JWW run was another challenging course but oh so fun to run! It's our first Excellent A run and she, once again, does it flawlessly. Unfortunately you can't have any time faults so we don't Q. She really lolly gagged off the start and didn't really start speeding up until around jump 5 or 6. But also our weaves are less than speedy. More things to work on. Now for our last run of the day, Open standard. First off, I made a stupid mistake that totally messed me up. I was so careful to make sure all the jumps were at the right height. There were no 12" dogs running so they had to move the jumps from 16" down to 8". We almost missed the table! The table got moved down to 8" and then I thought we were ready. None of us noticed that the first obstacle hadn't been changed! It was the tire and was still at 16". Taffy just ran under it. Darn! We could have still Q'd but I was totally off then. Didn't matter though because Taffy decided to do another crowd pleasing run. The teeter was right in front of the bleachers so she did her signature teeter move. She goes to one step before it'll tilt, stops, turns to the crowd and smiles. This time the table isn't that close to the bleachers but she's playing to the crowd anyway. It's a down and she won't down. She just standing there smiling at the crowd while they laugh. We took so long we got buzzed out. Not the first time that's happened. Silly little girl.

It was a really well run trial. I had fun and learned a lot. And now Taffy has a new set of fans. :D