A retraction in the evolution of my training

[jocoyn]

A few years ago I said I felt you could put "too much' obedience on a SAR dog. I think that does apply if you are dealing with a soft dog who also does not have quite the drives for the work.

Now I feel Beau needs EVEN more obedience work. Much more than passing the NAPWDA Obedience Control test in October and maintaining that. The scentwork is nothing to him. Just fun he does it, does it well, and really has no issues with it but I still have a long way to go with general 100% obedience. Nuff said.

I wanted a dog who was capable of being so committed to source odor he would blow me off he was on source odor. I got that. Now he has to learn that he is only "in charge" when he is on odor and even then I get to make the final calls.

Just got told today to expect to have to ramp it up even more between 18 and 24 months!........Going to get one on one ........

Thank goodness he has a nice temperament and no known temperament issues. Time to roll up the sleeves and do some serious serious obedience under real distraction.

[onyx'girl]

The dogs teach us so we can better teach them!
You go Nancy!!!

[BlackthornGSD]

He sounds like a great dog to work. You wanted a lot of dog and you got it. Sure I hope I have a half sister of his to play with this fall!

[Catu]

Originally Posted by jocoyn

A few years ago I said I felt you could put "too much' obedience on a SAR dog. I think that does apply if you are dealing with a soft dog who also does not have quite the drives for the work.

Oh sister, I hear you!!

[jocoyn]

Originally Posted by BlackthornGSD

He sounds like a great dog to work. You wanted a lot of dog and you got it. Sure I hope I have a half sister of his to play with this fall!

Sumo or Reza? I am assuming Sumo because I know you like him. I have not met Sumo; but I trusted Kathy's insight on him as a high drive extremely clear-headed dog.

I asked the MT about a growl when I had to correct Beau on a ball release if I should be concerned and he told me I should. We agreed I need to work even MORE to build respect and control.

He also worked with me on command voice vs correction voice. But then I asked him if he was rank or overly dominant or some such terms as we describe the dogs and he said "oh, Lord no! He is a normal teenager whose testosterone is starting to build and just seeing what he can get away with"......FWIW he has slowly, almost imperceptibly, been adding muscle the past few months.....

He would probably be a typical patrol dog but for someone like me who has mainly owned pet type dogs (well Grim is a high drive dog but handler-soft, too handler soft because I can talk him into an indication or off of a source**, and Cyra was working lines but a small female) is more than I have handled in the past.

Because I was not testing as he was already certified, I got to watch all the other dogs work. This was only his second time ever on a large rubble pile at a quarry (he was run to check the aids before the test) and he was very comfortable with it (the first time at the test in October, he was a bit hesitant on going down but he got over it-)

A couple of the other dogs needed the handler to go up the pile with them.

BUT! [obedience] he pee'd in a test area and tried to dig up a hide and was on the edge of out of control. But he reassured me it is 3 steps forward, 2 back etc. on the obedience for a while....and, at the start of the rubble pile he took a crazy detour running through the huge puddle of water and biting the ice before he settled into work mode. Sigh. I threw balls a good 30 minutes before throwing beasty-boy in the truck and heading to the test site to take the edge off.

**in some regards though working a dog like Grim helped me refine not cueing the dog.

[doggiedad]

very interesting point.

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

>>>> The dogs teach us so we can better teach them!<<<<

You go Nancy!!!

[doggiedad]

you know how to train so training is going to be easy.
with some time given it's all going to work out.
good luck.

[Neo93]

Is Sumo Beau's father, Nancy?

[jocoyn]

Yes he is. Have you seen him? I have only seen a video but have seen his mother.

[Neo93]

i've seen some video of him - and I'm looking at one of Christine's litters .