2011 - Onwards to CDX and UD

 - its a new year and we're starting to trial at Open level in a couple of weeks.

The exercises for Open are: heelwork performed and judged at a higher level of accuracy than in Novice, retrieve on the flat and retrieve over a jump, drop on recall, stand free for exam, position changes from the stand (drop, sit and come) and stays with the handler out of sight - 3 minute sit stay and 5 minute down stay.

The work is quite a bit  more complicated than Novice level.  Eepie is doing it all quite well in training - but translating the training performance into competition is another story - another set of skills altogether.

For one thing, i'm getting confused by the fact that different judges have said different things about their scoring criteria for each exercise - what one judge demands in the name of "accuracy" another judge tells me looks "wooden" in its execution........i don't know how to play it. Do i lose marks for "wooden"?

I am aiming for perfection and Championship-level scores.  This means paying attention to little details where points come off unnecessarily - like perfect square fronts, stands and finishes.  On the other hand, i want to keep the spirit in my dog, i want to see her tail wagging when she works and i want her to be enthusiastic - too many dogs go "robotic" doing obedience routines and i don't want to get pernickety about what constitutes "success" in our training and kill the drive in my dog.  its a balancing act

And then, if i may be so critical, i think the judges score different people  and dogs according to different criteria.  One judge has told me that the dog must not touch me during the exercises or this will incur point deductions because touching can be construed as a 'second signal' - and yet i can think of one successful trainer whose dog regularly makes contact when presenting the dumbbell and that person's scores don't seem to reflect any deductions for touching.........

So apart from the broadest guidelines, i'm not seeing any helpful consistency in the judging - which is all part of the game i suppose.  I already have a "blacklist" of judges who i don't bother competing under .......... looks like this list might grow a bit in 2011 ............ and that is part of the "game" as well............