# Well THAT was an NQ....



## 3GSD4IPO (Jun 8, 2016)

First time in AKC Open A in 15 years. 
Beautiful run until the Broad Jump. 

Oh dog, you must WAIT until I tell you to jump, not just jump on your own with no jump command! I know you love to jump. I know you were VERY proud of yourself for doing the Whole Exercise on your own and your come to front WAS very straight... and you were very happy. 

....butcha gotta wait until told to jump. 

I would say we need to reward the sit/wait in front of the broad jump without jumping to make that part valuable too!

So many people told me the routine was lovely until that... and even THAT broad jump was lovely if he had only waited to be told to jump. 
Such is life with dogs! 

There will be other trials other days!


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## storyist (Sep 19, 2019)

Oops, as you say, there will be another day. A friend of mine who had something similar cost him a Utility Q said, "That's why we call it Futility." We laughed because that applies to all dog competition, and doubly so because at least in my case, I can get nervous and blow things with my own mistakes.


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## 3GSD4IPO (Jun 8, 2016)

@storyist I was not nervous. It was just he did that jump and looked at me in the front like "Aren't you so proud of me? I didn't make you ask!" 

He makes me laugh with him. 

I told him that maybe we needed to train a little more. He was like, "When can we start?" in his best "are we there yet" demeanor. I guess I just don't abuse him enough!! Haha


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## storyist (Sep 19, 2019)

I didn't mean to imply that you were nervous, was just saying that I screw up, probably more often than my dogs, and nerves do affect me. It's made me do stupid things that NQ us or cause lower scores than the dog deserved. I had a long time of not competing with a dog after I retired Schara and before another dog was ready, but I thought I could pick up where I left off and found out I was very wrong. Part of it is going from a dog I could trust to do what I wanted (because we'd been at it for years) to a new dog who of course didn't start at that level and needed more from me (and who in all honesty never reached that level, although she got very good with experience).

My age comes into it too. In Rally there's a Masters exercise where the dog spins in one direction or the other and the handler spins in the same direction. I had to practice spinning, particularly to the right, on my own a LOT. My balance isn't that good any more and it was a challenge. And after all that I only had to do it in competition once. Maybe it was a good balance exercise for me, but grrrr.

But believe me I know all about a dog that does something it's tremendously proud of that wasn't quite what you had in mind.


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## 3GSD4IPO (Jun 8, 2016)

Oh yes... 
and there is no way to be angry when they are just SO PROUD of THAT performance. 

It's OK. We do AKC Obedience as an "aside" to IGP (used to be IPO). It's a fun break from 'other stuff.'


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## storyist (Sep 19, 2019)

3GSD4IPO said:


> Oh yes...
> and there is no way to be angry when they are just SO PROUD of THAT performance.


Definitely. I've walked out of the ring countless times with a grin or even laughing over some unexpected antic. My own foolishness doesn't have that effect on me, though.


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