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Obedience Thread

41K views 235 replies 31 participants last post by  Rosemary 
#1 ·
Since we have a tracking thread, and so many people working for competitive obedience, I figured we could try to mesh some posts together to one thread. In matt_vandart's thread, there was a lot of good video sharing and technique discussion. Hopefully, we can do the same here.

Similarly to the tracking one, people can feel free to post which specific things they are working on, interesting techniques or videos they found, progress reports, and of course videos/pictures of themselves. Alot is to be learned from watching others!!

I do not have any videos to post currently, but I am working two dogs in IPO obedience with a couple things on their checklist:

With Zeus, we are working on the voraus (send away), the retrieve, and still improving downs.
With Argo, we are working on correct heeling (ie positioning), pivoting, voraus, and currently the obedience aspect of the blind search.

Since the "training goals for 2012/13" is more geared towards titles and accomplishments, maybe this can be more of a 'process' type of learning and sharing what methods are working and what are not etc.
 
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#2 · (Edited)
After the last obedience show of the year next month I am going to take the summer off obedience training and have a fresh crack at it next year. Have agility training and tracking to focus on all summer :) I'm not happy with Elsie's heel work and want to give her a few months off before retraining some aspects of it (and I need to work on my walking... who thought walking could be SO hard???). Our main problem is the transfer of value from food/a toy to me, without those rewards there when we are working in a new environment she is flat a hell and loses a lot of her focus.

I will probably continue training the send-away and continue working on building up to the 10 minute out of sight down stays required for working trials, but heeling will have a little break. In the mean time I might sign up to an online heel work course with Fanny Gott, who I've heard is amazing!

Fanny's Clicker Dog Blog

I also need to train the scent exercises before working trials starts... Found some neat Fanny Gott videos for this too!

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#3 ·
Great idea, Asmit!

I'm giving Ilka a break from any real training right now, and am concentrating on tracking with her. I'll start doing more obedience work with her towards the end of the year, since I am hoping for the last leg of her CD in January.

With Leo, I've started to work on her retrieve. For now, I am just putting the dumbbell in her mouth, and making her hold it. Once she is comfortable with that, we will work on her taking it from my hand. I'm planning on really working on focus and heeling, too. We went tracking today.
 
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#6 ·
Since I didn't like the type of retrieve I got from Zeus training it on my own, I went back to my trainer and have been doing it her way with much better results. Zeus would retrieve most objects perfectly fine and quickly, but he wasn't holding the objects tight enough, and it was more of a "hold your breath and hope it works out" kind of thing. I needed to get him more comfortable with holding the dumbbell no matter what (the schutzhund dumbbell is very heavy and large for a dog who is generally uninterested in things being in his mouth.)

But anyways, she has had me go back to the very beginning of having him simply holding the dumbbell in every situation. As in first holding it in a sit while watching you, then the dog stays in sit and you take steps back, step forward, then you rotate to the side of them, and so on. Once you can move anywhere possible and do anything without the dog dropping it, then you start to ask the dog to move and hold it at the same time. This is done by walking on lead and offering the dumbbell at the same time. The dog should continue walking generally with you (not formal heel position) while holding the dumbbell. He should also be ok and immune to your hands doing whatever, you should be able to pet them where ever, mess with the dumbbell or touch their mouths without them dropping it. These are the first parts in having a 'proofed' retrieve.

This is the stuff I skipped when teaching the retrieve, which made Zeus much more sensitive to outside influences whilst doing the actual retrieve. There's no way I could have touched him, moved his head, or walked beside him at first. And I needed to be able to be beside him when I added in the wall. On trial day, the dogs will pull every excuse out of the book, and proofing it this way, helps minimize the possible excuses.

I'll get a video of stuff to do while simply teaching the hold in a stationary position.
 
#5 ·
Another interesting obedience video from Fanny Gott.

One of my online students asked me for ideas on how to teach the dog to always take the jump back, even if you for example throw the dumbbell badly so that the dog no longer has a straight line to you over the jump. This is one of the basic exercises that we do with our dogs. We let them run between the handler and a helper and we click for jumping. We gradually move to the side so that the dog has to think about what he is doing. If the dog runs past the jump, there is no click and the dog gets to try again.
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#7 ·
More from Fanny Gott - I am getting some really good ideas for obedience training from here!

Thank you for all the interesting ideas you gave me in yesterday’s blog. My plan for today was to make a video about teaching the dog to heel, but it’s been snowing all day so I’ll do it some other time. I really think you need to see a video to get the idea. A few of the people commenting yesterday said that keeping the dog focused and driven in a trial was the biggest issue for them, so that is what I will address today.

Teaching the exercises for competitive obedience might be hard some times, but the real challenge is to get the dog to perform as well in trials as he is in training. I would say that about fifty percent of training should be preparing the dog for competition, as opposed to just working on details in the exercises. There are different factors that make competitions much more challenging than training, and the first step is to identify them. Here are some things that I find makes the difference:

Lack of reinforcement. This is probably the most important point. We love to reward our dogs and we do it a lot in training. In a trial, the dog has to work for up to fifteen minutes without any food or toys. Most dogs quickly get the difference between training and competition and that’s when we start to call them “ring wise”.Start to let your dog do more than one behavior before he gets rewarded early in your training and increase the time and effort he has to do between rewards gradually. Ideally, your dog should be used to working for longer periods of time in training than you ever ask for him in a trial.

Lack of sequencing. This is related to lack of reinforcement, but brings another aspect to it. Doing many exercises after another without rewarding in between brings out weaknesses that you won’t see if you’re always working one exercise at a time. This is where you go to a trial and don’t understand why your dog made a misstake – “it’s never happened in training”. Make sure that you try all exercises in a sequence with other exercises before it. Make note of any mistakes and fix them before you try the sequence again.

Division of responsibility. When training, I always consider what I want my responsibilities to be, and what responsibilities I lay on the dog. In the end, everything that happens is my responsibility, but I need to train my dog to take care of a lot of things. I can’t do everything for my dog in a trial, but many trainers still take all the responsibility in training. They are always helping the dog out and they never teach the dog to be an active part in training.When I train my dogs, I have the division of responsibility in my mind.

The most important thing is that I never ask my dog to work with me. My dog has to ask me to work with him. I don’t ask him to look at me or to come to heel. The dog has to take responsibility for those things if he wants to work. A trainer that is always asking the dog to work, regardless of if she does it with lures, cues or corrections, will create a lazy dog that knows that he can engage in other things (looking around, sniffing, lagging), because the handler will always tell him when it is important that he shows interest.

Make sure that you have great rewards that your dog loves, and teach him to beg for them. Let your dog be active in asking you to work with him and reward him for taking initiative.

Distractions and new environments. Of course, distractions can be a big difference between training and competition. Make sure that you include anything that could disturb you or your dog in your training.

Before, between and after exercises. Most people only train the exercises and never think of everything else that goes on in a trial. Many dogs (and handlers) don’t know that to do between exercises, or how to get into the ring to start up in a nice way, which causes the dog to loose focus. Make sure that you include entering the ring and transportations between exercises in your training for competition.

Warm up here, perform there. Many dogs are fine as long as they have checked a new place out and have gotten a few rewards in that place. In a trial, you need to warm up away from the ring and then be ready to walk to a new spot and perform right away. Make sure that you do this often in training. Warm your dog up on the parking lot, then walk onto the grass (or warm up in one area of the training hall and then move to a new area) and let the dog follow you for a little while before you reward.

Don’t ask your dog to come with you, reward him if he chooses to (and if he doesn’t, evaluate how much your dog is willing to work for his reward and think about how often your dog asks you to work vs. the other way around). Gradually increase the amount of time your dog has to work in the “ring” before you reward, but don’t always make it harder. Surprise your dog with an early reward once in a while.

I’m sure that you can come up with more ideas. Please post a comment if you do, or if you have any questions. Training for competitions is a massive theme to cover in one blog post, so this is just a scratch on the surface. The most important things to remember is to train your dog for trials, not just exercises. Make your training look like competition a lot and train your dog to a level where the exercises feel easy at a trial and the dog is used to work for longer periods of time without rewards. And make sure that you make your dog feel like a champion every time you finish a trial or a competition-like training. There should always be a great reward for the dog in the end.
 
#8 ·
Ok last one for now I promise! This is for retrieves.

A few years ago, I published an article on retrieving (in Swedish). It has been much appreciated by all kinds of dog trainers and has helped many to teach a great retrieve for obedience. We still use the same methods, but training evolve over the years and there are some things that I want to update the article with. I have also decided to add video to the article, and to translate it into English.
Since I wrote the first article, we have become even better at the foundation training. Our philpsophy is to make sure that the dog knows the behavior really well before we introduce it in the setting where it will be used at a trial. In that way, we can keep a high rate of reinforcement, without ever rewarding things that we don’t like.

This is maybe most important when it comes to retrieving. We meet a lot of dogs that have a negative association with the dumbbell – even clicker trained dogs. It’s easy to put pressure on the dog without knowing, and thus creating a negative feeling. If you make sure that your dog has the perfect attitude towards grabbing and holding an object before you introduce the dumbbell, such misstakes can be avoided. Different trainers have different goals for their training, but for my part, I want my dog to have a really energetic attitude to dumbbells. The dog should grab the dumbbell as soon as she gets the chance and then hold it with a rock solid grip until I tell her to drop it. And no matter what distractions I throw at her, she should glow with confidene and joy. I am very satisfied with Missy’s retrieves, so when training Squid, this is one of my first goals. Squid has not been as naturally energetic as Missy, but as you can see in the video below, we’re getting there!

A good retrieve is based on a good game of tug, at least if you ask me. If the dog will grab toys immediatly, hold and weight shift, you have a good foundation for the retrieve. I will gladly spend a lot of time playing tug instead of starting with the formal retrieve too early. Like I have said before, I also work on an informal retrieve to hand, where the puppy picks up a toy and nose touches my hand. This is not strongly connected to the formal retrieve, but I think it is good for the puppy to move with something in her mouth, and to learn to always run to me as soon as she picks something up. I usually wait with the dumbbell until the puppy has grown adult teeth, before that we’re working on foundations like tugging and retrieving to hand.

The most important training I do before I introduce the dumbbell, is to shape the dog to pull on any object that I present to her. I start by using soft, easy things (if I’m not dealing with a dog that is crazy about tugging, in wich case I might use something a little less exciting) and progress to other kinds of objects (plastic dowels, teaspoons, pens, gloves, metal chains etc.). This is nog tug-of-war. I am passive and the dog is active. It’s always the dog that seeks out the object, never the handler that pushes the dog to grab it. I let the dog stand in the initial training, but then progress to having the dog offer a sit in order for me to present the object. I want her to sit down while holdig and shifting her weight back. I hold on to the object for a long time in training, until the dog is holding the object calmly but with a great attitude and weight shift. When the dog can do that, I will let go of the object for a short, short time. I might just let go with one hand, or release the pressure a bit. I always end by grabbing the object again, to test the dogs grip, before I click and reward. The goal is to have the dog hold on to the object with the same hard grip no matter if I’m holding it or not. Because of that, I can’t rush this training and I can’t be too predictable. I will also use self control games (like tempting the dog with treats while she’s holding) to give the dog a greater understanding of her job.

When you’ve done this kind of training for a while, chewing on the object should be something that happens very, very rarely. This gives you the opportunity to make a big deal out of it when it happens. You’re close by and can react with perfect timing. Grab the toy (ideally as the dog opens her mouth to chew or change her grip) and express how shocked you are (or do a victory lap with the object on your own). Don’t give your dog a new chance right away, become an actor and let your dog beg to get the object back. This will of course only work if you have built value for the object in your initial training, and should not be used right away.

  • Get a strong foundation of tugging and retrieve to hand
  • Train in short, energetic sessions with lots of playing
  • Always let the dog grab the object, never push it towards the dog
  • Let the dog offer a sit before you present the object (after initial training)
  • Make sure that the dog is always working for your rewards, and is not just pulling because she likes tugging on the object
  • Reward a calm, but heavy grip. You should be able to feel your dog weight shift even when he is sitting down
  • Let go of the object for very short moments in the beginning. Grag it again and reward if the dog is still holding it well
  • Gradually increase the amount of time where the dog is holding on her own
  • Use self control games to increase understanding (can be done at all the steps)
  • Do the same thing while the dog is moving
  • Use all kinds of objects
  • Only reward your dog for letting go on the click or on your verbal drop cue, not on other sounds or cues
  • Always evaluate the dog’s attitude. The dog should really want to have that object!
Here is a session where I’m doing this kind of training with Squid. It’s mostly play, but that’s how it should be:
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#11 ·
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Here is us working on holding it without dropping. I have no desire to 'pull/tug' to work with so I use "firm" touches/direct shakes to encourage him to bite down harder on it. Hard to explain really, but I do it a lot in the video. I had no dumbbell with me and this was as close as I could find in the garage. haha he wasn't too happy about an awkwardly long, prickly piece of wood.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Here is my contribution.
I found this on a bull terrier forum a while ago and I thought it was pretty cool. Not sure if it's any good so please feel free to comment. Personally I have never had a problem getting dogs to retrieve stuff (in the ad hoc way montioned :lol2: ) but thought I might try out some more proven techniques and found this.

"Teaching your dog to retrieve by Wensy Beasley

Although such an important part of trials and the basis for all search work, I am amazed how many people teach the retrieve by ad hoc methods. Most are blessed with a dog that likes to chase, and if this is coupled with a willingness to pick up they feel they are half way there. All that remains is to persuade the dog to bring it back and it’s job done! However, although this may work for them it is more likely to go wrong, and the dog can let you down big time if it is distracted by something more exciting or just plain bored with the exercise.
The other aspect of this is that basically the dog is doing the job for fun and so there is no urgency or need for accuracy, as its only aim is for the handler to throw it again. So although it may come rushing back it will often stand off or just drop the dumbbell to enable it to be re-thrown, and this method rarely produces an accurate or reliable retrieve.


Step by step

Unfortunately the taught retrieve is frowned upon by many handlers, and it is often referred to as the forced retrieve, which gives totally the wrong impression. When I set out to teach the retrieve it is not a matter of force but a simple step by step learning process with a clear objective, lots of guidance, plenty of praise but no alternatives. The thinking behind this is that the dog must learn that when I say ‘hold it’ I want it to pick up whatever is indicated and give it to me, and whether the item is at my feet or has been thrown several yards away makes no difference as the requirement is the same. This simple command will prove invaluable later on when the dog finds something in the square which causes it to hesitate or possibly ignore, and a simple ‘hold it’ command will remind it to bring it in.
However hard we try and however much play we do with our puppies there will always be things that they prefer to pick up and those that they would choose to leave alone. Most handlers will tell you that metal is what the dog is most likely to reject, but I have found that some dogs don’t like material or cloth while others avoid picking up pieces of sponge or hard plastic. Whatever the dog likes and dislikes we must have a fail safe command which means bring it to me, and if this is done with enough praise and confidence building, the dog will soon bring in anything it finds, happily and confidently, without worrying about what it is.
So how do we reach this blissful state you may ask, and once again I must stress that it all starts with the taught retrieve, so let’s take a look at this and see what we are trying to achieve. The first and probably the most important thing to say here is that when I start teaching the retrieve it is always with a dumbbell and it is never thrown! It seems to me that if you start by throwing the dumbbell you are starting at the end of the exercise without ever teaching the beginning, so the first thing I teach the pup is to hold.
Although this lesson can be done with quite a young pup it is important to ensure that teething has finished and the pup’s mouth is not sore. When working with a pup it is probably best to kneel down rather than lean over, so I get down on my knees and encourage the pup to sit beside me as it would at the start of a retrieve. The dumbbell is produced with some interesting encouragement such as ‘look or ‘what’s this?’ so the pup’s attention is focussed on what is in your hand but it is important that this does not turn into excited grabbing or snatching as this makes it a tug toy rather than a calm hold.
To begin with it will be necessary to put the dumbbell in the pup’s mouth with the command ‘hold it’ but just for a couple of seconds at a time. You can do this by gently opening the pup’s mouth and placing the bar of the dumbbell behind the incisors, by keeping the head tilted upwards with a hand under the chin you can prevent the pup dropping it and at the same time lavish praise upon it and tell it how clever it is. Only ask for literally two seconds and then with the command ‘give’ take the dumbbell back and praise again.
Repeat this two or three times at the first lesson, and then release the pup with lots of praise and put the dumbbell away. If the pup resists or fights at this stage it is important not to get cross but to maintain a calm insistence, and go through with what you set out to do without anger or impatience. Think of it as administering medicine which the pup does not like but must have, and you will be close to the right attitude to teach the retrieve.
The most important part of teaching the retrieve from start to finish is not to allow an alternative. In other words once you have asked the pup to hold he must hold, but the praise and reward is well worth the effort. I mention reward here as I know some people would like to use food as a reward for this exercise and I have no objection to this, I just don’t do it myself preferring my dog to work for my praise. However, I realise that this does not work for all breeds or all dogs, so the reward must suit the pupil. Once the dog has had two or three of the lessons on hold you will see him start to open his mouth in anticipation, and taking the dumbbell without assistance is the first major breakthrough.


Facing the dog

Once the dog will take and hold the dumbbell by your side the next step is to teach him to bring it to you, which at this stage is just a matter of turning to face you, but is the basis for the final exercise, when as soon as he has the dumbbell in his mouth his first thought will be to return to you. From here it is just a step by step process of holding the dumbbell lower and lower until it is on the ground at your feet (or knees in the case of a pup) still with your hand on it and asking the dog to hold it. Once it will pick it up off the floor at your feet and turn to present it, you are halfway there and it is then just a case of placing it further and further away, and sending the dog but still moving forward yourself to assist the pick up and encourage the return.
Whatever you are using for reward be it food or praise it must be consistent and lavish, so that the dog is left in no doubt that it is doing the right thing, but by the same token the control remains to ensure that the dog is given no other alternative but to comply with the request and earn his reward.
Once you are able to place the dumbbell two or three strides away and the dog will pick it up and bring it back the time has come for your first little throw. Put in a wait before you send the dog even if you have to keep hold of him as this builds anticipation and makes it fun, and before long your dog will be doing a good reliable retrieve and will pick up whatever you ask him to.
There are no shortcuts to this lesson and it does take a little while, but as long as progress is being made and the dog understands what is required it will work and be worth the time spent. Without doubt there will be occasions during the lesson when the dog will say ‘no’, and you as a handler will need to apply the same calm insistence that you employed at the beginning of the lessons. You must remain positive, encouraging, and ready with the praise and reward so that the dog finds it easy to understand and comply with what is required.
So finally it is important to say that this is not a forced retrieve it is a taught retrieve and once they understand the lesson all the dogs that I have taught have absolutely loved it."
 
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#12 ·
Ilka never really wanted to play tug. I mean, she will sometimes, but she's not obsessed with it. When we do tug, she "cheats". She will bring her paws up to hold whatever we are tugging with. :)

The main problem I have with Leo is that she is sooooo soft. If you lean over her, even to put her leash on, she tends to melt into a puddle of submission. At the same time, she can be hard headed.

She is also not very food motivated. What's up with that? She was starved when I found her, but she's never been obsessed with food. She's also not toy motivated. :rolleyesww:
 
#13 ·
She's also not toy motivated. :rolleyesww:
Have you tried teaching her to play with toys? In the introductory agility class I teach we get quite a few dogs through that won't play with toys, but they really need to be able to for the later classes so we focus a lot on teaching dogs to play with toys... Have not met a dog yet that we have not been able to get even a little bit interested in toys :)
 
#17 ·
Cool can you remind me to remind you in two weeks my short term memory is a bit impaired so I may only remember in a few months time ;)
 
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#19 · (Edited)
Hey, Disco, I downloaded the rules for NZKC Obedience. They're pretty interesting. Some things you do at a lower level than we do, and some things that we do at lower levels, you don't do until the most advanced levels. Other things are pretty much the same, and only slightly different. Then, some of the things you do at the advanced levels, we would only be doing if we went into IPO obedience or the like.

Also, our dogs only jump their hight, not double. Some breeds are allowed to only jump 3/4 their hight.
 
#20 ·
These ones? http://www.nzkc.org.nz/pdf/rules_regs/Obedience_Regs.pdf

Yeah it's interesting reading the difference between venues/countries in sports. Agility is quite different here from the USA too, I find that UK/NZ are similar for obedience/agility (UK also has working trials), while AUS/USA are similar. The way we move up through the levels in obedience/agility and earn titles is like the UK, while Aussie is like the USA :)

The level of heel work required here is a little ridiculous IMO, it's not in the regs. but all of the judges want to see dogs glued to handlers leg with head up & prancing, right from the earliest level... If you have a breed that isn't a herding/working breed or a Golden good luck to you ever getting out of Novice.
 
#23 ·
Agility titles confuse me, too. A lot of times, I have no idea what the are for, because there are so many different classes to title in. :D
 
#27 ·
I was wondering after reading Asmits' OP.
Have I got it wrong that in order to obtain a schutzhund/IPO title you must do the OB,Tracking and Protection all in one trial?
 
#28 ·
That is correct. There are other IPO titles you can gain for doing just obedience or just tracking, but to get IPO I, IPO II and IPO III you need to do the tracking, obedience and protection all in one trial.

A bit like working trials in which you need to pass all of the obedience, tracking and agility to get the title you are going for.
 
#31 ·
Haha yes matt you must do al three and pass all three on the same day to get the IPO1,2,3.

BUT you may do the obedience 1,2,3 or the tracking 1,2,3 separately. You can not do the protection by itself, but you can do the "Apr1,2,3 (IPOA is the same as Apr 1)" and the apr1-3 is the IPO1-3 without the tracking portion. Basically, in order to do protection, you must do atleast the obedience as well. If you register for the IPO1, and only pass the obedience for example, you do NOT get the ob1 title though. You simply 'fail'.

Having said this though, there is a pretty significant gap for a dog who accomplishes an IPO1-3 versus only the other titles in people's mind. The 'true' test is being able to do all three on the same day and pass them at the same time. Even if the dog does everything but the tracking, the 'imaginary respect level' for an IPO A is much lower than an actual IPO1 for a dog intended for breeding.

People doing the other titles usually have reasons behind it outside of 'just being lazy' or 'not liking that part'. For me, I can't do protection because my dog doesn't have drive. For some others, their dog has some drive to do the bitework, but not enough to handle the upper levels or the trial pressure. And there are some people who didn't start out on the schutzhund track and therefore did not work on tracking, but had the basic obedience and protection platform necessary for the Apr/IPO A titles. If I do the IPO A next spring with argo, it will be because I want the trial experience for him and because he was not started on tracking soon enough and consistently enough to be properly prepared. BUT I will plan on doing the full IPO 1 soon after.
 
#32 ·
Haha yes matt you must do al three and pass all three on the same day to get the IPO1,2,3.

BUT you may do the obedience 1,2,3 or the tracking 1,2,3 separately. You can not do the protection by itself but you can do the "Apr1,2,3 (IPOA is the same as Apr 1)" and the apr1-3 is the IPO1-3 without the tracking portion. Basically, in order to do protection, you must do atleast the obedience as well. ,If you register for the IPO1, and only pass the obedience for example, you do NOT get the ob1 title though. You simply 'fail'.

Having said this though, there is a pretty significant gap for a dog who accomplishes an IPO1-3 versus only the other titles in people's mind. The 'true' test is being able to do all three on the same day and pass them at the same time. Even if the dog does everything but the tracking, the 'imaginary respect level' for an IPO A is much lower than an actual IPO1 for a dog intended for breeding.

People doing the other titles usually have reasons behind it outside of 'just being lazy' or 'not liking that part'. For me, I can't do protection because my dog doesn't have drive. For some others, their dog has some drive to do the bitework, but not enough to handle the upper levels or the trial pressure. And there are some people who didn't start out on the schutzhund track and therefore did not work on tracking, but had the basic obedience and protection platform necessary for the Apr/IPO A titles. If I do the IPO A next spring with argo, it will be because I want the trial experience for him and because he was not started on tracking soon enough and consistently enough to be properly prepared. BUT I will plan on doing the full IPO 1 soon after.
Actually, you can. Aside from the SPr title being available outside of the US, within the United States the AWMA (American Working Malinois Association) decided to implement the new rules / titles as described by the FCI rules, including a stand-alone protection title. Additionally, in the DVG the only requirement to trial in protection is that one of the other two phases also be completed, it can be obedience OR tracking.
 
#38 ·
Ok! Here are some 'progress' videos:

The first is of Drama, a very young girl that I may start trialing in 2014 (outside of the BH of course). She has just recently began working with fading out the luring with hands to watching with focus. We're mainly working environmental distractions stuff and these bottles were hitting the back of her feet most steps. I was/am very proud of how she reacted to it. I didn't mean to drag the tunnel with us, and she sort of 'told me' that a giant tunnel was following her.
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And here is Argo. We have an official trial date for next month as we just his papers in the US. I wanted to do the whole pattern to see where he was lacking and test his endurance. I'm not going to do it again until the day of the trial because I was happy with his performance. He drops his head a couple times when I drop food down his back onto the ground, and also on the first two left turns. We're going to need more work on turns before the IPO1 but overall I'm happy with his positioning thus far. I also gave a sit command on recall because we had not done one at that distance and I wanted to make sure he didn't blow my off. It was probably completely unnecessary though.
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Any other updates and/or videos??
 
#39 · (Edited)
No obedience updates here. We've been doing tracking, instead. I need to really start working with Leo, though. I think everything she learned earlier has leaked out her ears. I haven't even worked on her retrieve in days. (Bad Mommy :() On the bright side though, she wants to get in the car, now, and hasn't been carsick in a month. :)

ETA: Since it is "later on" in the year, I also need to start working with Ilka again. It's just that my "real" life seems to keep getting in my way.
 
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#41 ·
Asmit: those vids were cool, I liked the idea with the plastic bottles! she virtually paid no attention at all to them! Awesome. You did look like a mad old bag lady with all that garbage following you around though :D

The second vid was cool, impressive stuff but I did chuckle because it looked like a monty python sketch the way you disappeared off screen and then reappeared somewhere else :roflmao: it's a shame you couldn't get someone to film it for you.

Loved it :nicejob:
 
#43 ·
I planned on only using the video for 'myself' as I've never seen what Argo and I actually look like from an outside perspective, I realized we'd be out of the frame a few times, but it got the job done.

The plastic bottles are a great distraction prop. Its a 3-4' long pvc pipe with about 6 strands of wire threading about 5-7 bottles through it. We can hang it over jumps, heel over them, shake them, and so on. Probably one of my favorite environmental distractions props we use. Now its a tangled mess, so dragging it on the floor worked :p This is a very mild distraction compared to a PSA field but we plan to dabble in some of this, and strange distractions and objects are used all over the place in it. It's loud in video, but in person, it is so freaking obnoxiously noisy. It scares me more than the dogs!
 
#44 ·
Nice videos Asmit! Might steal the plastic bottles idea!

Just in the process of purchasing the Michael Ellis DVD "Advanced Concepts in Motivation" from someone on another dog forum - so excited for it to arrive! Am now on summer holidays until Feb, so have aaallllllll summer to get Elsie's training back on track after my super slack exam period! We need to get heel work sorted, need to build more motivation for doing heel work in a ring environment, and have a lot of agility training to do (and a bit of tracking too!)
 
#45 ·
I have the focused heeling by him with me right now, and I was slightly disappointed. If I had watched the dvd last year I may have been blown away, but it didn't offer me anything unique or new. The parts of it that could have been useful were also far to vague to offer any worthy advice. I like some of his others dvd's but the heeling one was a bit of a let down for me!
 
#46 ·
Oh glad I am not getting that one then! I am thinking of going on as an observer for one of Fanny Gott's heel work courses, they are quite cheap! One of my friends is doing it and said she has learned sooo much (she has been in competitive obedience for years, and competes at the highest level). Hopefully the DVD I am getting will teach me something new, that's the problem with spending all of your free time reading about dog training... It's hard to find totally new concepts that make you go WOW!
 
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