The judge was Fons Van den Bosch from Belgium.
This was our second time in grade 3. I didn’t expect much, and that’s about how it went. Some exercises were good, others didn’t go well at all. We definitely need more training.
Sitting in a group for 2 minutes, handlers out of sight. Lying in a group for 1 minute, and recall
Poor Kaïa in the rain. Since she was in heat, I had to do the exercise alone (no other females in grade 3). She was confused about being left on her own and ended up lying down. It wasn’t a great experience, but I’m glad she stayed ‘calm’ and didn’t walk off.
Heelwork
Heelwork was never our strong exercise, and for some reason, she did the backward walk wrong.
Recall with sit and stand
Beside the tempo changes, this is a good exercise. She could stop faster for the “stand”.
Send away with directions, down and recall
Kaïa doesn’t really understand the concept of going forward to nowhere. This is a recurring issue, she’s searching for something to go to.
Directed retrieve
I’m a bit lucky, she goes forward to the left, where she needs to pick the dumbbell. If it was the right one, I would probably had trouble to make it happen.
Send around cones, stop, retrieve and jump
She was focused on the last dumbbell and didn’t see the cone. I should have prepared her better before the exercise and make her search for the cone first.
Scent discrimination and retrieve
This exercise was nearly perfect. She scans, found the good one, pick it up, and came back. A little tempo when she comes back, but that all.
Distance control
She moved forward a bit, otherwise, good exercise.