Monday, October 11, 2010

Candy's ARCH

For anyone who doesn't remember, Candy is a 10 1/2 year old Pembroke Welsh corgi. He had a disk injury (IVDD) at age almost 4, and has been in a wheeled cart ever since. Candy does not let it stop him, and when he came to live with me at the age of 8, I started Rally Obedience with him. APDT Rally allows dogs with disabilities to compete. We turn in a modification form that states, among other things, that he doesn't have to sit! On downs just his front goes down, and on a couple of left exercises I take extra steps. Otherwise he is on an equal footing, so to speak, with able-bodied dogs.

This past weekend we went to an APDT Rally trial in Redwood City, California. This was Candy's fifth rally weekend. At the first he got his RL1 title, the second had only level 1 so he could not title, the third he got his Veteran's title and High in Trial, and at the fourth he got his RL2 and RL1X, which means he had ten extra legs in level 1. This weekend he got his RL3 title and his ARCH. The ARCH is a championship title. It requires 5 "double Q's" in 1B and 2B with scores of 190 or better, plus at least 100 points (one point is earned for each point over 190) with a minimum of 30 in either class. We went into the weekend needing two Level 3 Qs and three double Q's for the two titles. There would be three tries at the Level 3 Q and four tries for double Q's.

It was a little iffy because Candy was acting kind of wild at first, trying to race ahead of me, but finally I realized I had never carried reward treats in the ring before but I was because I was also showing Jack, who would have refused the whole thing without payment. Candy refused to go out to a jump twice, getting NQ'd once in Level 3 and once in Level 2 (spoiling a potential QQ.) So it came down to the wire Sunday afternoon but he finished with a respectable 196 in Level 2 and a perfect 210 in Level 1.

The video is the final Level 3 leg.

PS, Jack got his RL1 title, too!

No comments:

Post a Comment