Obedience and Rally Trial
I decided not to enter my boys in the big Land O Lakes trial this year. No optional titling classes are being offered and I've already had both of the judges for Vito in novice and kind've want a new perspective. But I did decide to enter both in the trial yesterday at St. Paul.
Lance- Grad Open
Signals- 1.5pts off
Lance starts out real forgy but reels himself back in pretty quick. Really wide first about turn where he was a bit distracted but once we start heading down the middle of the ring he is back in tune with me. I decided not to use verbals with the signals and Lance didn't have any problems. Video shows I sprinted through them though, I'm surprised Lance had time to see them!
Scent article- 3pts
Once again Lance grabs the right one pretty quickly and then drops it. He carried it further then last time though so maybe he was a bit more confident? He didn't go to the judge this time and didn't stare at me for very long this time either before going back to work. Little improvement!
Directed Retrieve- NQ
My bad. Video shows I didn't pivot as far back as I should have. I knew he wasn't looking at the glove when I sent him but I thought he would at least head in that direction. Instead Lance was confused and took the jump, briefly looked at me, then hopped back over and started heading to the glove. I stepped in and told him to take it again as he was jumping the 2nd time. The judge later told me that I shouldn't have done that since he felt Lance was already heading back towards the glove. Looking at the video I think he was right, but oh well!
Moving Stand- .5pt
Much forging for the few steps of heeling. The stay sucked too. I thought I felt him moving as I was walking away but I wasn't sure. The judge only knocked us for the finish so either he wasn't judging as carefully since we had already NQed or he was spacing.
Go Out- 3pts
Like last time, Lance went to the same spot the glove was previously at. But at least he ran out fast and confident. He didn't touch the gate though like he is supposed to but did go right up to the gate. I haven't yet started to ask for a sit before the "whack."
Directed Jump- .5pt
I think he was happy to only jump 8! He stepped on my foot on the front and I was shocked! Vito steps on my foot, not the Lance!
Overall- NQ
I'm really happy with how Lance did! We have a long ways to go and made all of the same mistakes this trial as the last one. Maybe if Lance and I had made it to more then 1 class since the last trial we could have made some progress; what a crazy idea!
Lance- Bonus Rally!
Lance go to do the dummy run for rally excellent while the last dog held their honor stay. He really likes rally and performed brilliantly except for one naughty part. Lance wouldn't do the come front and went back to heel. I didn't fix it, no point. Thinking about it now I just realized why he skipped it! As part of our fixing the forging work I've been backing up whenever he forges. It looks the exact same as a moving call front except for what I want him to do :P So I take back the naughty statement, sorry Lance.
Vito- Rally Novice
I somehow missed a dog going in and was shocked to hear my number being called so Vito and I ran right into the ring. We had been warming up so he wasn't completely brought in cold but it really caught me off guard. I was really proud of Vito for holding perfect attention at the start line and acting like he was a big boy! He apparently lost some of that attention with my first few steps and almost missed that I was turning into him. It was a serpentine though the cones and I bumped him. Not enough of a mistake to lose any points and the bump served to wake him up and have great heeling the rest of the course. The run got us our Novice title with a score of 100 and 2nd place.
Congrats on the title! That's REALLY interesting about the call front with Lance.
Wow, so many different exercises and details to nail down for Obedience. Way to go Lance on working through that scent article exercise, never giving up! And congrats on Vito's title, what a way to get it, too!
It was really interesting to learn what your dogs are doing at those meets!
Nubbin wiggles,
Oskar
Congratulations!! I'm so glad you posted this video, I haven't seen Graduate Open yet in person or online.
CONGRATULATIONS on the new title and perfect score! That's awesome.
Do you have a specific method or suggestion for teaching the dogs to mark? Like for gloves and things?
I start with marking treats. they learn pretty quick that if I put my hand by their head there's a treat out there! I click the look and their reward is going to the treat. Then I went to a circle of treats and the dogs had to go to the one I pointed to. I later move to a target instead of a treat so I don't have to worry about the retrieve element and just focus on the mark. Unfortunately I didn't turn far enough at this trial and Lance didn't see the glove at all before I sent him.
very cute run. are all these runs in the same building? (those gates are so odd looking, they were in one of the CDX videos i think and vito's CD leg video?) where is this place? or are those just common gates in your region?
i never did graduate open, and i hate the half length go out!! rah does so much worse at those because he truly thinks its the glove exercise!
I wanted to read back over what I'd missed to see what you had been up to. I'm also kind of a comment addict. If I read a post I almost always comment on it. I guess I'm just a talker lol. I didn't do anything I didn't want to do. :D
I'm using my arm because I can move it with him, whereas I can't see me being able to do that with my leg. If I just have him crawl under my leg he basically ducks under and is back up on the other side immediately. I can't get any distance or duration that way. I also used my arm when teaching bow. I'm hoping to fade it out so that I'm just lightly touching his back with my hand, but right now it takes steady contact to keep him down. I think he's getting there, but so far hasn't really made the connection. I have no clue if I'm doing it right . . . maybe I should get a video and get everyone's opinions and suggestions. I'll try.
I'm really enjoying working with him again. I think I'm going to open his blog back up for posting training specific stuff because I don't want to clutter my main blog with training stuff that would probably bore most of my readers (I think you and Hsin-Yi are the only ones interested in day to day training). I miss having multiple blogs. We'll see. Sorry for babbling and thanks for commenting!
doberkim- yes there are 3 rings set up all with the same gating. I hate showing here, I find it a very distracting environment but Lance got his CDX here and Vito got his CD here.
PVC gating is common in the Twin Cities. One club has completely solid PVC barriers you can't see through (great for the novice rings!) as well as these same type of PVC gates. Very easy to move at least!
I'm probably asking for movement too soon, but it seems to be going okay if I can manage to fade out my arm. I'll just have to see how it goes. I had also thought about working on duration with his down stay because I realized I never even taught him a down stay lol! So I'm also working on down stays. I'm glad you think that will help with the crawl. I was doing a little bit of experimenting and finally realized that my cue for him to lay down is me bending at the waist! It's amazing the signals we give and don't even realize it. I think I need to work on down some in general and in different ways and places. I think that would make crawling easier.
The reason I'm thinking of opening up Jackal's blog again is because I'm keeping a training journal anyway. It isn't any more effort to put it on his blog than it is to put it in a word document lol. I like getting comments and advice on his training too because it keeps me motivated. I lost interest in his training when I got rid of his blog . . . I'm still thinking on it, but I think I might do it. :) I'll still post about him on my other blog too though.