Our introduction to obedience competition....

One of the results of my career change is that my dogs and I are no longer being called out at all hours of the day and night at a moments notice. They still do plenty of work, especially when schools are going on, however they aren't working as hard as they used to in searching and detection. They are however used to being very active and training a lot so I needed to find something else to take up all the copious amounts of spare time we now have on our hands/paws. Sport obedience training at the moment seems to fit pretty well into my schedule, doesn't require a lot of room or logistics to accomplish so I have been fooling around with that with both Steel and Jill for the past couple of months.

Steel, due to his prior training, is a bit ahead of Jill in terms of skill. He is very very flashy and animated and when he is on he is stunning. I get compliments on his work all the time. He is also very interested in EVERYTHING going on around us (ooh look! a squirrel!) and his nickname is "swivelhead".  He is not dog aggressive or unmanageable but he tends to come into a crowded show environment with a swagger as if to say "Anyone else here a police dog? Yea I didn't think so....."  Give a Yngo son a badge and a gun and really, what can you expect??  In addition, all of his prior training has reinforced his being aware of his surrounding and going away from me for reinforcement. So this new training requires A LOT of brain cells on his part! I am still experimenting with what works best management wise for Steel. Does he do better where he can hang out and see what is going on? Is he better somewhere more covered up? Does he need a long warmup or a short one. This is all so different from the way both dogs are used to working (coming out of the car at 100mph with no expectations of self control, just find something as fast as you can even if it takes you hours).

Jill OTOH is Ms. Dependable. She is easy to manage (although she can hear a squeaky toy a mile away).
All she wants is her ball and to make me happy (I am not sure in which order however). She is more business like and serious and her errors are more likely to be bobbles because she is overthinking and worrying about pleasing me perhaps a little bit too much.  She is like me - not being able to practice enough makes her worry. Her work is a little less flashy than Steel's but I would say that she enjoys doing it more, Steel pretty much enjoys what he gets for doing it more.

On a whim I entered them both in obedience trials this weekend. The trials were right here in Jackson so it was easy driving, they offered training matches every night following the shows and they offer a beginner novice class, which is literally the simplest level class there is. So I decided to set the bar very low, give them a shot and see where they were in their training. I also wanted to get them acclimated to the show environment and see how they did.

Here were my goals for the week along with results:

Weds - match only.
Goals: Have fun with both dogs in and out of the rings. Keep things simple. Reward short sessions of attention. Have fun.
Results: Jill was excellent. She was put off by the strange environment for a few minutes (mostly wondering about all the dogs in every direction) and then she worked just like she does at home. She was bouncy and wanted to work for her ball. She had good stamina and didn't get worn out so clearly the environment wasn't getting a lot of her focus. Steel was VERY up initially although he did some nice work in the ring. I had to do a lot of rewarding for his decisions to choose me over the environment and I had to keep the tasks simple and short. Four steps of perfect heeling and treat verse a whole pattern.

Thurs - match only.
Goals: Same as Weds but add more skills to sessions. Run throughs in ring.
Results: Jill was again excellent. Did complete run through with no major issues. The only error was her confusion on if we were doing a sit for exam or a recall because both require me to leave her in a sit and walk away. She still occasionally anticipates the recall and staying so close on the exam prompts her sometimes to start to come to front. I do not correct errors of anticipation, I just don't reward them. It might not matter in sport obedience like it does in my other working venues, but I will not correct a dog who is anticipating what I am going to want, to me that makes no sense at all. Far better to be more clear about what I want, if she were breaking a lot that would be a big clue that I need to back up and lay a better foundation.  Steel was better focuswise than he was Weds night. I did a lot of ringwork with him, just not a runthrough and other than the poodle in the next ring catching his fancy he was wonderful to watch. My biggest concern (huge actually) is whether he can manage the self control to not throw himself at the judge during the exam....

TO BE CONTINUED.....