Hi, everyone! I took these videos a few weeks ago (and they aren’t exactly beautiful), but I thought that some people in Blogland might enjoy seeing them.
Pieka and I are training for Utility. This is the highest level of obedience in the venue where we compete (Companion Dog Sport Program) and the exercises are very similar to the AKC Utility class.
The first exercise is gloves. The purpose of this is to demonstrate that the dog can be directed to retrieve a SPECIFIC object. You will see three gloves in a row – Pieka successfully gets the article I direct her towards. My dog training tip: be mindful of your own body language and never assume that it’s your dog’s fault. Pieka and I struggled with this for a couple of weeks, until I realized that I was pivoting too far….I wasn’t directing her clearly enough with my body. This same theory applies to even the most basic skills – teaching a sit, down, etc.
The next exercise is a Go-Out. This is one part of a bigger exercise (directed jumping), but it’s VERY important to reinforce the dog’s happy, straight go-out separately. Otherwise, the dogs start only going part-way (not to the end of thing), taking the jumps when they shouldn’t, etc. It may seem simple to get a dog to run across the ring to target a stanchion, but nothing in dog training is that easy! I taught this through targeting, then slowly increasing the distance and teaching a “marking” behavior. My dog training tips: remember to break exercises into separate skills + reward placement is key. Note that I go all the way to the end of the ring and reward at the stanchion. That helps Pieka understand that the target – the middle stanchion – is the place to be.
Happy Dog Training, Alta Tollhaus Friends!
Jamie, these are great-Pieka is doing so well-I love her attitude! I can’t remember, does she already have her CDX or are you just training for the next level now? Lynda, you and I seriously need to live closer to each other-it would be so much fun to train together.
Lisa, we do have our CDX (actually, CDX-C). I really wish that I had more people to train specific skills with. I am having a HARD time finding “distractor dogs” if you know what I mean. The Utility skills require so much independence – I need to proof to maintain that focus.
Jamie,
Help please….what is the CDX-C?
I love Piekas’ focus on the target and go out. Good job!
Thank you for sharing. Glad we have our blog. 🙂
Terri and Qwendi (Gavin/Inga)
Terri, the CDX-C is the Open title in the Companion Dog Sports Program. It’s an alternative titling venue – based on AKC exercises. The Open exercises include heeling off leash, broad jump, go out/turn and sit, retrieve on the flat, retrieve over the high jump, and drop on recall. There are no group stays. I like the venue a lot – it’s small, supportive, there are trials very close to me. They allow the use of rewards in the ring, which obviously makes things somewhat easier, but the exercises are a little more challenging in some respects.
Thank you for sharing. I love having all these videos and tips. Steve (U-Litter, born in Nov) is a little ways off from this but I look forward to progressing to your level. PS I loved looking at all the Pieka posts and pictures while I was waiting for my little long coat guy, wondering what he would look like 🙂
And that my dear is why we like the blog-you would never have found Pieka pics on FB.
Happy dog!