Training In Public

[Ptolomy]

So when's Kenzie's first trial?

When Ptolomy tells me she is ready ;) , which at the moment is when she learns to keep her back end in and stop heeling me in a crooked line .

Kenzie is a work in progress isn't she Sal ;) She has a few bad habits that have cropped in that need fixing - no need to rush her.

As one of the first people who helped me would say - three trials and you can be into open, three more and you are into UD - whats the rush

[charli73]

I often train Zoe outdoors and get strange looks but Id rather people in my area see that she is well behaved and under instruction. I used to worry about it but now I dont care They can watch all they like and maybe learn something..

[Ptolomy]

For a younger dog the local primary school oval after school is usually a great place to start for distraction training. You will usually find that the kids are so keen to help and you can get them to help with SFE and taking the lead at the start post, figure 8 posts and scent if your dog is up to that.

Edited October 23, 2009 by Ptolomy

[ness]

That is where we were tonight Ptolomy but all miss frizzle brain has to do is not freak when there are kids around and stay on the same oval on the far side without running away , well at the moment.

And yep Kenzie is a huge work in progress and I think I have been using the same reasoning. You could have a UD title in a very short amount of time if the dog was on the same agenda as you are ;) . Hmm would have to do a truckload more training for that to be the case though and somehow find a miracle cure for dog to hold a metal article .

ETA Hmm not sure they have just cropped up think I was just living in a fantasy world where they would some how magically resolve with time ;) .Then life got in the way.

Edited October 23, 2009 by ness

[Seita]

So when's Kenzie's first trial?

When Ptolomy tells me she is ready ;) , which at the moment is when she learns to keep her back end in and stop heeling me in a crooked line ;) .

Kenzie is a work in progress isn't she Sal She has a few bad habits that have cropped in that need fixing - no need to rush her.

As one of the first people who helped me would say - three trials and you can be into open, three more and you are into UD - whats the rush

That's my philosphy too! And it's what I did, 3 trials to CD, 3 trails to CDX and then 3 trials to UD... then 18 months of training and we're still not ready for UD!!!

I am glad that I'm not the only one who feels silly out in public training their dog! I can't say I've worked in a shopping centre carpark before but I have worked in dog parks with loose dogs around, beside major roads on the footpath and at sports grounds so feel that I get enough distraction work in from those places.

I just don't think I've ever had an audience before like I did this arvo! ;)

[ness]

Even the ever so forgiving of my shitty handling Ness managed her CD in three trials under the old rules (all with placings) and then a forth extra leg the following day after gaining her title and she also managed her CDX in 3 (although there were only like 4 years in the middle) and it took being ENTERED by somebody else (not Ptolomy this time ;) ) for me to actually enter Open otherwise I think I would still be waiting .

As for UD well that is another story ;) .

[ness]

What TerraNik you have never trained in front of a shopping centre - shock horror I thought everybody did that ;) . Hmm I am a regular at our local one and a couple of times I have been hanging out the front with Kenzie and guess who should walk out the bloody doors but two of the obedience judges who put us through the ring at training on a Tue night . Talk about embarassing. Doesn't help the fact my dog isn't overly keen on one of them after being spooked one night at training ;) . Now that is embarassing.

[kathq]

Try the car park at the local Bunnings on a Saturday morning. Lots of distraction but great for breed promotion. I often get "what breed are they?" and poor old Pip gets "is she a cross cause she has white on her?". They are GSPs.

I figure if Coco will do scent work on bitumen not far from the sausage sizzle she'll do it anywhere.

[Kavik]

When I first started spitting food with Diesel for heeling I felt very self conscious - no idea what people must have thought I was doing ;) , now only sometimes feel silly. I occasionally have people stop and watch and I do often get comments about how well trained they are (which I try hard not to laugh about when training Diesel, if anything he is getting slower and less keen to work ). Most of the agility groundwork doesn't look too odd (mostly sending, restrained or sts practice) apart from my contact target training which may look a bit strange for the public as I send him to stand on a piece of cloth.

Probably one of the funniest comments lately was I was talking to a lady and her adult daughter who have an old GSD (X I think) when walking Diesel. I had Diesel do a few hand touches and they were impressed and said wow he is very good they couldn't get their dog to do as much ;) Hand touches are very basic and Diesel is much slower at them than Kaos.

[TerraNik]

What TerraNik you have never trained in front of a shopping centre - shock horror I thought everybody did that .

I know! Geez, I better get with the times!!!!!!!

[Staranais]

I rarely have the problem, as most people steer well clear of an off lead bull breed, particulary when we are working, and the dog starts to engage with the prey item. I think they may think that I am attack training or something.

Yes, I had that issue too when training at public parks with my old boy, people looked quite worried about what he was doing to the tug toy.

However, other people who saw us looked very impressed to see him doing his heeling, recalls, retrieve, distance position changes, etc (the drop on recall always seemed to particularly impress people for some reason!) So I kind of felt I was being a breed ambassador as well as a public nuisance, and was pretty proud of him when people stopped to stare.

[Seita]

well with my Border Collie I really don't get people avoiding us... everyone wants to pat the cute dog! Grrr!!! I keep thinking about upgrading to a shep, mal or something like that just so people will avoid me but I can't bring myself to part with the bc's!!

Maybe when I get to proofing stage of our UD work I might try the shopping centre carpark too! Not my local one though, too many weirdos there someone might try attack my dog rather than pat it!

[corvus]

I must be weird. The only time I feel self-conscious with my dogs in public is if I call and get ignored! So I tend to do mouse calls just in case, and of course, my dogs don't always hear mouse calls. I am my own worst enemy. I've never had a dog I've done as much work with as Kivi, though, so I'm learning that there's not much to worry about. If you've put the work in, you won't get ignored.

I'm happy to train anywhere, though. I haven't bothered much with seeking out distractions because Kivi is a mellow dude and zillions of people and ball games and cars are not very distracting to him. Dog parks and beaches are way more distracting and I've never felt self-conscious practising things in such an environment. I practise things on our walks as well, and often people look at me askance when I'm chatting away to Kivi and there's no one else with me so it's obvious I'm talking to the dog. I'm not going to shut up just because some people look at me sideways, though.

[Dova]

I loved the look on people's faces when I was teaching the dogs not to pull, walk a bit then stop if the dog pulled, wait till she came back reward then walk on, all the way to the post office, took a long time to get there at first but we don't have to stop now. It's not unusual for me to be walking 4 dogs down the main street so pulling is a huge no no & I still get odd looks .

[huski]

This thread must have made me paranoid

Tonight I had Daisy out at the local sports oval, it was packed. She was working really well, despite two different people yelling at us from their cars one of them screamed out "That dog doesn't love you!" or something equally bizarre :S

I was mortified though as we were doing a bit of heelwork and two woman stopped and watched us for ages :D I felt so self conscious ;) Daisy loved it though and luckily she was on fire today Except for when an idiot had her dog running around off leash (its an on leash area so I had Daisy on a long line) run up to us, jump all over Daisy, completely ignoring the owner who kept calling it and calling it to no avail. Daisy was momentarily distracted for a few seconds, but I got her focus back quickly, annoying though that it broke her concentration

[arawnhaus]

Never! I zone out and have the invisible bubble around us we only see each other. It's like a great big secret but out in wide open spaces..

[OSoSwift]

It doesn't bother me too much anymore, I have been doing it that long I think I am pretty immune. People probably think I am loopy when I jump around and clap my hands and tell my dog how wonderful it is, but hey who cares.

Sometimes you just get "in the zone" on something and it is like no-one is there anyway!

I came out of the ring for Rommi's first graduation at dog club and had three people give me applause! I actually thought she didn't work very well at all, but it was nice of them.

If I get approached I just treat it as if it is an opportunity to educate!

As I now have two Whippets, one strikingly marked, I often hear people go past and go look at the Whippets - cool.

[W Sibs]

I'm not really a shy person. Especially when it comes to Charlie welfare..

My OH thinks I'm nutter when he comes out of the supermarket and see me do a quick training session with Charlie when he comes out...

[Tay.]

I hate doing stays at a park.

Heelwork and stuff I'm ok with... just stays I look like a bit of an idiot lol.

[SmoothieGirl]

Doesn't bother me either, I got over it years ago training my Dobe, but I've never really held much stock in what other people think.

Funny that I saw this thread today though. I was doing some basic heel work on a wide nature strip this morning just after 6am when the owner of the house came out to go to work. I'm sure he was surprised to see me working with Bronte outside his house at that ungodly hour. He looked as though he was trying to go to work and sticky nose on us at the sametime, but we just kept doing our thing. Well I did, Bronte needed a little refocusing.