Maltese Nationals

We finally made it home last night from AMA Nationals. It was a blast as always! This year was the first year we had rally at Nationals. Soda competed in advanced b (first time doing rally in 3 years!). He got a 97/100 and 4th place. I was very proud of him, especially considering he didn't go on until late afternoon and spent the whole day crated. He was a little sloppy but such a good boy. The obedience faction at Nationals seems to be getting bigger and bigger each year. It is wonderful to see. Video to come.

We played with our articles a couple of times at Nationals. Soda is doing well and progressing through the additional numbers of articles quickly each time. I'm still having to give the occasional reminder to "finish working the pile", but overall improvement. I haven't been working on a daily basis, so I can't expect too much.

We have a USDAA trial this weekend. I have to say I had just a little bit of nerves looking at the final confirmation e-mail...five of his six runs are P2! Eeeep! Hopefully we will make it out to Aunt Audrey's after work tomorrow for a quick teeter and weave practice. No flying off the teeter this weekend, please! I have to go out of town Thursday night, so this will be it for agility practice this week (other than some crate games). Luckily this trial is very close to home AND Soda has his "big boy" jump height card so no check-ins.

Crate Games and Its Yer Choice!
I think we showed off the benefits of these 2 training games this weekend at Nationals. Soda was able to pop right out of his crate and work obedience without a long warm up (other people were warming up for 5+ minutes). I did not have to worry much about timing taking him our to our run. We demonstrated the completed on-leash version of Its Yer Choice and "Food on the Soda". I explained the benefits of not needing to proof for every distraction because my dog "knows the game". Our friends were impressed at Soda ignoring a high value flossie chew and walking right over bags of treats even though he was not asked to heel. I think the value of these games to our performance in all venues has been priceless. I think each of these might be a good topic for a blog post.