Jazzy's Top Dog Report

Hi Guys!

Mom says that I am a bad influence on Zippy. She said that she will have to stop letting me play with her if I don't reform. Well, now it's not MY fault that she left an almost WHOLE chicken on the counter! And a WHOLE chicken on the counter HAS to be taken care of.

So we did. Well, we took care of most of it before mom came back into the house. Okay, okay, the kitchen floor was slippery from a chicken scooting around on the floor while we were playing with it. That was Thursday night.

Friday morning we drove to meet with a new client (we stayed in the RV while mom met with the clients) and then continued on to where the Top Dog match was going to be (for those who don't know, Top Dog is a competition between the Southern California Obedience Clubs). Mom didn't give us anything to eat before we got there. At that point neither Zippy nor I really felt much like eating. In fact, we both had diarrhea, and Zippy threw up a little. But after that we both ate our food.

Saturday morning there were lots and lots of people there with their dogs (Saturday evening we stayed there in the motor home, but didn't have much company except for the two poodle people who had dinner with us, and one of them stayed overnight with us in the RV). Zippy was excited to see all the dogs and the people, and wanted to play. Everyone loved her -- she had her hair in bands instead of wraps, so you could see how long it is. Well, after taking us all out, mom crated us, and then she took me out to warm me up. I had more diarrhea, but then I drank some water and felt a bit better.

Then I had to do sits and downs. Half way thru the sit I couldn't do it anymore so I laid down. Mom came back and made me sit up, but then I laid right down again. Mom said I had to sit up before I could do a down, and finally made me heel to get me up, but I wasn't going to sit again. She finally, with the judge's consent just put me in a down and I stayed there thru the 5 minute down. She was concerned about me and thought that maybe I was still just not feeling right.
We went back to the crates. Mom took Zippy out of her crate, and was going to put me into it. I took one whiff and said, NO WAY! While I was out, Zippy threw up in her crate. Mom wasn't happy. She cleaned it out, then she put Zippy in the other crate, and took both Charlie and me and put us back into the RV, so I didn't get to see how Zippy did, but she told me about it afterwards.

Mom then played a bit with Zip and she seemed to feel fine once she threw up (was happy to retrieve her toy and tug with mom), so she got to go into the ring for her sits and downs.

Well, the setup was really awful for the novice dogs. There were six rings set up -- 3 and 3, with an aisle between the two sets of 3, and the novice rings were in the middle. So that meant that they were doing utility on one side of the novice dogs, and open on the other side. Talk about distractions! And for some reason, you could hear all the commands that everyone was giving in each ring, so it was really loud.
Oh, and did I say that the rings were made up of posts, with a ribbon around the top? So there were no real ring dividers.

Anyway, Zippy and mom went in for the sits and downs. The dogs had to line up right next to the utility ring -- and just then the dog in the utility ring was doing the directed jumping exercise -- running out, then jumping over the jumps. Well, Zippy's most favorite thing is jumping! She wouldn't sit down -- she just twisted around, so that she could watch the dog. The judge kindly said that they would wait till that exercise was done, and mom thanked her.
So finally Zippy sat, and they did the sits and downs. During the whole time, Zippy's head was going back and forth as she tried to watch the other 5 rings! Amazingly enough, she made it through, and got all the 60 points for the sits and downs.

Well then she had to wait for about 10 dogs to go into the ring before she got her turn. Oh, my. Utility with jumping on one side of her, and the open dog getting to retrieve the dumbbell on the other side (and mind you, the ring was just posts with a ribbon!). She made it through the on-lead heeling with a barely passing score, although at one of the halts, which was right next to the utility ring, instead of sitting, she turned to face the utility ring and watched the dog until it was time to heel again. Figure 8 was interesting, since it gave her a chance to look at all the rings (and it was a pretty wide turn when you had to keep your eye on the utility dog while going around!). Stand for exam also got a passing grade. Well then there was the off-lead heeling. Too many double commands to bring her back in line to pass that exercise, but at least she pretty much stayed with mom.
Then came the really fun exercise -- the recall. Zippy waited till she was called, then blasted towards mom, then around her, then around the ring, as she tried to see what was happening in each of the other rings. The good part? Zippy did not go out of her ring, so she did not mess up any of the other dogs' performances. lol. The judge informed mom that Zippy had failed that exercise. Yeah? You sure? lol.

A lot of people told mom that they loved her dog. lol.
Okay, well, maybe we will do better next year. And mom promises that there will be no more chicken for us to get into!

Love,
Jazzy

P.S. We both feel fine today.