ness

Well I just want to report back in - I wasn't going to do any UD with Ness tonight but since they had already put my name on the list I decided at the last minute to go in. I decided to not warm her up with treats. We did play a bit before going in the ring but no bribing. She was a bit distracted at the peg but not enough that when I asked her to focus she did. She got through her seekback heelwork successfully. Went off found the article, nice present and a good finish. Went up to line her up for Directed Jumping. She completed 2 lots of that successfully so I decided I'd jackpot her. The original intention was also to go do gloves but I figured 2 exercises completed was enough. As for Kenzie - all I can say is OMG can my little girl work. Her heelwork was still very very crabby. But the rest of it was breath stopping and I so want to bottle every last moment of it. Her recall and retrieve were both lightening fast. I have always known she can but she has always been timid and slowed right up at training - not tonight. Her SFE was rock solid. Sorry not really obedience troubleshooting but I have had many sleepless nights wondering whether I was doing the right thing with my baby girl and whether I shouldn't just retire her before she has even started but nope Kenzie hopefully is the 190 dog of my dreams - now to get that heelwork under control. Interesting her stands were all 100% straight tonight and I dropped my shitty hand signal and just opted for a verbal as a bit of an experiment after Ptolomy's comment to Seita and my stands were all good.

Hmm have a look at anything from the US/UK re teaching a stand on the move. Its sort of part of the UDX PIM and also I think the UD SFE in the US is a moving stand.

Hmm I probably can't explain it very well since I can't get Kenzie doing it exactly how I want. Ptolomy hopefully will come in and post as her kids have nice stands.

Have you taught a kick back stand Seita??

Oh Tassie - Winpara dogs came born with nice fronts so you don't have to worry to much about teaching them if Rory is anything like miss Kenzie .

dogdude - I just PMd you with the video link. Suppose I can post it here for anybody else. This is a heel round from club training the other week: And this is some homework set footage to see if we could work out what was going wrong and if it was something about me. Its me working her in the first two clips at normal and slow pace and then Rivsky handling her to see if that made any difference. Its been a while since I watched the Balabanov dvd. I have seen it but don't remember the exact segment your talking about.

Hmmm dogdude its confidence that is the issue in my case and its having too much confidence. She just likes to really really push. If anything its getting worse not better.

In what way did it throw him into a big spin?? ETA. Yeah I did Rivsky - hmmm and it has no impact on how hard the little devil likes to push me . The warm weather seemed to produce a nicer temporary cure but the moment its cooled off again she is back to her usual tricks . Was nice while it lasted.

Ok got a problem - anybody got any ideas on crabbing heelwork. My youngster really struggles to keep her backend in when heeling in a straight line. In fact its almost as though she is pushing me to walk in the direction she wants to. This is despite lots of work on rear end awareness type exercises. She is better then she use to be but its particularly evident on her stands when she comes forward and squiffy. Anybody got any ideas on this one?

oh Rivsky Ness better stop having words to Riv cos her DB front at the last trial was really really shitty . Oh and if anybody has any ideas on how to teach a finish to a dog who really doesn't have one yet I would be interested to hear. Trying to avoid issues of squiffiness before they start .

Another thought - you can tell me to butt out Rivsky but I probably wouldn't be using a second signal to get him in. I'd be using a NRM and breaking off and then trying again. But I'd only be doing this one you had retaught a front position. I might even go so far as to attach a "front" cue. I think you are aware that I have two seperate recall cues with both of mine. To them if they hear the command "front" they both know that they are going to have to come into a perfect front position and I will never interrupt that with anything else. So for a DOR in open I use "come" for the first part and "front" for the second part. My recall cue for COP in open is "front".

If you want to borrow the Jo Hill dvd you know where to find it . The following in front position is actually off the CB dvds - I wonder if it might be addressed in more detail in the foundation dvds which I haven't watched yet . What might also help River is if you teach him to hold a slightly lower focal point then your face. It might me that in order for him to make eye contact given he is a small dog that he naturally wants to sit out further. If you teach him to focus on something lower it might bring him in closer as well.

Question Rivsky - Can Riv find front if you have your hands down by your side? Can he find front if you have treats in both hands and have him follow in a front position ala the Chris Bach dvd? Have you tried sitting in a chair with your legs in a v-shape and encouraging him in. There is a great bit of video explaining this on the Jo Hill Motivation dvd. She uses a goldie puppy to demo a front game to encourage the very close tight fronts that you find in UK obedience. How did you initially teach him the front position.

Yeah probably it would - Kenzie is throwing up enough challenges of her own to keep me on my toes.

Nah JulesP I am use to it - Ptolomy has picked on me plenty in the past hehehehe. I knew what was coming when I posted my "trouble" I have run it by her in the past to as I said it was in part to help the discussion along. I am well aware of her weakness and look back and think how forgiving she has been to get as far as she had with me making a million errors all the way along.

Yeah do all that - I will be honest and say I mainly posted it as I figured others might have a similar problem and it might help somebody who was too shy to ask . I know what her short comings are and at this point in the game I am not sure I can do a whole lot. She is getting on and been retrained so many times. She does me well most of the time so I best not complain. She might end up being retired next year will see how things stand in the new year. She also has injury worries so I might end up giving it away. ETA. No huski one of my short comings is that I don't train and trial the same way - well I do better then I did but still not the same. Sorry Ptolomy I do try and I promise to stay honest with Kenzie its just hard with Ness.

Yep she gets worked for jackpot containers and it still very hit and miss .

Understand totally BC4ME my older girl is a serious problem child in that regard. When she is on she is a lovely happy worker but she seems to have been born with a fault on/off switch that is inconsistent. Hoping the younger one doesn't follow the same path.

No - she is as fit as a fiddle Give Ptolomy another 12 months and she will have broken her as well .

Yep I feed them both because it has very little impact on Kenzie and Ness well she doesn't put in any more effort if she has just been fed or not she is always hungry.

Er does retire her sound like a plan . Thats not strictly true Ptolomy she can do it at training without food, she has done it at trials too I have videos to show she can be really switched on and remain switched on .

Rivsky I did try that at training one night and it was a diasaster. I cut down the number of treats she gets before going in two one or two. Ptolomy - yep I have tried spins, hand touches you name it Ness goes nope I am not getting into that game at all. I tried that setting up a post without having treats on me and I think from memory I got around 6 seconds and that was after a time out for her deciding to switch off immediately. She is just way to smart for her own good - ARGH!!!!!

She sure is - can I bottle it and put it to good use . Question is can one undo a behavior chain as solid as this one appears.

Ptolomy this is Ness we are talking about she is just evil and has lots of bad habits. Its certainly not level of distraction as same dog you can take outside a busy shopping centre and you can't lose her attention its just sometimes she can be bothered and sometimes she can't be. And at the moment I am getting more of the can't be bothered so two can play at this game and neither can I be bothered training her so she goes away and I play with her sister instead. ETA. What frustrates me is we have done plenty of work at it - I have set up a number of different distractions, dropping food, having full open containers of food on the start peg and she doesn't have any issue with those games and pays good attention and offers good attention. So I guess her issue is not that she can't its getting her to do it when I want her to rather than when it suits her.

Yep NC this is Ness - she is evil and a bitch . I usually tap her on the head and say earth to Ness - sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't. Just frustrates me that she can be on 110% and really "up" just seconds before we go into the ring and then switch off just as quickly.