IPO 2 - Page 2

Congratulations Steve!  You should be very proud of Gina.

Congrats Steve and Gina. Keep up the great work...

Well done Steve and Gina.  Of course higher scores would have been nice, you have the qualification and you can concentrate on the Sch 3 where it counts so much more.

Margaret N-J

Good work steve1 on the complete title.  Have you trained your dog at all with cross-tracks?  Cross tracks can be confusing to a dog who has not encountered them before.  Also has your dog learned to discriminate the human scent trails versus the scent of broken up grass, vegetation, etc?  I have seen quite few dogs whom think they supposed to track broken up grass particles flying around versus the isolated human scent trail, resulting in the dog sometimes following the broken grass trails as opposed to what you really want them to follow.  Its not always an animal or even another cross track, sometimes the dog has learned to hone on something else all together, that will still allow them to title, but at the same time not really know how to a track human scent trail.

I only show in AKC OB these days, but I have learned that when I slacked off on the training a week before the trial, we got better scores.

Congrats Steve and Gina!

Blitzen
Yes, she will be rested and just walked and played with for a few days before her IPO 3 i hope in November.
Steve1

I'm sure she will do just fine...it's YOU I don't know about . Seriously almost every point lost and every NQ I've had with a dog was the result of a handler's error, nothing the dog did wrong.  Sometimes I think my dog deserves a better owner

Blitzen
Of course every dog being trained in any sport will improve with a better handler, we all know that. but i am afraid there is not the amount of Ronny van den Berghs or such like to go around to handle these dogs. Your dog is handled by you so you make the best of it that goes for all of us. it is that or pack it all in you cannot have your cake and eat it as well.
Me, i think i am an honest sort of person. i told a few on here i would keep them informed of how Gina went on. i had no need to even say she had taken the IPO 2 and i told it as it was. as for me i never know what my limitations are i never have in all the sports i have done when i was younger man, so i know now where the dog will end up and she will do herself proud and me proud in the Belgian Selection Trials next year this episode was just a blip in her training and as i said no fault of the dogs. but people who make mistakes including me, are not dumb enough to repeat it regardless of what some may think. Even the Guy i mention above has made mistakes it is human nature? i did the same thing in another sport when i was a young Guy in the Martial Arts. i trained and i trained and my Master said stop training you are doing too much i never listened and i got beat in the next contest. i came back and trained even harder again i got beat. once again i could not take it in and i trained and when i stood in front of the Guy and i knew then there was nothing left, and i got a real hiding. i stopped everything then for 2 months and then trained as i should have done, not realizing training was becoming addictive i had to do it but those three beatings did me the world of good and i listened, from then on i was never beaten again and those three who beat me i beat them two more times each to prove i was better than they were in all 30 wins from 33 contests before i retired. All this came back on the Sunday evening when i was thinking about why Gina worked so bad compared to her usual self. it was the same all over again but this time it was a dog
Steve1

Steve,
I for one love to hear the updates on Gina. You have done a great job with her. That was just a little "bump in the road"... at least you still passed. More than I can say for a few of us sometimes, myself included. The little "bumps" like that help make us stronger trainers.
Koodos to you for getting out there and training your dog. You seem to have a great time doing it and so does Gina. Nothing else matters!