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by GSDPACK on 02 April 2013 - 19:04
People laughed at me when I dragged a leash without a dog for practice. They laughed.....! But.... now I can do BH in my sleep.
by Mystere on 03 April 2013 - 15:04
Well, there was your problem, GSDPACK, the invisible dog has an invisible leash!! You should not have been dragging the visible leash around!! 
by susie on 03 April 2013 - 16:04
by GSDPACK on 03 April 2013 - 17:04
Mystere, my biggest problem was "what to do with the darn leash" and counting, so I got used to holding the leash first, then counting. the funny thing is, I keep pressure on the dog and every judge just laughs at me! Once the leash comes off... everything gets better, me, my counting my dog and my hands suddenly know what to do!
I wish there was no leash in BH, my life would be so much better....then it is not about me is it, lol.
I wish there was no leash in BH, my life would be so much better....then it is not about me is it, lol.
by Jenni78 on 27 April 2013 - 12:04
I just got a phone call that Chaos vom Eisenherz now has a BH! Congrats to them and thanks to everyone who offered pointers to her. Happy Saturday!!!
by Dawulf on 27 April 2013 - 16:04
Congrats to Chaos and owner!!!!!!!
by Botanica37 on 28 April 2013 - 11:04
OK, here is my recap from yesterday.
Chaos did well, he could have done better, but he could have done a lot worse too. We had couple of incidents weeks before the trial, when he would blow me off for no apparent reason in a new field, and I figured out that for him, a "warm up" is a must. I can't expect him to come out of the car and do a great routine, we have to do some work before hand for him to get his groove. I spent a lot of time thinking before the BH what I would do if he doesn't do an exercise correctly and I decided to treat it as a practice session and possibly lose points, but insist on him correcting himself. Mostly because I don't want him to think that in certain settings he can do whatever he wants and mediocre execution will fly. Also, my corrections for him are only verbal "no, wrong' or uh-uh. I don't use prong or choke on him.
The month before the trial, every time we would train outside, I will make a point to leave his tug outside of the field we practice, so he knows that the tug is not on me and it is outside of the field boundary. It probably sound ridiculous, but I try to be honest with him. So he knew the location of the tug and that once we are done, we will go and take it and play.
We didn't train almost at all the week before the trial, because one of my kids got really nasty pollen allergy. We just did some positions around the house, clarifying that he needs to follow my left leg, no matter what and worked on the concept of straight front, regardless of which direction he is coming from. So on to the trial. I was last, so I watched the first 2 people, then took him out of the car and played with him a little to put him in a mood for obedience :)
1. Heeling with leash, that was tricky, because the leash gets in the way, like GSDPack said. One of my friends helping me a while ago, pointed out that I don't hold the leash correctly and that I do weird things with it, which I totally didn't realize. So if this is your first trial, definitely have someone watch you or tape you when working with a leash. I would put the hand with the leash behind my back and so on...I made a point of holding the leash in my left hand, resting the hand on my jeans pocket...and practicing switching it from hand to hand for the about turn a lot beforehand. Who knew that a leash would be so tricky. I also practiced counting the steps to 60 and did it a lot when heeling with Chaos, so that he got used to me having this focused face, muttering stuff under my breath :)
He started a bit off, but quickly caught up and heeled well. He lost focus for couple of seconds here and there, there was something to the left of the field that he was very, very interested in, I have no idea what, I didn't see anything, but he kept checking it out. The figure 8 was good, he lagged a bit on the outside turn, but did the sit and the rest well. I was so focused on him that I thanked the group only after I heard someone say that I owe them a case of beer. I can't even tell you who the 4 people in the group were. I was not nervous, just focused on Chaos and the routine 100%. One thing I hadn't realized from reading the instructions was that I had to do the figure 8 on leash, step outside of the group, like 4-5 steps, take the leash off and walk back in. When practicing, I would take the leash off after the sit in a group and continue. Hope this makes sense.
2. Heeling off leash. He was looking again at the thing on the left and wouldn't focus on me. I whispered in his ear "you want your ball? heel" and he blew me off. I started walking and he was sitting there for a second or two, before catching up with me. Once he caught up, he did OK. The people I saw before me would talk to the dogs to heel during the pattern. I didn't, once because I was counting and two, it was Chaos's job to heel and I expected him to correct himself. At least I think I didn't talk to him. I did lose count at one point, not sure why, maybe I did say something to him.
3. Sit out of motion. OK, he knows that in his sleep. But since it is a trial, he decided to maybe try half way down? I just said "uh-uh" (i usually say the commands almost in whisper anyway) and he immediately corrected himself. One thing I noticed with all the dogs, not just mine, is that when they are in sit, they would yawn, and look away when you go back to them. Never happens with the down, not sure why.
4. Down out of motion. He downed well, a tad further from me that I would like, but in the correct "sphinx" position, and I let that slide. On the recall, he sat a bit sideways, towards the left, so I took 2 steps back and made him front correctly. On the heel command, he looked at me like "what do you mean?", on the second "heel" command, he went around and into heel.
5. Long down, he was good, I had my back towards him the whole time, as we practiced. Some people were sideways and some were facing their dog. He was in the correct down position. He stayed down until I told him to sit, after looking at the judge for the signal, and then he sat.
The debrief with the judge, he pointed out the things I already knew were not perfect...We were pretty much on the same page as to what could be improved.
Traffic portion was nothing that we haven't done before just going out for regular walks. I had him in down in a group of people, maybe 7-8 people close by and there were dogs walking 3-4 feet away. One thing to remember is that you can talk to your dog during the traffic portion, so I talked to him a lot, "good down" "good leave it" and so on...One thing I wish was that I had someone to tape us, so I could evaluate afterwards what we did wrong and how it all looked. As much as I had a sense of what he could have done better, it is all a blur.
So that was it, I didn't get to stay till the end, unfortunately, because my son was not doing too well, but at least I got to trial.
Chaos did well, he could have done better, but he could have done a lot worse too. We had couple of incidents weeks before the trial, when he would blow me off for no apparent reason in a new field, and I figured out that for him, a "warm up" is a must. I can't expect him to come out of the car and do a great routine, we have to do some work before hand for him to get his groove. I spent a lot of time thinking before the BH what I would do if he doesn't do an exercise correctly and I decided to treat it as a practice session and possibly lose points, but insist on him correcting himself. Mostly because I don't want him to think that in certain settings he can do whatever he wants and mediocre execution will fly. Also, my corrections for him are only verbal "no, wrong' or uh-uh. I don't use prong or choke on him.
The month before the trial, every time we would train outside, I will make a point to leave his tug outside of the field we practice, so he knows that the tug is not on me and it is outside of the field boundary. It probably sound ridiculous, but I try to be honest with him. So he knew the location of the tug and that once we are done, we will go and take it and play.
We didn't train almost at all the week before the trial, because one of my kids got really nasty pollen allergy. We just did some positions around the house, clarifying that he needs to follow my left leg, no matter what and worked on the concept of straight front, regardless of which direction he is coming from. So on to the trial. I was last, so I watched the first 2 people, then took him out of the car and played with him a little to put him in a mood for obedience :)
1. Heeling with leash, that was tricky, because the leash gets in the way, like GSDPack said. One of my friends helping me a while ago, pointed out that I don't hold the leash correctly and that I do weird things with it, which I totally didn't realize. So if this is your first trial, definitely have someone watch you or tape you when working with a leash. I would put the hand with the leash behind my back and so on...I made a point of holding the leash in my left hand, resting the hand on my jeans pocket...and practicing switching it from hand to hand for the about turn a lot beforehand. Who knew that a leash would be so tricky. I also practiced counting the steps to 60 and did it a lot when heeling with Chaos, so that he got used to me having this focused face, muttering stuff under my breath :)
He started a bit off, but quickly caught up and heeled well. He lost focus for couple of seconds here and there, there was something to the left of the field that he was very, very interested in, I have no idea what, I didn't see anything, but he kept checking it out. The figure 8 was good, he lagged a bit on the outside turn, but did the sit and the rest well. I was so focused on him that I thanked the group only after I heard someone say that I owe them a case of beer. I can't even tell you who the 4 people in the group were. I was not nervous, just focused on Chaos and the routine 100%. One thing I hadn't realized from reading the instructions was that I had to do the figure 8 on leash, step outside of the group, like 4-5 steps, take the leash off and walk back in. When practicing, I would take the leash off after the sit in a group and continue. Hope this makes sense.
2. Heeling off leash. He was looking again at the thing on the left and wouldn't focus on me. I whispered in his ear "you want your ball? heel" and he blew me off. I started walking and he was sitting there for a second or two, before catching up with me. Once he caught up, he did OK. The people I saw before me would talk to the dogs to heel during the pattern. I didn't, once because I was counting and two, it was Chaos's job to heel and I expected him to correct himself. At least I think I didn't talk to him. I did lose count at one point, not sure why, maybe I did say something to him.
3. Sit out of motion. OK, he knows that in his sleep. But since it is a trial, he decided to maybe try half way down? I just said "uh-uh" (i usually say the commands almost in whisper anyway) and he immediately corrected himself. One thing I noticed with all the dogs, not just mine, is that when they are in sit, they would yawn, and look away when you go back to them. Never happens with the down, not sure why.
4. Down out of motion. He downed well, a tad further from me that I would like, but in the correct "sphinx" position, and I let that slide. On the recall, he sat a bit sideways, towards the left, so I took 2 steps back and made him front correctly. On the heel command, he looked at me like "what do you mean?", on the second "heel" command, he went around and into heel.
5. Long down, he was good, I had my back towards him the whole time, as we practiced. Some people were sideways and some were facing their dog. He was in the correct down position. He stayed down until I told him to sit, after looking at the judge for the signal, and then he sat.
The debrief with the judge, he pointed out the things I already knew were not perfect...We were pretty much on the same page as to what could be improved.
Traffic portion was nothing that we haven't done before just going out for regular walks. I had him in down in a group of people, maybe 7-8 people close by and there were dogs walking 3-4 feet away. One thing to remember is that you can talk to your dog during the traffic portion, so I talked to him a lot, "good down" "good leave it" and so on...One thing I wish was that I had someone to tape us, so I could evaluate afterwards what we did wrong and how it all looked. As much as I had a sense of what he could have done better, it is all a blur.
So that was it, I didn't get to stay till the end, unfortunately, because my son was not doing too well, but at least I got to trial.
by Q Man on 28 April 2013 - 11:04
2 Beers and a Valium...maybe it's...2 Valium and a Beer...Oh...Whatever Works...!
The best advice I can give is just to remember the Pattern and to Relax and have a good time with your Best Buddy...
~Bob~
The best advice I can give is just to remember the Pattern and to Relax and have a good time with your Best Buddy...
~Bob~
by SitasMom on 28 April 2013 - 11:04
Nice job!
"so I took 2 steps back and made him front correctly."
When you go for IPO1, points will be deducted for both your dog and YOU. If your dog doesn't sit exactly like it should its -2 points and its another -2 points if you step back. "On the heel command, he looked at me like "what do you mean?", on the second "heel" command, he went around and into heel" Again, its -2 for the second command, but if you move or "help" it would be another -2 points. Just something to be aware of for your next trial.
My trainer says my dog can do a 96 in obedience, but because I'm handling the score would be closer to 72! Kinda sucks...we've been video taping and I'm amazed at all the "help" I'm giving my dog and didn't even realize it. Its become habit, and now I'm working to fix myself.
"so I took 2 steps back and made him front correctly."
When you go for IPO1, points will be deducted for both your dog and YOU. If your dog doesn't sit exactly like it should its -2 points and its another -2 points if you step back. "On the heel command, he looked at me like "what do you mean?", on the second "heel" command, he went around and into heel" Again, its -2 for the second command, but if you move or "help" it would be another -2 points. Just something to be aware of for your next trial.
My trainer says my dog can do a 96 in obedience, but because I'm handling the score would be closer to 72! Kinda sucks...we've been video taping and I'm amazed at all the "help" I'm giving my dog and didn't even realize it. Its become habit, and now I'm working to fix myself.
by RLHAR on 28 April 2013 - 12:04
Oh yes!
I had wondered if that was you and Chaos.
Very nice BH routine indeed. Well done!
I had wondered if that was you and Chaos.
Very nice BH routine indeed. Well done!
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