03/05/2026
Yesterday the dogs and I participated in and competed in Adelaide Total K9's GRC trial. Elsa was a distraction dog and I had both the boys entred in the trial going for their Social Responsibility Level 1 test (all dogs must pass their SR1 before being allowed to compete the other parts of the sport such as spring pole, slat mill racing, wall climb and weight pull).
Ranger did quite well. We lost multiple points for handler help with the middle position and the move into front position changes. I expected this however since with Rangers IGP obedience training the formal "heel position" on the left is deeply ingrained and it took a bit of effort to teach the middle position. Like wise his former training dictates that he stay in a sit position until told otherwise so he needed to be qued in order for him to think it was OK for him to move when I moved. The running past me in the recall was a surprise (thanks Ranger. The one thing that shouldn't have been an issue you decided to make an issue 🙄). During the 5 minutes of free liberty Ranger decided that since I hadn't told him what to do and standing around was boring and since we were in a building with bricks and cones that he must have missed my cue to search and took it upon himself to start searching for a hidden odour like he has been trained for in Nosework/Scentwork. This amused the judge and fortunately since he was technically free to do as he pleased (so long as he kept all 4 feet on the floor and didn't harass anyone) it didn't cost him any points. The end result was a PASS for Ranger.
Hunter didn't do so well unfortunately. Hunter was quite distracted by pretty much everything. He did manage to somewhat hold it together for the start and helped me greet the 3 people but then he decided that the people on the sidelines behind the bunting watching were far more interesting and despite repeated commands to come back and stay with me he kept wandering off to go and investigate. The judge called it after the first section of heeling as we had already lost too many points to pass. However she did allow us to continue the trial for experience and move on to the next stage. Hunter had a little difficultly getting into the middle position and then when required to move with me and change directions he repeatedly tried to back out from between my legs. His down stay under distraction was brilliant but his recall ended with him passing me to go and once again try and greet the spectators on the sidelines. Once I managed to get him back in front of me he did change his position following me as I moved. His 5 minutes of free liberty also went well with Hinter being very calm and happy to just stand around and do nothing for the 5 minutes. Unfortunately Hunter did not pass. Back to training and the basics again.
Elsa thoughly enjoyed her role as distraction dog and greeter of the handlers for the other competitors in the trial. She thought being patted and fussed over by multiple different people was great. 😁
