Obedience Training
I happen to have entered Zumi in an AKC obedience trial this coming weekend. Apparently, I didn't really plan well with training time. Looking at the calendar, the only practice we've had outside of my small living room since the October trial was one. The week after.
I get the building once a week before teaching classes. But my night is Wednesdays and then it was Halloween, leaving to travel to Florida without me a few days early, staying another 4 days with friends driving her back, then the Thanksgiving holidays. That leaves this Wednesday as our 2nd practice in over a month.
Unfortunately, it's shown with her arousal in retrieves again. I just doodle on little things before dinner, mainly fronts and finishes. The occasional retrieve has had more whining and even worse, back to some jolting forward on the throw.
Zumi really needs her ball reward for dumbbell retrieves, not food! The higher value ball reward actually helps to calm her excitement for the dumbbell as well as more satisfying victory laps to relieve some energy.
At least I feel like I'm tackling her other issues that showed up in the trial.
Down from a sit for the stay exercise was almost non existant in the trial. She needed a 2nd cue on all 3 trials, even with a stupid hand point. So I practiced added a little more excitement to the down, getting her used to hand point as I almost never do it, and adding in her "sad" chin rest to the ground to make it more of a trick. Plus "sad" is more down than down and it never hurts to teach "more"!
And then her finishes. This isn't just a trial issue as it certainly shows up in practice. On the left finish she usually is great, but sometimes can be a little wide. So I'm doing left finish + side step.
And on the right finish, we do consistently have the problem even in practice where she doesn't come far enough, tucks her butt behind me. It's why I rarely do it in a trial. For this I started doing lots of cookie tosses forward before she fully completes the finish. Also mixed in some right pivots so she has to go further than expected to come up to heel.
Here was Saturday's session on the down and finishes:
