Royal Show Preparation - Obedience And Agility

[Arya]

The footy oval idea is a great suggestion :rolleyes: . I did it a few years ago - but haven't done it recently - so I will be on the hunt for some footy players this weekend (LOL). Stays could be funny since I could have dogs running in all directions chasing the players. I could lie and say that I trained them to do it on my behalf

Thank God my girl doesn't like footballs. If it were tennis balls would be a different matter

It's tough when you line up at the start peg and you already have lost the dogs attention. What have you done to try and improve this from happening again and again and does it only happen because you are soooooooo nervous

Well, I have pondered everything... my nerves, dog 'naughtiness', what could it be? In the end, it comes down to seriously bad displacement behaviour due ot the dog's nerves I think. I have found recently that I've gone from being quite happy in the ring to sick with nerves myself wondering what she is going to do next. But, I have got over this as gone back into CCD since I started out in Novice. Got same result with dog first time or two but by the third, when she started to get more confidence, she is starting to go heaps better We are slowly getting there. Other excercises are pretty great in the ring now. Got FULL MARKS for recall at last trial (small brag lol). But you see, by then she's been in there a few minutes, got through the heeling and starts to relax (sigh).

I guess I am lucky in that heeling is really rewarding for my kids - we play so many start post games that me saying line up flicks their "on" button" and then its a matter of controlling it!

The heartbreaking thing for me is any other place my dog just LOVES heeling and will actually come up and offer heeling position all the time on walks when I just want her to nick off to the end of her lead and have a sniff LOL. But, we are getting there and I feel sure that by next year she will have worked her way right through this glitch now I've figured out pretty well what's going on with her :p

Start post games have been great for us too though. Especially lots of food rewards on 'back to the post' and when takes up position. They do make a difference

[Ptolomy]

My dog had developed a stress related problem where he would drop the seekback or scent articles at my feet and would just stand there waiting for a second command to pick them up I initially gave him the second command and then worked out that he was relying on this to perform the exercise - so stopped giving the second command and he became a sad sack and i guess I became more annoyed and then we were then on the merrygoround of me anticipating him dropping the article and of course him obliging. Interestingly he never drops the article at training.

So this was raised at the seminar I went to and the guru discussed what I was to do if he presented with the seekback - I was to ruff him up - now this is a very very soft dog who doesn't play and who doesn't like me raising my voice, looking sad or him even thinking I am not happy. So we set the exercise up - the dog presented the seekback beautifully :rolleyes: and I began to ruffle his neck and to tell him how brilliant he was. The guru was standing next to me and said keep going push him away grab his backside and the more I did it the more the dog came bouncing back. Normally you would have a 10 second play and then stop - but no the guru told me to keep going so I did - and the more I did it - the more the dog enjoyed it - he was jumping and turning and wanting his backside rubbed and he was so excited and up and everytime I wanted to stop playing, I was told to keep going. I must have played with him for 3-4 minutes by which time I was stuffed!

I then had to go back and repeat the seekback exercise and he did it with sooooo much enthusiasm and he never looked like spitting the article out at my feet so once again I took the article and we played and we played and we played.

The following day we trialled - we had a play at the start post before and after we removed the lead - while it was less than the 3-4 minutes we had done the day before - he remembered the game and was a happy chappy. He presented his seekback beautifully and never looked like spitting it out. We also had a play while the judge was putting the scent articles out and once again he was very happy doing this exercise and we didn't have the dropping the article issues we have had in the past. :p

In open we had been having problems with the retrieve on the flat as he tends to go out to the dumbbell and then stand over it once again waiting for that second fetch command. While doing the DOR exercise somebody in the next ring, as I was about to give my down signal, roared at their dog, my dog's ears dropped and he missed his down signal. I called him in and initiated the play again. After this his retrieve on the flat was beautiful, his pickup was perfect and since we had already failed as he presented to me I said to him jackpot and we had a play. The dog enjoyed the round and I think we got a lot out of it and while not all judges will let you play with your dog - my judge gave me great feedback and said it didn't interfer with her judging.

I would have scoffed if I had read an email about playing with your dog and what sort of affect it had - but it worked for mine and I will use it again and again and again.........

[Arya]

My dog had developed a stress related problem where he would drop the seekback or scent articles at my feet and would just stand there waiting for a second command to pick them up I initially gave him the second command and then worked out that he was relying on this to perform the exercise - so stopped giving the second command and he became a sad sack and i guess I became more annoyed and then we were then on the merrygoround of me anticipating him dropping the article and of course him obliging. Interestingly he never drops the article at training.

So this was raised at the seminar I went to and the guru discussed what I was to do if he presented with the seekback - I was to ruff him up - now this is a very very soft dog who doesn't play and who doesn't like me raising my voice, looking sad or him even thinking I am not happy. So we set the exercise up - the dog presented the seekback beautifully :rolleyes: and I began to ruffle his neck and to tell him how brilliant he was. The guru was standing next to me and said keep going push him away grab his backside and the more I did it the more the dog came bouncing back. Normally you would have a 10 second play and then stop - but no the guru told me to keep going so I did - and the more I did it - the more the dog enjoyed it - he was jumping and turning and wanting his backside rubbed and he was so excited and up and everytime I wanted to stop playing, I was told to keep going. I must have played with him for 3-4 minutes by which time I was stuffed!

I then had to go back and repeat the seekback exercise and he did it with sooooo much enthusiasm and he never looked like spitting the article out at my feet so once again I took the article and we played and we played and we played.

The following day we trialled - we had a play at the start post before and after we removed the lead - while it was less than the 3-4 minutes we had done the day before - he remembered the game and was a happy chappy. He presented his seekback beautifully and never looked like spitting it out. We also had a play while the judge was putting the scent articles out and once again he was very happy doing this exercise and we didn't have the dropping the article issues we have had in the past.

In open we had been having problems with the retrieve on the flat as he tends to go out to the dumbbell and then stand over it once again waiting for that second fetch command. While doing the DOR exercise somebody in the next ring, as I was about to give my down signal, roared at their dog, my dog's ears dropped and he missed his down signal. I called him in and initiated the play again. After this his retrieve on the flat was beautiful, his pickup was perfect and since we had already failed as he presented to me I said to him jackpot and we had a play. The dog enjoyed the round and I think we got a lot out of it and while not all judges will let you play with your dog - my judge gave me great feedback and said it didn't interfer with her judging.

I would have scoffed if I had read an email about playing with your dog and what sort of affect it had - but it worked for mine and I will use it again and again and again.........

Ptolomy, this is REALLY interesting! I am going to make this a start post game and see what happens. I don't care if my girl is excited as all heck and bouncing around at the start post, if I could just get her attention completely on ME! So I am going to do what you did and see what happens :p

Thanks a million! We shall see how it goes. I have a lot of trials coming up in October so will be a good test to see how some of these new things I'm initiating help.

Cheers

[Ptolomy]

You will need to introduce playing away from the start post to begin with. I occassionally paired it with food prior to going into the ring - but really he was enjoying the playing so much that the food was an added bonus :rolleyes:

A word of warning - when you think you have played enough - play some more - but the warning is that you will be puffing and panting by the end of it - it sure does make you tired.

A different guru runs beginners seminars over here too. She says that it is important that the dog is on its toes as it leaves the start post - so she encourages using food as a lure and using a clicker so that when you say heel the dog is moving forward to try to get the food - the click comes immediately the dog basically lifts its bum off the ground. A few of these where the dog only has to be on its toes and immediately gets the reward usually helps. But do make the treat something the dog really wants - not boring dry bickies.

Next time you go to a trial have a look at people when they line their dogs up at the start post. Often the dogs line up crooked and the handler will stand there and tell them to line up again and again - the handler sometimes stepping backwards sometimes using their left arm to try and take the dog backwards and then bring it forwards again. This is really demotivating for the dog - in fact dogs hate it. If this happens to you you are better off heeling forward and doing a small circle or a right about turn x 2 and getting a straight sit this way.

Enough from me.......

[ness]

Sometimes its honestly just not worth fussing the dog for the perfect position in the ring. My instructor said to me once quit fluffing around with it and get on with the exercise. I was watching a few trial videos and yep when I started stuffing around with asking for a perfect sit or whatever in the trial and made Ness move she started to drop drive. Now I ask her to set up if its not perfect so what - training is the time to work on that and getting her to set up square at the start. It will ultimately cost me points in the ring but then it also might save me from blowing an exercise since the dog gets stick of the mucking around.