posted by Carolyn Read from DIY Dog Grooming on 8th May 2008
If you have read my blog on “What I Did With My Aggressive Golden Retriever” I mentioned that our challenges in the dog obedience ring were significant after Elliott being confronted with an Alaskan Malamute standing over the top of him in a drop/stay exercise. This was his first ever dog obedience trial and he was working beautifully.
Generally, in the obedience ring you individually do a series of exercises, firstly on lead heelwork with sits, drops and stands, turns in both directions, figure of 8 heelwork exercise, stand for examination and recall and then a routine again off lead. That’s it in a nutshell. Once everyone has been through and the obedience judge has assessed your dog we then all wait to go in to the ring together for the 1 minute sit stay exercise and then the 3 minute drop stay exercise. For these two exercises the dogs are about one metre apart (not a lot of distance between each dog really). You start off at the side of the dog and then at the command of the judge you leave your dog and walk to the other side of the ring. You stand there for the allotted time period and the dogs are not allowed to move (if they do they fail).
So, in this first trial Elliott and I were there waiting for the sit stay exercise and he had the malamute on one side of him. We got through that sit stay exercise perfectly. Believe me - one minute seems like eternity when you are competing in an obedience trial like this. We returned to our dogs and the exercise was finished. I like to get Elliott up and do a little circle on the spot to prepare him for the drop stay. The dogs were all put into their drop stay positions and, once again, we left them on the command of the judge. This is a three minute exercise and seems like even more of an eternity than the one minute exercise! During these three minutes the malamute got up and went and stood over the top of Elliott – my heart sank as I was not allowed to move. He just lay there looking at me. No one did anything and so the dog just kept standing over the top of him. Finally, we got to return to our dogs – the fact that Elliott had remained in the drop position and no fight had occurred was like winning the trial for me. That was a major breakthrough! I was so relieved that our efforts and dog obedience training had made a difference.
However, this incident did create a problem. When we entered subsequent dog obedience trials, Elliott did a beautiful round but when it came to those stay exercises he would get up and follow me, sometimes immediately and then sometimes he would wait but he would never stay for the whole time.
Someone suggested we train with the Malamutes so we did. I spoke to them and asked if I could join their training. I made some great friendships from that and eventually down the track helped them out with instructing in their classes.
I was already going to an all breeds dog obedience club once a week. And then, I ended up going to classes and instructing for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club, so we were three nights per week training and getting him used to different breeds as much as possible.
In the training he would do his stays perfectly but when it came to the trials, no. It became a real frustration as the rest of his work was fantastic.
I had a discussion with one of the obedience judges and she pointed out that his reward was coming back to me and then being taken out of the ring. I did realise this but didn’t quite know what to do about it. Well, I decided to engage the assistance of the next judge who we were entered under. The idea was that the steward would come and take him from me when he came back to me and take him out of the ring. I would complete the exercise and then go and get him. So that is what we did. And it worked! Hallelujah! At that particular trial we had to repeat one of the stay exercises because one dog got up and took, all bar Elliott and another dog, with him.
So our problem was finally solved – no more breaking the stays. We had a couple of hiccups with different exercises in a few subsequent trials but his stays now were solid and he passed them.
A few months down the track and we had gained our Novice Dog Obedience Title, one pass included and equal third place at the Perth Royal Show (with the Llamas walking past!). Another trial we got a second place under the judge who was well-known as being the hardest to score well under so we knew we had done well that day also. The last trial we passed we only scraped through – our consolation was that no dog performed well on that night.
By this time, though, he was very bored with dog obedience training and once we had the CD Title was the time we made the switch to Retrieving – more challenges but an activity which he really loved! That’s another blog!
Generally, in the obedience ring you individually do a series of exercises, firstly on lead heelwork with sits, drops and stands, turns in both directions, figure of 8 heelwork exercise, stand for examination and recall and then a routine again off lead. That’s it in a nutshell. Once everyone has been through and the obedience judge has assessed your dog we then all wait to go in to the ring together for the 1 minute sit stay exercise and then the 3 minute drop stay exercise. For these two exercises the dogs are about one metre apart (not a lot of distance between each dog really). You start off at the side of the dog and then at the command of the judge you leave your dog and walk to the other side of the ring. You stand there for the allotted time period and the dogs are not allowed to move (if they do they fail).
So, in this first trial Elliott and I were there waiting for the sit stay exercise and he had the malamute on one side of him. We got through that sit stay exercise perfectly. Believe me - one minute seems like eternity when you are competing in an obedience trial like this. We returned to our dogs and the exercise was finished. I like to get Elliott up and do a little circle on the spot to prepare him for the drop stay. The dogs were all put into their drop stay positions and, once again, we left them on the command of the judge. This is a three minute exercise and seems like even more of an eternity than the one minute exercise! During these three minutes the malamute got up and went and stood over the top of Elliott – my heart sank as I was not allowed to move. He just lay there looking at me. No one did anything and so the dog just kept standing over the top of him. Finally, we got to return to our dogs – the fact that Elliott had remained in the drop position and no fight had occurred was like winning the trial for me. That was a major breakthrough! I was so relieved that our efforts and dog obedience training had made a difference.
However, this incident did create a problem. When we entered subsequent dog obedience trials, Elliott did a beautiful round but when it came to those stay exercises he would get up and follow me, sometimes immediately and then sometimes he would wait but he would never stay for the whole time.
Someone suggested we train with the Malamutes so we did. I spoke to them and asked if I could join their training. I made some great friendships from that and eventually down the track helped them out with instructing in their classes.
I was already going to an all breeds dog obedience club once a week. And then, I ended up going to classes and instructing for the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club, so we were three nights per week training and getting him used to different breeds as much as possible.
In the training he would do his stays perfectly but when it came to the trials, no. It became a real frustration as the rest of his work was fantastic.
I had a discussion with one of the obedience judges and she pointed out that his reward was coming back to me and then being taken out of the ring. I did realise this but didn’t quite know what to do about it. Well, I decided to engage the assistance of the next judge who we were entered under. The idea was that the steward would come and take him from me when he came back to me and take him out of the ring. I would complete the exercise and then go and get him. So that is what we did. And it worked! Hallelujah! At that particular trial we had to repeat one of the stay exercises because one dog got up and took, all bar Elliott and another dog, with him.
So our problem was finally solved – no more breaking the stays. We had a couple of hiccups with different exercises in a few subsequent trials but his stays now were solid and he passed them.
A few months down the track and we had gained our Novice Dog Obedience Title, one pass included and equal third place at the Perth Royal Show (with the Llamas walking past!). Another trial we got a second place under the judge who was well-known as being the hardest to score well under so we knew we had done well that day also. The last trial we passed we only scraped through – our consolation was that no dog performed well on that night.
By this time, though, he was very bored with dog obedience training and once we had the CD Title was the time we made the switch to Retrieving – more challenges but an activity which he really loved! That’s another blog!
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