Roxy's Match Results!

I found out late last week about a correction match being held close by and decided that everything was slack enough for Roxy and I to attend. I thought it would be a good time to see how she'd handle the stresses of the "show" world without there being too much pressure on performance.

The rules at a correction match are not nearly as strict. The judging is the same, but you can speak to your dog, do leash corrections etc, but you get docked points for every "correction" no matter what kind.

It's a show environment, but it's kind of a practice run.

We sat around in the crowded area for 2 and a half hours, and Roxy was awesome. After five minutes she settled down and relaxed didn't snarl at anyone!

So here are her results:

Heel on Leash & Figure 8 (40): 36

SFE (30): 0

Heel Free (40): 37.5

Recall (30): 29

Long sit (30): 30

Long down (30): 30

Total (200) 162.5

So in my books, LOL, seeing as we took a zero for the SFE she got 162.5/170. Pretty darn good!

For the SFE, seeing as it was a correction match, the judge offered to just stand beside her for a moment to help desensitize her. She stood very close, her leg was touching Roxy's shoulder. Roxy looked up at her and sniffed her arm, as soon as I saw she wasn't showing any teeth or even licking her lips, I said "Good girl!" she looked at me, and I returned. We still got a 0 because there was no real examination, but I'm very proud of her, especially in this stressful situation with a complete stranger.

We train with a Voldhard, but like in a real match you can't use them, so we worked on a flat buckled collar today. No problems! She got one collar correction for a slack front in the recall, but no leash corrections in anything. I did speak to her offen in the off lead heeling because of all of the distractions though. But for our first time, her performance was excellent. Yeah I did speak to her, which is not allowed in a real trial but the whole point of us going wasn't to act like it was a real show, I just wanted to see her reaction to all of the dogs and people and the general situation.

I got compliments as soon as I left the ring for having such a hard working, happy dog, the latter couldn't have pleased me more! She was quite happy, tail wagging, smiling, tongue out.

I was a bit worried for the long sits and downs, we were placed next to an antsy retriever who was up and down, and it's owner was continually yelling at it and correcting it, but all that proofing we do in school was obviously worth while! She got 2 perfects for her sits and downs.

SO all in all it was a fantastic day! I now know that *I* am the nervous one, Roxy wasn't nervous at all. She can obviously perform well in the stressful situations that a trial has and her fake SFE was fantastic!

I'm one happy mom today!

YAH!!!!!

So happy for you guys!! You really deserve to win!!! You have been through SO much!

Pics?

Lizzie! I saw a dog that looked EXACTLY like your Lizzie today! It was insane! It was a male though. I swear Lizzie has a twin up here in Canada!

No piccies, I went all by my lonesome today. My bf had to stay with Hades and I didn't want any distractions like my dad there. Roxy loves him and would've spent the whole time trying to get to him! LOL Just me and my girlie!

Yay! CONGRATS! ANd good job!

Lizzie did have like...3 or 4 brothers!!! Could have been! How AWSOME!!!

Okay no pics! Still sad but okay!

I am sorta conufused...I thought you were going to show Roxy?

We still have some stuff to work on, *cough*SFE*cough*, so she's not ready to go to a real show yet.

This is the first time she's ever been in that kind of environment as well. We'll see, if we can get a solid, stable SFE from her she may be shown in obedience. Today was a correction match, so pretty much a practice run for people who are showing in obedience, or just fun for people who train and want to see how their dogs are doing.

YAY ROXIE!!!! I knew she had it in her! What a good girlie! Congrats.. she deserves lots o' treats and lovins! Send her kisses from Auntie Heather and cousins Squid and Tiki

Oh Okay

JENN! Don't you care how your niece did?!?!?!?!

LMAO I totally missed this thread!!

OMG!! AWESOME JOB ROXY!!!

LOL Make sure you give her a treat from me!! lol

Thats pretty sweet!!

Ok, what is SFE and who is Roxy!?

SFE= Stand for Examination

And Roxy is my dog in my signature LOL

Roxy did a beautiful job..CONGRATULATIONS!!:hail: I love what the judge did for the SFE as well.. Good job..both of you!

OBVIOUSLY. WHICH dog in your sig?????

Thank you so much Colleen

I was a little worried about going with her problems but Roxy's whole class went, two other ladies and one of the labs has similar problems as Roxy as well.

It was all around a good time for her. I kept the mood happy and light and fun. There were a few people that obviously knew a bit about dogs, that I gave handfuls of cut up hot dogs too, they made Roxy sit, down and swing and do some tricks for those treats. And Roxy was awesome! No snarling at ALL!

She performed the tricks and than drooled for the treats.

So a few strangers came into close contact with her with no problems.

I am more than aware that my nervousness has a lot to do with Roxy's problems, so I worked a lot on myself yesterday too, but it's just so darned hard!!!

It's hard to explain but the fear of your dog biting someone really messes with your head. Even if she's happy, tail wagging, interacting nicely, it's hard to lose that nervous edge I have just because I KNOW how she can be. THan those feelings transfer straight to Roxy and *I* pretty much make her act out because she knows exactly how I'm feeling. It's a vicious cycle.

It was a good experience for me though, to see her interact with strangers and behave like any other dog. Hopefully now I can relax a bit, not let my guard down, but relax enough that I'm not sending all these bad vibes to ROxy everytime someone comes around.

Dulce, lose the attitude that came from out of nowhere. The rott/dobe, my APBT cannot go to dog events because of the pitbull ban here in Ontario.

No attitude but whatever.

I don't live in Canada, so I wouldn't know

It sounds like a very positive experience and the more of those that you can rack up, the better.

I know it's hard not to show your nerves. I often have other peoples HA and DA dogs at the end of a leash when doing private training and in GROWL classes. When I can, I'll waist leash them (multi purpose leash) to me so that I can further protect them from my anxiety.

You would really love the book Click to Calm, it's such a fantastic real world book to help owners deal with reactive dogs and it helps US with our nerves too. It isn't at all fluffy or overly touchy feely and the techniques in it are the ones that we've talked about (a little) that I've been using successfully for all of my HA and DA clients dogs for quite a while. The techniques deal with the emotion rather than the symptoms and teach the dog to use safe default behaviors when confronted with an uncomfortable situation...it really works.

Anyway, I'm really happy for you and Roxy. This is just the kind of day that will encourage more of the same for both of you.

Good job!

I think it was a great decision to handle the SFE the way you did.I also know how hard it is not to push a little too much in those types of situations, esp when things are going so well, people are watching etc-- good for you for resisting the urge :hail:
I'm sure Roxy will be more comfortable when she can LOOK at who is coming and not be forced to hold eye contact in that situation (not because it matters who it is per se) . To me that part in and of itself must have added to her tension. She won't lose any points for head turning anyway would she? as long as she does doesn't move any feet right? (I think my aussie can look 180 degrees behind her to watch me when I return and not budge a foot, but she's a bit crazy)

I second DR2's suggestion of Click to Calm. I thought of Roxy a ton at Emma's seminar and how much you would be able to pull from that to use in your training with Roxy. I think you and your trainer would find it very useful and very practical. Emma Parsons is actually a big Obedience nerd and only got into aggression when she ended up (much to her horror) with an aggressive dog.

I think you're also right about controlling your own nerves and also controlling/diffusing your own frustration. For one of my dogs that's the difference between a perfect score and an NQ. (we've had both in back to back rounds and it was all me handling his nerves and mine) He takes his lead from me and if I am nervous or get frustrated can totally lose it. I've learned when I feel the least little bit of frustration, to put him away on an up note, work my other dog or chat with one of my training buddies for a few minutes and pull him out when I can be 100% on MY game. It's amazing how sensitive dogs are and what they can pick up from us.

Anyway- congrats on a job well done. Good girl Roxy-- big pats.

Awsome!!! Im so happy Roxy did so well! Thats excellent scores. SFE aside.

This thread is a bit old, but I'm bumping it anyways. LOL

Colleen- What do you mean by "waist leash"?

Exactly what it sounds like? Tying her to my waist? I did this for a few days when we were having some dominance issues over the furniture. I tethered her to me and everywhere I went she had to follow. She really seemed to calm down. And it wasn't as much of a fight that I thought it would be. WIthin a few minutes she'd figured out that as soon as I moved she had to too.

Sam- Thank you for the encouragement. There was a bit of an urge for just *ONE* second, when I saw that she didn't snarl lick her lips or anything, a mental picture in my mind of the judge super quickly touching her back, but then the mental picture of Roxy's snarl made that dissipate quickly! ROFL

I think there were a few factors though that just made it a great day, both of our attitudes being the most important. The fact that before we went into the ring she came into contact with a few strangers she had NEVER met before and behaved well and got plenty of praise for.

Kris- I thought she did pretty well too myself! LOL

She was a bit goofy, no other word really to describe it, but the judge didn't dock us for her talking, swivelly, bobble head or her jumps around all over the place. She said it's nice to see a dog happy to work.

In class we've been continuing on without the e-collar and without the watch me for now. Every 5 or so I'll ask for a watch me when she's settled and more comfortable. We still get a lip lick once in awhile but even that appears to be phased out.

Sam, they don't get docked any points for moving their head in obedience. As long as their feet don't move and they don't show any agressive behaviour it's fine. The judge at the show and many others actually put their hands in front of the dog for a quick sniff before they examine too.

So sorry to bump the old thread, but I had to thank all of you for your support!