What was I thinking?!?

[selzer]

I have to be in Akron tomorrow to show Rushie in obedience. This is my first try at it.

The dog has been absolutely miserable for the past six weeks. He decided to go through a stupid-phase NOW!

He is a Rally dog. He used to be solid on down-stays, sit stays, come fronts, Stand, and healing on lead.

This past week we have been working off lead a lot. Progress has been made. However, the following issues have cropped up:

I have never tried to call him front with my hands at my sides. So I started that this week. Now he comes to me, sometime via the whippy dip place, he sits crooked in front of me. If he sits straight, it is for a micro-second and then he jumps up on me.

Sometimes he finishes fine, sometimes he wonders in an exaggerated radius to find the spot next to my leg.

I stand him and get ready for the stand, finally tell him to stay, and walk away. Sometimes he follows me. Sometimes he stays, but when I return, I get all the way to the shoulder and then he breaks.

Down-stays, he is breaking.

Sit stays, he is breaking.

Oh and we never used people posts for the figure eight, just little orange cones, or building posts. Worst yet, the boy has started frisking people for treats -- perfect strangers!!! I get the general idea that if someone offers him a milkbone he will follow them home!

Is there anything else I might screw up tomorrow AND Sunday???

Is there a "Perfect" drug I can slip him tonight in his kibble that will give me 24 hours of Super-Doggie???

I am desperate!

[Catu]

I don't know of super drugs for dogs, but if it were me, I would drink a can of beer before trialing to try to relax.

If he doesn't know something today, he wont tomorrow (even when good luck happens as much as bad) so focus in what he does right and... Have a great moment!

Best wishes for both of you!

[CertainlySpoiled]

I don't know what to say. Goodluck!

[hecarleton]

Your problem reminds me of this. Ken told me this at a trial we was at and he was our judge. ( I was talking to him after we had made out run)

Here's a new way to train. This poem was written by Ken Nagler, an
Obedience Judge and Director of the Canine Training Association in
Maryland. For those of you who do not know Ken, he's 86 years old and
just started agility last year! :-) I think this may be how he's
getting around his courses at agility trials! LOL! :-)

Now clicker training's quite the fad.
Results for some are not too bad.
The concept stemmed from Pavlov's hound
Responding to some special sound.
The dog would start to salivate
Before he got the food he ate.
The modern click does much the same.
Enhancing our dog-training game

By causing Fido's hopes to raise--
Anticipating treats or praise.
Sometimes you click to no avail,
And other methods also fail.

No matter how you plead or shout,
Sometimes the dog just won't put out
When asked to sit or heel or stay,
Thus giving you a rotten day.

It makes you feel quite like a fool,
And then you start to lose your cool.
But if other methods fail for you,
There's something else that you can do.

Try "liquor training," that's its name,
To help you with your dog-sport game.
"How does this method work?" you ask.
Well, first you get a little flask,

Containing gin or other booze
Of any kind that you may choose.
Each time your dog decides to goof,
You take a sip of 80 proof.

It helps the handler to relax
And minimize the stress attacks.
When the handler's mood is more at ease,
The dog may sometimes try to please,

Or, then again may still refuse
To mind his training P's and Q's.
But whether foul results or fair
When you liquor train -- you just don't care!

Written by
~Ken Nagler~

[selzer]

I liked the poem. Too bad I read this after the show. Next time I will have to have a flask on hand.

We did awful.

Rushie healed ok on leash and off (for the most part). He pretty much sat when I stopped and all of that, though that first sit was kind of slow.

He did the figure eight ok, even though we only did it around cones and posts prior and never around people.

He wouldn't stand to save his life. Forget the stay. He turned into a noodle and would not stand. The judge NQ'd us but told me to try and stand him again. Nope, it wasn't happening. (He has done this in class!)

It looked like I never trained him.

I took him back for the recall, he wouldn't stay! So he did not get the opportunity to do a run-by or a micro-sit and jump all over me.

We went back in for sits and downs. He forgot what STAY meant and came trotting after me. The other dogs were doing this, though only 1 or 2 did not NQ, so the judge didn't have me try the long down.

He has been through more training than any of my other dogs, and I worked with him every night this week, save last night (after he passed a CGC that we already had as a class graduation).

I think that one of us needs a labotomy.

I am not going back tomorrow.

I thought about adjusting my goal for Madison (mid-July), but maybe we should just do Rally Advanced with him instead. We STILL need to work on the STAND and STAY though!

Mangey Mutt!

On the bright side, everyone that saw him LOVED him. If I wanted to get rid of him, I could have easily today.

[luvmygirl]

Oh boy, tough luck. How old is he?

When I come up against "doggie amnesia", I go back to the basics. You mentioned a couple of things you'd never done before - like calling him front with your hands at your sides, using people posts. Since dogs don't generalize, this will look different to him and he probably won't know what to do. Break down to the very basic level and build up again. Start over.

I started in Rally also, so I can relate. Although they are similar, I treat them as two different things and train specifically for OB exercises, the way they are to be done in the ring - forgetting all previous Rally stuff.

We've got some good OB people on this board - I'm sure they'll have good advice. Hang in there!

[selzer]

Rushie turned two on January 31. We need to start again. Bummer. I am really thinking of just doing Rally Advanced with him. The thing is, there is nothing in that CD that he has had trouble with. It must be brain damage.

[halley05]

Just for a FYI, don't forget in novice that you are touch Rushie to get him to stand.

And I loved what was said earlier as to concentrate on what he does right and have fun.

Possibly obedience is to teach us all humility!

[JakodaCD OA]

ahhh our dogs love to humble us )))

Something I did ALOT with Sami, when starting to do obedience with her,,(which she found a total BORE),,,I ignored her,,and I mean just that,,no practicing, nothing a few days before a trial, and she'd be on total ignore..that would PEE her off BIG TIME,
so when we trialed, she'd be sooooo happy to do anything I asked )

I have found with all of my gsd's especially,,to much repetition of something they 'know', turns them off, shuts them down,,they know it they want to move on..

Just some thoughts
diane

[Kayos and Havoc]

I just saw this and my advice would have been to not go until you had trained abit more. So sorry it did not go well for you. It will come - have patience.