Obedience and Rally O training

[Panzerotti]

Yay, I love obedience training too! I train obedience for French Ring, even though Pan may never be able to compete. Here's a vid from this summer, playing around at a park....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxDo3NsBI6o

[Finkie_Mom]

Oh! I can start with a question... How does everyone teach "front?"

[crazedACD]

Romeo has trouble with the platform thing. I don't know what percentage is that maybe I'm not totally comfortable with it, but he isn't consistent about it..I really have to lure him and he won't go around on his own.

[Laurelin]

I am trying to convince myself that I like rally/obedience. I am not convinced yet. Precision work and slow paced dogsports are really really not my thing. And I know my rally instructor can tell. She keeps trying to get me to go to freestyle instead. (Says its a good in between of fun and then precision)

And my dogs keep looking at me going 'Sit? Why would I want to sit again?'

My rally instructor is in the hospital though so no classes for a while.

[SpringerLover]

I LOVE obedience. I hope Bailey will return to CDSP at least and be able to do Open if we uhm, take our first obedience class ever.

She has her AKC CD, 1 CDX Q, and like... 5? RAE legs. I dislike AKC rally a whole bunch so we just kind of stopped.

She has 2 CDSP CD-C Qs. I keep saying I'm going to register her in APDT, I should do that before our next trial.

And, I love obedience. I wish my dogs weren't so old!

[monkeys23]

I think that is what I like so much about IPO obedience. That the dogs are supposed to be in drive while doing the obedience... somehow it feels more fun. And I really like Rally so far, but to be honest I have this mental aversion/block to AKC obedience. I don't know why.

[Emily]

Originally Posted by monkeys23

I think that is what I like so much about IPO obedience. That the dogs are supposed to be in drive while doing the obedience...

Where did you get the impression that dogs aren't "supposed to be in drive" during AKC Obedience?

AKC OB may be "scaled down" because it's in a smaller ring and often indoors, but it is absolutely supposed to be an exercise in precision and drive. I've never seen a decent OB run where the dog wasn't in drive.

[Flyinsbt]

Originally Posted by Emily

Where did you get the impression that dogs aren't "supposed to be in drive" during AKC Obedience?

AKC OB may be "scaled down" because it's in a smaller ring and often indoors, but it is absolutely supposed to be an exercise in precision and drive. I've never seen a decent OB run where the dog wasn't in drive.

Have you ever seen Petra Ford, with her amazing Lab, Tyler? Two times National Obedience Champion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv4izoPcvCA

The dog is incredible. And he's a field-bred Lab, with drive oozing out of him. I saw her with him at the NOC in Long Beach, a few years ago, and it gave me some ideas for working with my Tess. Tess isn't a great obedience dog, but I'd really had trouble managing her drive in the ring, she kept going over the top. Watching Petra and Tyler was a big benefit to me, you see how calm and matter-of-fact she keeps things with him, and she'll down him between exercises to avoid having him get really out of control. Tried it with Tess, and it did help.

Now, when you describe your issue with the retrieve, how did you teach the exercise? And the same with the recall exercise, how did you teach that. I might have some ideas.

I'm not doing a lot of obedience right now, but I do hope to get more back into it. My first Stafford, Elmo (acquired as a rescue at 4 years), finished his UD, U-CDX, and one UDX leg. Tully, my next Stafford was a better obedience dog, but I dawdled too long. She finished her CDX & U-CDX when she was 3, but I always figured we had plenty of time to get the UD and UDX. Then the Cushings disease hit. Oh, she got her RAE too. Her daughter, Tess was not a stellar obedience dog, because the group stays make her uncomfortable, and she vocalizes. She did finally finish her CD last year, and has 2 U-CD legs, which I'm not planning to finish. My youngest, Pirate, is my big obedience hope now, but I need to actually work with him more.

And just for ridiculous entertainment, I seem to be in the process of planning an obedience team for the Rose City Classic, which will consist of 2 Staffords & 2 Minibulls. None of them actually have a drop on recall, though I say it's 2 months away, we can train them. And if they don't drop, we can just act like we're shocked about it. (the owner of one of the Minibulls says that after driving some ridiculous amount of miles to be there, acting shocked will not be a stretch.) Also, we all live in different states, so we can't practice together. The dog I'll bring is Tess, who at least nominally knows obedience, even though she's terrible at it. And did I mention 2 of the dogs are Minibulls? There will definitely be video.

[AdrianneIsabel]

We strive to keep our dogs in drive in the AKC ring, it's harder though, it's easier to keep up the drive on a longer walk in an open field with IPO.

It is a bigger challenge to balance the drives, ime, in AKC. Too much drive can bubble and be hard to focus with some dogs. For example Quarrel (or my friends aussie) bubbles and proceeds to bounce and bark. This however doesn't fly in IPO anymore than AKC.

Keeping the barking capped and the heeling clean in IPO may be slightly easier because of the space and distance wearing on the stamina, plus you can match the dogs ideal speed a lot easier with longer striding dogs but I wouldn't say drive is anymore desired in one venue than the other.

The peppier dogs always show better, finding that balance... that's the challenge.

[Red Chrome]

Nothing to add except.....I can not wait to watch that Obedience team run at Rose City!! Sounds adventurous!!

I'm not happy with either of my dogs heelwork.