Kaisa - Obedience Klasse II - 2008-04-26

Our debut in class 2. Very nice, quiet venue, pretty much ideal conditions for us.

Scores:
Long down - 10
Heel off-leash - 9
Moving down - 9
Recall - 9
Moving stand - 8,5
Retrieve - 8,5
Jump - 8
Sendaway - 0
Distance control - 8,5
General impression - 9

Sum 169 (out of 200), 1. prize, 2nd in the class (of 8 or so) and qualified for the next level.

Too bad we flunked the sendaway. I could probably (according to the judge) have saved the exercise, but opted to break it off when I saw she was tired and confused.

All in all Kaisa performed wonderfully, considering her level of training, and I was very pleased with her (and myself, mostly).

My thanks to my dad who was volunteered *g* as the camera guy.

(If you're not a YouTube member, you can still send me feedback, to: aase (dot) lange (at) gmail (dot) com.)

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• clicker
• training
• obedience
• german
• pinscher
• lydighet
• lydnad
• heeling
• klikkertrening
• klickerträning

[invisioncube]

Thanks for the tips. I can assure you they won't be wasted. Ellie is one of the former - she has a great heel, but she does seem like she's in a world of her own as she's performing it. It just 'looks' wrong.

When you say if she ever looks away during training, you abort, I presume that you mean during focus/heelwork training, or do you mean during any training? And start over, I presume you mean a little later, no?

[AaseLange]

I meant specifically during heeling, although of course focus work is on-going during all training. (But focus does not always equal eye contact.) It looks something like this: dog is heeling - dog looks away - I step away from the dog and change my body language, maybe say something silly - dog returns to heel - we keep going. So I start again right away. Easier to start this work with sitting at heel, though, and add distractions at that stage. Clearer to the dog when you step out of position.

[invisioncube]

Staggeringly good as always. I'm curious did you train him to focus on you independently, or has that come about just through regular training? When he is heeling, that is some serious focusing on you that he has going on. I'm just curious how you have managed to get that level of focus as it's quite extraordinary.

Really fantastic video, and your dog is a real credit to you.

[AaseLange]

Thank you. Yes, I certainly trained the eye contact deliberately. Some dogs can heel well - with excellent "focus" - without looking at the handler, but I prefer that they look at me. How - steady eye contact while sitting at heel; then one step; two steps, etc. Can't be rushed. If she ever looks away (during training) I abort immediately and start over (loss of reward opportunity). She has never been "corrected" in the traditional sense ("no", leash pop, etc) for losing focus.

[tofrakennels]

You two are always so inspiring! Thank you. :)

[invisioncube]

Perfect. Thank you. I understand completely now. Ellie is a little less timid these days and so I feel we can go up a gear in her training. She was so very timid for months (a littler runt) that she wouldn't even stand near me as I was too tall. (It was amazing we got any heeling at all) If you look at her early videos, she looks like a dog that is beaten every day, but that's just her every day look!

Those days are behind us now, I hope! :) Thank again for your tips, they're really helpful.