d - Page 5

That is a horrible story about the dog jumping the fence.  Sorry, but it should never have gotten to 50 corrections and then a dead dog.  IMO, you don't understand how to effectively apply a correction.  The correction has to be hard enough to impress the dog and stop the unwanted behavior.  50 times is merely nagging if it doesn't get the desired result. 

Geez, where did you learn this stuff?  Please, for Sita's sake read the books I recommended.   Two posts about dead dogs; one bit a dozen people and the other one jumped an electrified fence while chained to a 2 x 4.  What is the expected lifespan of Sita and Hero?  I don't mean to be harsh, but you really need to evaluate your training style.  I understand that you are a novice and I commend your efforts with sita and hero.  But, you need to realize your skill level and go from there.  You need an experienced person to train with.  Video tape yourself and have someone else critique your training.  In this case less is definitely more.  The training needs to be quality and not quantity. 

You need to find someone that does superb obedience and watch them.  Learn from them and model them.  Go to some seminars, expand your horizons.

Jim

funny thing, two different trainers come to my house to deal with this problem,  guess they couldn't effectivly deal with the dog either......

JM - both dogs were dumped and i'm sure the behaviors were deeply ingrained......as with horses, some dogs cannot be trained!

I'm not saying that is the issue with Sita, she's smart and willing.......she will be fine.

ass not on ground

We used to call that the "South County Sit" because South County SchH Club  (NW Region) had a rocky, no-grass field and a lot of dogs didn't like parking their butts on rocks. It looked like a moon walk with the big field lights on in the fog sometimes.

Just a little levity. :-)
SS

Sitasmom--you sound angry.  You shouldn't train dogs when you're angry. 

The best thing to do is start fresh.  Learn to motivate her--have fun while you train.  There's nothing wrong with using food rewards & play--even when your goal is competition obedience.  Unfair corrections will only make her more confused.  You need to learn to communicate with her & define what each command means.  I'd  bet anything during training your commands aren't consistent--I've seen it a thousand times--no 10 thousand times.

You are going to do much harm to her by adopting this new training method.  What you describe isn't even a method--it's just beating up on your dog when you suddenly demand strict new demands. 

I am a noob too, SitasMom.  I have an adult female working line dog, nice dog and nice pedigree but she lacks confidence, can be twitchy/nervy, and didn't have the right foundation for SchH.  However I train her in lots of things and need to do the BH with her (she did the FO and OB1 for Dog Sport which are very very similar to the BH, same heeling exercise, down, sit, recall, honor, etc).  She is a LOT of work to train because of motivation.  She is not motivated enough by toys, balls, food, prey, etc.  I have to get her all worked up to work with me, basically I'm dancing around and she's jumping her paws on my chest until I say "FUSS!" and she pops into drive for obedience, but man it is really hard getting her worked up into drive, keeping her that way, and rewarding her.  She is easy to train as far as any other type of obedience (rally, AKC stuff); she's very precise/accurate.  But for SchH all the precision in the world doesn't count for shit when the dog gets freaked out by some guy in the parking lot or just isn't motivated on that day and is lagging/anticipating.

On the other hand I have a show line puppy who is a total ball monster, he would rather have balls in his mouth than breathe air.  He is crazy as all hell but so.much.easier to motivate!!!  This always kills me as people seem so focused on genetics and what's behind a dog, well there's some nice stuff behind my working line dog and she will not tug on raw meat, meanwhile my show line dog was already putting her to shame by 4 months!  So for me it's like a trade-off.  Yeah I can train my young male to a much higher level with much better drive, but it takes 1/10th the amount of work as it takes to train my female.

Anyway, my point is that I know what it's like to have to work so hard to motivate a dog, or have a dog that has a higher percentage of "off" days as all the other high drive dogs who will lock on a ball even if the world is coming to an end around them.  Give yourself some time to cool off, take a few steps back, and keep at it.

Sorry you didnt pass.  I hope you can work through your anger and help Sita and not make things worse.  If this compulsion works for her then all the best.  Better luck next time I am sure it is very frustrating.

The rules seem to contradict themselves a bit. On page 48 of the rule book, it states during a BH if the dog leaves the down spot by more than 3 meters no partial score is possible. On page 87 is states if the dog leaves the down spot by more than one body length has failed the exercise (that must be one BIG dog!). I also though the judge was to send you back to your dog before the other team does the down with recall? (see page 48)

Fasteddielv,

The judge has you pick up the dog before the 'send out' in the Sch I, II and III.  For the BH the dog is down at the point of the other dog's down in motion and recall.

sm, hard to believe after all the work you put into this. Don't give up.

Rik

Sitasmom,
sorry you & Sita didn't pass your BH but there is always a next time.  Alot of good avice given!
I want to do that with my 18 month old female but she is no where near ready....my fault.
Good luck to you and Sita in the future

Jen