Deciding If Now Is The Right Time To Start In C. C. D.?

[HeroeswitBSD]

Faking your dog out... also known as proofing... or distraction proofing - so you are the distraction...

so if your recall word (off a stay) is "come" try "turkey" in the same tone... or some other word that doesn't mean anything...

Or put your dog in a stay and run by your dog but don't give any signal to come with you...

run by your dog singing "turkey rhubarb custard" etc.

Chuck things around your dog - toys, pillows, balls...

The stay I'm looking for is mostly an agility stay... so I make like I'm about to run off - and bounce on the spot. I do run off. I don't give the "release word"... I'm faking her out with all sorts of body language that usually means chase me - but not if she's in a stay...

Get some friends to help with the faking out...

At a competition - in CCD - you can expect another dog to get up and run away... see if you can get someone else with a dog to run past all excited like - start far away and gradually bring the other dog closer. Play with the other dog in front of your dog - other people will do this to warm their dogs up - right next to the ring where you're doing a stay.

Feed a magpie in front of your dog - magpies routinely invade our courses looking for stray bits of dog treats and office workers lunches. We can hand feed them if we want.

At CCD in the stays - you can also expect another dog to get up, walk over to your dog, sniff, and then sit on top of your dog. Or play bow...

So you can see if any of these things will get your dog up... proofing... if they do, put your dog back gently and start over. Start with easy things and build up. Take your dog to some competitions and practice stays (on lead) but outside of rings, but in all the chaos - well start far away and work closer as your dog gets accustomed to the job at hand.

I also wrote "imagine and" when I meant "imagine an 'exercise completed' (from the judge)".

I have also considered making a recording of the directions you see being given on youtube video of people's ccd trials... and then using head phones or even a phone speaker to play back the instructions and then try to do them as I hear them. Eg start in the middle of a cricket oval or something.

This is a nice example... not perfect but most people don't expect perfect at CCD.

Thanks I understand now thanks for the info.