Paws Crossed

This weekend, Reyna and I have our first Rally competition. We’re doing four trials over two days, with one course per trial. If we get 170 out of 200 points on a course, we earn a Leg. If we get three Legs, we earn a Title. We could, conceivably, title this weekend. We probably won’t. But we might. It all depends on Reyna and how she’s feeling, and if I can keep my brain together enough to keep us on the right path. A course is a maximum of 30 exercises – they usually only use about 25 – and we have 4 minutes to complete all of them. Shouldn’t be a problem, except there are several things that could cause us to NQ (not qualify), such as Reyna not following commands, me missing an exercise, or either of us doing an exercise incorrectly. There’s one exercise in particular that Reyna doesn’t do properly. I’ve asked a couple of judges about it, and they’ve said it shouldn’t NQ us, but we’ll definitely lose points. Its called a pivot, and starts with Reyna sitting in heel position. I then step directly in front of her, and she is supposed to stand up, turn, and sit back down in heel. What she actually does is flip her front paws over and scooch her butt around to end up in a half-cocked sit in mostly-heel. Apparently, if I can just get her to show a bit of air between her butt and the floor when she scooches, we should be okay. I think part of it is the pain in her hips, but I’m also pretty sure there’s a chunk of laziness tucked in there. If we’re lucky, they won’t use the pivot in all four courses... The woman who called Reyna dangerous will also be there, so I’m going to do my very best to avoid her so she doesn’t tick me off before Reyna and I run our course. On the up side, Reyna loves her some bunny meat, and she’s definitely willing to work for that treat. Wish us luck!