Obedience and Rally O training

Emily

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#1
Ok, here it is, I finally did it, so you all better show up now! :rofl1:

I'll start! I've got Mackenzy, 7 yrs old. She has her CD and RA, and one leg of her CDX. We're holding off on further trialing to get some foundation issues straightened out.

And then there's the Keeva, she's a baby with no titles, and we're going make sure we're very, very ready before we go in the ring because I'd like to pull high scores ideally.

So, what I'd love thoughts on are two issues Mackenzy is having:

1.) Slow down on recall. She always does it, and she always does it well enough to Q but it's slower than I'd like. Keeva has a "dig front nails in and slam down" down in motion, Macky creeps. I've done a lot of fast "chase me and then DOWN!" games, and lots of DIM (down in motion, from here on out) while heeling practice.

2.) Some dumbbell issues... She will often wait for a second cue to take her dumbbell, or want me to "help" her with my body. I would LOVE any suggestions for this one, as well as some ideas on increasing her enthusiasm in general. Her enthusiasm isn't bad (moves at a brisk trot) but I'd love it to be better!

Now, with Keeva, and again, I'd kill for your thoughts, things are going really well aside from her distractible baby brain, but, she's uncomfortable with the "fast" portion of heeling - totally thinks I'm going to step on her, and swings really wide so she can watch me. Again, halps?

Alright, now it's your turn with suggestions and your own issues/triumphs. Like I said, you'd better show up! :D

I should have some video up later today.
 

FG167

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#2
Well, I'm doing Schutzhund style obedience with Kastle, not AKC, or at least, not right now. Hope that's ok.

We are working on correct positioning/head position in heel. He has gorgeous, prancey, focused heeling, but my TD really wants to make sure his position is technically correct so I'm working on that really hard.

He's also a nutjob in basic, so we're working on calming down in basic.

He has started his out of motion exercises, but they are all just started and no farther so I need to finish those.

Long down is non-existent so I need to work on that. He's a worrier and a vocalizer, so I have a lot to work on.
 

Emily

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#3
Well, I'm doing Schutzhund style obedience with Kastle, not AKC, or at least, not right now. Hope that's ok.
Totally ok! There are a lot of similar exercises. And I always joke that I'm gonna get a BH on Keeva. LOL

Actually, I'm working on refining both my girls' positions. Macky can be laggy, and Keeva is the opposite... Like Kastle, she has flashy, prancey, focused heeling but she often forges!
 

FG167

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#4
Totally ok! There are a lot of similar exercises. And I always joke that I'm gonna get a BH on Keeva. LOL

Actually, I'm working on refining both my girls' positions. Macky can be laggy, and Keeva is the opposite... Like Kastle, she has flashy, prancey, focused heeling but she often forges!
I started Eden towards her BH but she doesn't have the focus needed to be serious for that long LOL I also started her on tracking but the same issues arose when I decreased the food on the track ;)

I have found that small dogs are chronic forgers as they try to look around our bodies to our faces/eyes.
 

AdrianneIsabel

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#5
Backup needs a lot of work on his heeling, he's a worrier, he looks nervous and we're not sure (no matter the happy, jazzy, positive work) how to change this.

Sloan is a bit flat in her heeling as well but not never out of position, we'd just like to see her flashier.

AKC and IPO are pretty much the same, we do both, the AKC is actually harder for Backup because he's nervous in crowds and smaller spaces.

Sloan has her CD and BH and is going for her CDX and APR 1 this winter, ideally. We may attempt our BH with Backup and our CD, we'll see, he may remain an example of bad dog for life.
 

Aleron

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#6
I have taught heeling many different ways and over time, have sort of developed my own way to train it. With Savvy I decided to try Silvia Trkman's Heeling is Just Another Trick approach because it fits with what I already do but prevents a common issue I've had - crooked sits and crabbing. So far I really like the results I have gotten with Savvy. It really teaches the dogs a great understanding of heel position and tightness in position. Roust has started the foundation for it too now because he already has a tendency to crab pretty badly. I love the sort of turns you can get with this and all around rear and awareness.

http://youtu.be/rp32djjKdD0
 

Finkie_Mom

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#7
Well babydog Kimma only has her RN, but I have high hopes for her. I would LIKE to start working towards her BN relatively soon, and hopefully eventually put her CDX on her. As far as Rally goes, I'd be fine working towards higher titles for a bit more ring experience, but I wouldn't be super upset if she never ended up with an RAE or anything.

She's just a worrier. Always has been. Little radar dish ears moving all the time. And she reads off of my body language SO WELL. Which is an issue since I still get nervous in any ring (conformation/obedience/whatever), and therefore SLOWER. Agility has helped a bit for both of us, as she's gotten more used to working around crowds and lots of dogs and I've gotten used to moving faster, so I'm hoping the next go at an obedience title will be a bit easier than her RN was LOL.

She has great rear end awareness and LOVES finding heel. Recalls/drop on recalls are super fun for her (actually at the only obedience fun match we went to, she was worried during the heeling around the ring but was ALL ABOUT the formal recall/front/finish LOL). It's just improving her focus and getting her to be more confident that I'm worried about. Well, that, and her stays could use some work.

I have not yet taken an obedience class of any kind with her (with the exception of puppy classes), so I'm hoping once I get in to those, she will get more used to things.

OH and she is not a people person, so sit/stand for exams are going to be interesting. She's always been head shy.
 

MandyPug

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#8
Izzie has her RN and achieved it with a 4th (82) and 2 HICs (100, and 99). She's hitting the mats again this weekend for 3 trials in Advanced A and hopefully we get all three!

She's not quite ready for the obedience ring yet, her heeling duration isn't where it should be but we do fun matches to get ring experience. She's also a weirdo about heeling because of her lack of peripheral vision in her left eye so head-up heeling isn't always there. Oh and i've stepped on her plenty so she's never going to be a super tight stuck to my leg heeler, but we do what we can :)
 

monkeys23

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#10
I have taught heeling many different ways and over time, have sort of developed my own way to train it. With Savvy I decided to try Silvia Trkman's Heeling is Just Another Trick approach because it fits with what I already do but prevents a common issue I've had - crooked sits and crabbing. So far I really like the results I have gotten with Savvy. It really teaches the dogs a great understanding of heel position and tightness in position. Roust has started the foundation for it too now because he already has a tendency to crab pretty badly. I love the sort of turns you can get with this and all around rear and awareness.

http://youtu.be/rp32djjKdD0
I think I need to learn that technique! Been ongoing working on crooked sits and crabbing!

We've been using platforms to clean up heel position and front. A good straight Front is finally getting reliable with Lily. Her heeling is gorgeous, bouncy, zesty, and riveted on me with correct position lol.

Our biggest thing is motion exercises and the send away for long down. Basically because starting out I worked on my own for so long and I didn't know how to teach them. Aaaand now that I do I've gotten distracted working on other stuff. ;)
She does not want to be away from me and really wants to keep engaging with me and that is our largest obstacle with motion exercises/send away/long down. Honestly if we could get that down we could totally get a BH. ;) I'd kind of like to get some ring experience getting Rally titles first though.

We've done quite a few little faux Rally courses with 5-25 signs depending and honestly the exact same speed bumps we've got in IPO style OB are tripping us up in Rally too. That and I'm like whaaaat am I doing, lol. I just need more experience myself going through the motions.

Also doing perchwork working on finding the leg and pivoting with me. She's doing good so far.

Scout has a really nice focused heel. Nice and flashy even. Sometimes she still goes wide,b ut thats Scout spatial issues and dependant on the environment. Perchwork is helping a LOT with her being comfy with being that close to me.

I kinda doubt Scout will ever trial given the environment at trials. You never know she could surprise me! But she did pretty well the first time I took her through a rally course considering we did like 12 signs and she'd never done it before.

Big things:
-motion exercises are non-existant. I still have to kneel down and fake lure her into down. Hey at least she's downing now, only took two years!
-send away is meh. Matwork is helping though. Again she really wants to be interacting with me.
- she can sit stay and long down like a boss though if i've put her in it. All that relaxation protocol I guess!
- Still working on stand.
- she folds backwards 1-3ft when she sitz.... so yeah, thats an issue too. Just too lanky I guess?
 

crazedACD

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#13
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

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#14
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

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#15
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

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#16
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

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#17
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

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#18
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

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#19
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

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#20
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.
 

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