Crufts 2010
At the Tunbridge Wells Obedience show in October 2009 Saffie and I qualified for Crufts the following year. It was a Graduate YKC (Young Kennel Club) class and the test comprises of:
Graduate
A diploma will be awarded for 90 or more marks gained except first prize winners.
Handlers will not be penalised for encouragement or extra commands except in the sit and down tests. In these tests at the discretion of the judge, handlers may face their dogs. Judges or stewards must not use the words "last command" except in the sit and down tests.
Exercises
Temperament Test
Heel on Lead
Heel Free
Recall with Finish
Retrieve own article
Sit stay (1 minute - in sight)
Down Stay (2 minute - in sight)
To compete at Crufts you must either win a class or gain 5 diplomas in a year.
Saffie won her class!
The final of the Graduate obedience was held at Crufts on the 12th March 2010. There was 24 people from all over the country competing. The best of the best.
We had to get up at 4am to be able to get up there with enough time to settle Saff in.
Saf was benched for the competition- which she didn't like much! She preferred sitting on me!
I took Saffie up to the 3 times before competing just to get her used to the atmosphere- but she wasn't bothered, in fact she quite liked it!
Saffie's round was good, her heel work was nice but she was just so excited because she was there that she pounced on the dumbbell in the retrieve and jumped up and licked my face in the recall- both of which are just a sign that Saffie is having lots of fun but did loose her those all important marks. She also kissed the judge too- she was on a roll!
But for those little hitches she would have probably been placed about 3rd. In fact she was just out of the cards, but nevertheless she had a wonderful time and enjoyed herself thoroughly. She (with us) spent 3 hours shopping and picked out some lovely soft toys for herself and was given lots of treats by people on the way round too. Her work was also good so I was exceedingly pleased with my little golden star! (Only show bred goldie in the class and beating a lot of collies too!!)