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My superstar

1K views 15 replies 10 participants last post by  zetti 
#1 ·
So I took my girl to a rally trial and they were accepting day of show entries and I saw on the veterans course list that there was a retrieve. She LOVES to retrieve, but at home we use a dumbell. I didn't bring it because I wasn't planning to enter her in vets, which has Level 1, 2 , and 3 exercises but no jumps (it's for oldies but goodies like her)

I have never trained her to retrieve a glove but she basically knows how to retrieve anything of mine that I send her towards, so I thought what the hey, we'll try because if she got to do the retrieve she'doesn't love that.

So I practiced with an old glove I found in my truck but it was gray and dirty and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to see it really well when I sent her to retrieve. But as luck would have it, I went to the gas station and found these bright yellow gloves on sale for $3! So I bought them for her.

I'v never competed her off leash and this is a HARD venue for her, she loves to sniff floors and this place is an old horse farm that no longer has horses and they use the old indoor arena for dog training. So dirt floor with decades of animal smell and pee in it. It's her spiffy paradise.

Shout out to my super star for doing a bang up job, winning the class, retrieving a glove when I have never practiced that before in her life, and NOT sniffing the floor!!! (admssion, we did bomb our first class due to floor sniffing lol, this was our second)

Way to go, girlie!! Here she is with her glove!
 

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#10 ·
She made it into the ribbons for the first time this afternoon in the B class, which is the championship points class for people who have already titled in that level and the competition is stiff. She is not really a competitive performer...heck I just started teaching her this stuff on the fly off youtube when she was 9 1/2...

so I thought it was pretty cool she got a ribbon, third place. She even qualified in our first run that was kind of a mess. And I was momentarily upset about it and then I said to myself...what are you thinking. We do this because she needs to feel important, she needs to go do something with me and get praised for it and have me tell her she did a bang up job so she still feels useful, because she lost her spark when I retired her. I groom her and spiff her up for run thrus and trials and it's like when I used to get her ready for work so she feels important. And so that bond she and I have always had is still there. Well not that I need to compete her to have a bond, but she has always been my "special" girl who helps me so she just needs to do something special with me. I left the other dog at home and just took her to this.
 

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#13 ·
And hey! I have this board to thank because I got the idea to do rally to get her spirits up in retirement on here. And people told me about the different venues and everything. It probably never would have occurred to me otherwise. So, way to go guys!! Thanks! She loves it!
 
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