BH Evaluation Question

[codmaster]

So, our local ScH club had a trial recently and I would like to get thoughts on how some of our folks approached it.

I am close to another GSD owner who was showing their dog in a BH evaluation. Because they were afraid that the dog would lose concentration and not pay attention and not obey during the obedience exercises, they initially asked me to not stand right close to the ring (A BIG fenced in area. So that was ok.

Then next (I guess getting more and more nervous, maybe) they asked me to stay way away from the ring, and not let the dog see me before going into the ring, and not even let the dog HEAR me before the dog goes in the ring.

Next, we have a small garage like clubhouse near the ring and I said I would hide out in there before and during the dogs time in the ring. Then they even told me to speak only in a whisper all the time before the dog finished their exercises.

What I would like to see is, is this normal and reasonable? Or is it a bit excessive?

And obviously the spouse of the owner would NEVER dare to be next to the ring during a trial!!!!!! According to them at least.

When I show my dog in any obedience trial, I really don't care who will be present as he is supposed to be trained to ignore all distractions when he is told to do something. Is my attitude normal or ?????

Thoughts?

[Wild Wolf]

Personally, I believe the dog should preform and obey commands despite any and all distractions. However, they are distractions after all and go hand in hand with handlers anxiety - I think the handler's requests were quite excessive.

[onyx'girl]

I agree, the dog needs to learn to work regardless of who is watching.
When we did our B, I was worried that my dog would see the field and go into protection mode(we had done protection there a couple weeks prior to the trial~not our home field).
He needed to learn that we were there for obedience and not to zone in on my helper who was watching from the sidelines.
The day before we did our test, a guy failed his BH. He blamed it on his GF or wife(whatever she was) and said the dog was so focused on her that he failed. He was ranting at her until the TD of the club let the guy know that it wasn't the GF's fault, but a training problem. I felt bad for his dog...
Then there was a dog that did a ScH 1, his handlers husband was there to watch. After they did their protection routine the dog scented his 'daddy' in the crowd and all during the critique was whining and looking for him, (he was trying to hide in the crowd and be invisible, but the dog scented him first)
I thought that was so endearing/it had no effect on his trialing.

[codmaster]

Originally Posted by Wild Wolf

Personally, I believe the dog should preform and obey commands despite any and all distractions. However, they are distractions after all and go hand in hand with handlers anxiety - I think the handler's requests were quite excessive.

Thank you! I did too, but since they are a friend......................

[Wild Wolf]

Originally Posted by onyx'girl

I agree, the dog needs to learn to work regardless of who is watching.
When we did our B, I was worried that my dog would see the field and go into protection mode(we had done protection there a couple weeks prior to the trial~not our home field).
He needed to learn that we were there for obedience and not to zone in on my helper who was watching from the sidelines.
The day before we did our test, a guy failed his BH. He blamed it on his GF or wife(whatever she was) and said the dog was so focused on her that he failed. The TD of the group let the guy know that it wasn't the GF's fault, but a training problem. I felt bad for his dog...
Then there was a dog that did a ScH 1, his handlers husband was there to watch. After they did their protection routine the dog scented his 'daddy' in the crowd and all during the critique was whining and looking at him, he was trying to hide in the crowd) I thought that was so endearing/it had no effect on his trialing previous.

Sounds like it is something that should be incorporated into training... perhaps I will have those going with me be on the sidelines while I train so this doesn't occur. It's all about training through distractions, right? Good thing to consider!

[codmaster]

Speaking of "failing" a BH - I wish that I had decided to show under this judge. VERY nice guy and obviously VERY knowledgable about GSD's! BUT, all but one of the entries had major problems in obedience. For example two of them got up and started to walk over to their handlers on four different times (each did it 4 times) working.

They were passed by the judge.

His big emphasis for each dog was were they "under reasonable control", did they RUN to the handler during the recall, were they not people or other dog aggressive, and did "they seem to be having a good time out on the field" - definetly not "were they good at obedience".

Now I will be the first to state - I am new to BH, but is this the official line on the BH test? I was expecting a lot more obedience accuracy to be required. The judging of the obedience was absolutely nothing like i would expect in the AKC ring even in Novice A. Nothing wrong with that but a big difference from what I expected!

[elisabeth_00117]

Angel - You BETTER be on the sidelines.. so when I get too nervous and try to run off the field - my dog trailing after me - you can turn me right around and put me back out there!

But I agree - the dog should be at a point where distractions - of any type - are not interfering with the performance.

[onyx'girl]

When I tested with Karlo, we were doing the heeling pattern and there was a Presa that was doing the long down...he was rolling on his back having a great old time. After a minute of this the judge finally had the handler pick up her dog. Karlo was watching the dog thru-out the heeling down-field, he never even looked up at me, because the dog was such a distraction. Karlo also blew his recall, didn't sit in front but came around to heel position. I corrected him, knowing it would cost me a bit, but I wanted Karlo to know what he was expected to do. We still passed with "plenty of points to go on to the next level" comment from the judge.

Then when we had to do the down, the Presa was soooo slow heeling. He was lagging behind his handler and it was about a 10 minute routine. It was really quite funny! I was a bit concerned that Karlo would break his down, because it was pretty long, but he was just happy to be out of his crate!
That team didn't pass, but she brought out her other Presa to test and this one did beautifully!

[pfitzpa1]

Bit OTT in my opinion. Sounds like they weren't really ready for the test. If you're not 100% confident in your dog being to perform under mild distraction, I wouldn't bother testing.

[onyx'girl]

100%~ If only we could all predict what our dogs will do 100% of the time....regardless of the situation they are subjected to.