By Chase and Jan Tomlinson
I have been so busy lately trying to practice again for my dog shows. And how does one do that? Well, let me tell you the ways.
Since my mom is the teacher, she can’t put me in her class since I would have to do the exercises all by myself. Now, that’s not possible. How could I hold the leash and still do the exercises?
So, the first thing we do is go to the training field and practice by ourselves. Sometimes there are other dogs there, and I get to practice with them. That’s with my mom holding the leash!
Then, two weeks ago, she told me that we were going to attend a mini-seminar. I don’t know what that is, but maybe all of the dogs are mini dogs? So, she signed us up and off we went.
It was at 8:00 in the morning, outdoors at our training field, and it was freezing cold! I could have slept another hour in my nice warm house. But no, we had to get in our car and go to the cold field!
When we got to the field, there were other dogs who were grumbling about the same thing. It’s a good thing that I have a thick winter coat to wear.
The first thing we did was a warm-up exercise heeling around a set of co nes in a line. I had to keep my head up and totally focus on my mom.
Do you know how hard it is to walk with your head up? You can’t see where you are going, and there might be an alligator lurking in the grass! Then she got out a super delicious treat that I had never seen before, so it was worth keeping my head up and trying to walk.
I then had to walk into the ring paying total attention on my mom. I couldn’t look at the judge to see who it was or at any of my friends sitting outside the ring.
Now, this was the most boring thing I ever had to do. There is so much to look at and do while you are in the ring doing your exercises. I always like to get creative and do something different like arranging my dumbbell with my foot before I pick it up. I really can’t pay attention to her while I am doing that!
Then we practiced moving from one exercise to another while I kept my head up. She also had to focus on ME, but didn’t get any treats for doing it. I guess I did a good job, because I got lots of praise from the teacher.
I also like to bark in the ring because I am really happy to be doing the exercises. But my mom says I can’t do that because we lose points for every bark. I didn’t know that barks are worth points. I could rack up a bunch of points in the ring! I thought lots of points were a good thing. Anyway, every time I barked, she stopped dead, put her hand around my muzzle, and said “Quiet!” What fun was that?! I guess getting lots of points isn’t the answer.
After my mini-seminar, we had a fun match at our field the next weekend. I thought fun matches were supposed to be fun, but now I had to practice what I had learned and keep my head up and focus on my mom. It really paid off though, because I did the best job ever! And I think I had more fun doing it.
Now my mom is taking a class on the computer on Focus for dog sports. She always comes up with these crazy ideas, but I just go along with them. She keeps telling me that I will be a super dog if I learn these things. I’ve always wanted to be a super dog so I could get a cape with a big S on it and learn to fly!
So these are the first steps to becoming a good show dog and being successful in the ring. And, having more fun while doing it.
Happy showing to everyone and until next time….
~Sir Chase
