Schutzhund BH - Tips and Tricks?

[JanaeUlva]

Last weekend Minka earned her BH at the Greater Chicago Schutzhund Club, however the trial was put on by our club O.G. Edgerton. Greater helped us put it on because most our Board was busy trying to title dogs.

I was happy when Judge Nikki Banfield said she really liked Minka and our routine! However, I knew that Minka's heeling was not with the same drive as she has during practice.

No real big surprises. In motion exercises, recall and finish were spot-on. Heeling is happy, but we need to work on keeping that attitude thru heeling duration sans reward or verbal praise. It's not like she slowly got worse as time went by, it was more like she ebbed and flowed, with her finishing strong.

I would be interested in hearing any tips and tricks that people have learned thru years of competing - keeping the drive and focus seen when practicing due to praise and play; I had started fading the praise and reward to mimic duration and trying to do random reinforcement. Any other tips? Tricks? Or does the consistency come with practice and age as well?



Thanks!!

[Zahnburg]

Train like you trial. When you train, the dog should think it is a trial, so that when you trial the dog thinks it is training.
During a trial the dog should believe that you are still able to correct him and if he continues to be correct the ball might come.

ETA: Congrats on your BH

[JanaeUlva]

Gotcha!!

However, i will need to drink 5 shots of expresso before training to mimic the nerves of trialing

[JLOCKHART29]

I am training for Aron's BH now. Unless something out of the ordinary happened he could pass it now and look pretty good doing it but like you I want to do better than good. The advice I would give and doing myself is practice in all kinds of places. Distractions I suspect are his biggest problem as are Aron's. His performance unlike your dogs ebb and flow starts off terrible with him looking everywhere and prancing really high and uncontrolled and steadily settling as we go till it is what I want. Would hold out his hose when we started hut that just made him prance higher and hectic. Now he hardly ever gets the hose till the end. Go figure. I can work him five times in the yard when I get home after work and think he has it down calm then take him to the pasture where the wean calfs are and back to where we were as he wants to chase them. Distractions. We are now using the cows as group!!lol Take him to the park, vacant lot down the street, ext. BTW Congrats on the BH but also for trying to do better!!!

[Jason L]

Congrats on the BH!!

[onyx'girl]

Congrats to you and Minka!

I just tested for the BH this past Sunday, and for my dog, it was the field with the permanent blinds that was my concern. Karlo wanted to do protection because the field is not our 'home' field. He was there for a protection seminar during the summer, and turned on when he saw those blinds and the helper who runs the club.
I had to do a few sessions of OB and no protection before we tested, so he wouldn't be looking at the judge, or the "helpers" standing on the sidelines. I also walked him thru the crowd a bit before the trial began, so he wouldn't be concerned with them. With more experience and maturity I don't think this will be a big deal when we trial again.
I didn't rely on rewards for the past few training sessions and used only a fursaver so we would build a bit of ongoing stamina during heeling.
I only did the pattern about 4 times with him before trial, but we tried to proof the individual exercises.
I also made sure I didn't give any handler help, but I did show Karlo where I wanted him when he blew the recall(he went to heel position). I didn't care if I lost points for that, I wanted Karlo to know where he was expected to be position-wise during the recall.

Make sure your dog is ok with others checking ID on their body, because the new IPO rules are going to be stricter on that. I am reading up on the new 2012 rules, so I know what we'll expect when we hopefully trial for the 1 in the spring.

[JanaeUlva]

Thanks Jlockhart29. I am certain the commotion played a part. We go to a lot of different places to train so that she learns that anywhere is an opportunity to work and be rewarded which is fun for both of us. Agility classes are filled with commotion and she is getting better focusing there too. So I am feeling that time and practice with an eye on training more closely to trial conditions (as mentioned by Art) and that would include distractions and different places, mentioned by you.

BTW your dog sounds like a wild fun dog!

Thanks!

[gagsd]

Originally Posted by Zahnburg

Train like you trial. When you train, the dog should think it is a trial, so that when you trial the dog thinks it is training.
During a trial the dog should believe that you are still able to correct him and if he continues to be correct the ball might come.

ETA: Congrats on your BH

So Art,
Does that mean no electric..... If I train like I trial?

[Zahnburg]

Originally Posted by gagsd

So Art,
Does that mean no electric..... If I train like I trial?

Not necessarily.

[JanaeUlva]

Thanks Onyx'girl! Yeah I really only practiced the entire routine like 5 times but worked a lot on the parts that make up the whole. I'm thinking I really need to get her working with destractions. I had just started heeling with the Choc Lab along. OMG the Lab gets crazy wanting the ball to be thrown and Minka is so competitive that once I got her to understand she needs to ignore the Lab and concentrate on me and heeling, then the ball gets thrown. She became a laser beam of concentration heeling along while the lab blocks our way or is hopping from side to side . She rarely loses out when I throw the ball. Guess that technique doesn't mimick a trial but she sure learned to ignore him and watch me.