Last weekend I got to see in person a PSA trial hosted by HCK9 in Upper Marlboro, MD.  It was a two-day trial; I don’t know who participated in Sunday’s trial, but on Saturday there were only PDC competitors and PSA 1 competitors.  PDC is what I’m currently training for and is the actual first level in PSA.  All in all, the obedience was about as expected.  It was interesting to see some of the different distractions the judge had come up with for both the obedience and the protection routines.  For instance, in the PSA 1 obedience legs, the decoy sitting in the chair had a tug on the end of a fishing pole that he’d throw out and drag along the ground by the dog.

In the protection routines, one of the decoys had two trash can lids that he clanged together, which not only provided a noise distraction but also created a fairly small physical window for the dog to target the bicep area.

While I would have like to see some level 2s and 3s competing, it was still fun and informative to watch this trial in person and see some great dogs with a lot of potential.