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You just SAID down, dammit
Apr. 22nd, 2018 12:34 pmI train my dogs to do all sorts of silly things and then, because I'm competitive, I take them out in public and make them do those silly things in front of a judge. And for the most part, the pups are on board with this.
Tia is happiest when you're giving her stuff to do. She literally vibrates, waiting for you to tell her what you want next. Getting her key word, a "yes" that says she did it exactly right, will light up her face like a spot light. She wants to work, she needs to work and if you don't keep her occupied with enough work, she'd damn near unlivable to be with. She is the belgian tervuren all the websites warn you about. Smarter than a 1st grader, more driven than a marathon runner and able to leap 6 feet from a stand still. You only THINK you put that thing out of her reach. And if she can show her stuff off to other people? Well, BEST DAY EVER! Other people exist just to love on her and tell her how awesome she is.
Then there's Taks. My little Takhisis is Tia's half sister. Taks came to me on the late side for a terv puppy from an owner who didn't know what they were getting into. She hadn't been socialized properly and literally would hide under the couch for half an hour whenever someone new came into the room. Taks is my shy girl. She's miles beyond the couch hiding thing now but she's still the quieter dog. She doesn't like crowds or noise or new people staring at her.
In many ways she's the easier dog. She's perfectly happy to snuggle with you on the couch all week and can do so without trying to dig through said couch out of boredom*. She never really took to obedience training but LOVES agility. Once she gets moving, it's like she forgets the other dogs and people and just goes, her face gleeful and excited. Note, agility is the ONLY place she gets like that. Everything else is a slow, mistrustful stare while she goes through the motions.
Well, this weekend I took both girls to a rally competition. Tia, being Tia, vibrated and snapped through the routine like she was on speed. She earned a perfect score in one trial, which I then fucked up by skipping a sign. She got a 97 on the 2nd. This is out of 100 points where you only need a 70 to qualify for a title. She loved on the judge and the ring steward and had other competitors coming up to me, asking her breeding and what else she competed in.
Then there's Taks. During the 2nd trial there was a sit/laydown/sit section. Taks sat, laid down, and when I asked for the sit again, she sighed, put her head on her paws and turned her back to me all while remaining laying down. You can't touch the dog during a trial. No food, treats or lures are allowed in the ring. You get points off for repeating commands. I literally had to start jogging off to get her back on her feet at all. Every time I tried to get her to look at me, she'd shift her head to avoid eye contact and sigh like "I did the thing. I'm not doing the thing again. Don't talk to me when you don't know what you want. I'm so done now!"
Needless to say, we did not get an impressively high 90s score**.
* - Tia ate/dug her way through the middle of my couch a few year ago. As near as we can tell, she got a tennis ball stuck under the front and spent all day trying to dig it back out.
** - We were in the high 70s, so we still qualified and she now has 2 of the 3 scores she needs for her UKC Level 1 rally title. Even a sullen terv doing a half-assed job is still better at dog sports than 80% of the rest of the dog world.
Tia is happiest when you're giving her stuff to do. She literally vibrates, waiting for you to tell her what you want next. Getting her key word, a "yes" that says she did it exactly right, will light up her face like a spot light. She wants to work, she needs to work and if you don't keep her occupied with enough work, she'd damn near unlivable to be with. She is the belgian tervuren all the websites warn you about. Smarter than a 1st grader, more driven than a marathon runner and able to leap 6 feet from a stand still. You only THINK you put that thing out of her reach. And if she can show her stuff off to other people? Well, BEST DAY EVER! Other people exist just to love on her and tell her how awesome she is.
Then there's Taks. My little Takhisis is Tia's half sister. Taks came to me on the late side for a terv puppy from an owner who didn't know what they were getting into. She hadn't been socialized properly and literally would hide under the couch for half an hour whenever someone new came into the room. Taks is my shy girl. She's miles beyond the couch hiding thing now but she's still the quieter dog. She doesn't like crowds or noise or new people staring at her.
In many ways she's the easier dog. She's perfectly happy to snuggle with you on the couch all week and can do so without trying to dig through said couch out of boredom*. She never really took to obedience training but LOVES agility. Once she gets moving, it's like she forgets the other dogs and people and just goes, her face gleeful and excited. Note, agility is the ONLY place she gets like that. Everything else is a slow, mistrustful stare while she goes through the motions.
Well, this weekend I took both girls to a rally competition. Tia, being Tia, vibrated and snapped through the routine like she was on speed. She earned a perfect score in one trial, which I then fucked up by skipping a sign. She got a 97 on the 2nd. This is out of 100 points where you only need a 70 to qualify for a title. She loved on the judge and the ring steward and had other competitors coming up to me, asking her breeding and what else she competed in.
Then there's Taks. During the 2nd trial there was a sit/laydown/sit section. Taks sat, laid down, and when I asked for the sit again, she sighed, put her head on her paws and turned her back to me all while remaining laying down. You can't touch the dog during a trial. No food, treats or lures are allowed in the ring. You get points off for repeating commands. I literally had to start jogging off to get her back on her feet at all. Every time I tried to get her to look at me, she'd shift her head to avoid eye contact and sigh like "I did the thing. I'm not doing the thing again. Don't talk to me when you don't know what you want. I'm so done now!"
Needless to say, we did not get an impressively high 90s score**.
* - Tia ate/dug her way through the middle of my couch a few year ago. As near as we can tell, she got a tennis ball stuck under the front and spent all day trying to dig it back out.
** - We were in the high 70s, so we still qualified and she now has 2 of the 3 scores she needs for her UKC Level 1 rally title. Even a sullen terv doing a half-assed job is still better at dog sports than 80% of the rest of the dog world.
