Tag Archives: obedience training

dogs, Winn

Close but no cigar

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I have this memory of one of my favorite teachers walking up and down the aisles in our classroom muttering “close but no cigar, close but no cigar, close but no cigar”.

As she passed out the pop quiz that she had given us the day before, I noticed more and more confused faces looking around the room. I knew something was off when she approached my desk, looked me in the eye and stated “close but no cigar”. I looked down at my quiz, took in a couple of correction marks and read the blaring red letters across the top of the page: close but no cigar.

That’s how she chose to grade that quiz. None of us had any idea how this would be translated in the grade book. There were more than a few stressful looks on the over-achievers that surrounded me in that room!

We were second semester seniors with six weeks left of school. This was her way of giving us all a kick in the butt and letting us know there would be no slacking off in her class. We were hers until the first week of May, and we still had Classic American Literature to focus on before we walked across a grand stage and got our diplomas.

Last weekend, I stood on one side of an obedience ring while Winn waited for me on the other. I put on a smile and gave her my very best, upbeat command to come to me.

She sat upright, eyes glued to me, waiting for my signal.

She stayed there, upright, eyes glued to me, not coming on my signal.

We watched each other for too long and then I had to give her one more command.

She proudly ran to me, stopped perfectly in front of me and gave me her prettiest sit. Then she waited for my next signal.

When she saw me wave my right hand, she ran behind me and sat in position on my left side. She looked up at me with her most loving expression.

I laughed under my breath and gave her a big hug when the judge said, “exercise finished”. That’s when I heard those words in my head. Close but no cigar.

We’ve got more work to do, she and I.

After receiving two qualifying scores the day before, I was overly confident as we entered the ring.

Winn was excited, our warm-up went really well. I had her attention and she was eager. Her performance of her off leash heeling was near perfect and the best it’s ever been. I was feeling so good, we were going to get her novice obedience title, Companion Dog!

And then she failed the recall….

You only get one try, and to be fair, I don’t think she heard me. She was positioned close to the judges table and there was a lot of conversation and ring noise behind her.

She was trying to block all of that out and give me her full focus, unfortunately, she just didn’t get my first command.

Her recall has never been something I had to worry about. Those are the things that always get you, the things you don’t worry about.

She performed the next excercises perfectly and then we were excused with an “I’m sorry, not today”.

So….we will keep training, keep working and keep trying. We’ve still got things learn and hopefully next time we won’t be “close but no cigar”.

First two legs down, one more to go!

Dog training, Winn

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

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I’ve been dog training a lot lately.  I mean, A LOT.

Maisie and I are still diligently working toward becoming a therapy team.  I must admit, I’ve been ready to throw in the towel a couple of times but then I take a breath and try to focus on how far we’ve come.  We are sooo close, my greatest hope is that we will be able to wrap this up and get working very soon.IMG_7172Winn and I have been doing a different kind of training.  We’ve enjoyed Rally Obedience and she has earned her Rally Novice and Rally Intermediate titles. We are at a stopping point with it for now because the next levels all include a jump and that is not good for her until she’s about two years old.

Since Rally has helped us form a great foundation as a working team, I decided to learn about what was required to earn an Obedience title.  I observed a few trials when we were at Newfoundland National and the Beginner Novice level seemed to be a good match for our skills.  Winn would be on leash and rally signs are laid out for the heeling pattern.  It all seemed doable for us, but I would be limited on commands and signals, which is very different from Rally.  In Rally, I can talk to her and encourage her as much as I want, not so in Obedience.

I printed up the rules so that I could have a clearer picture of what I should be doing and scheduled a couple of short sessions with our Rally trainer. The two exercises that I was worried about were the Figure Eight and the Sit for Exam.  Both involve strangers and Winn can be a little shy.

In Rally, the Figure Eight is done around cones and we easily go around them with no trouble, even with food bowl distractions near our path.  This test requires two strangers to stand facing each other instead of cones.

The Sit for Exam requires me to put her in a sit/stay then stand 6 feet in front of her while the judge approaches her and gently touches her head.  Up until now, I have stood next to her while she is meeting a stranger which over time has gotten much easier for her.

We met with our Rally trainer to practice all of the exercises so that I could get used to doing them with the obediance guidelines.  There are specific positions to hold my hands, some exercises allow one phrase of encouragement and others don’t. Most exercises allow either a verbal command or a hand signal, not both.  All of that is new for me as a handler and Winn needs to be comfortable heeling next to me while we work our figure eight around people as well as having the judge approach her without me by her side.  We had people from the training center help us and after practicing several times, we both were a lot more comfortable with what we needed to do.

Last weekend we entered a show to give it a try and we did pretty well!  The funny thing for me was that it was held at a sporting facility that for many years was one of my lacrosse carpool destinations.  My son played indoor lacrosse every winter with the same group of boys during grade school and middle school.  When I walked in with Winn I had a major deja-vu moment.  The crating area was in one of the basketball courts and the rings were set up on one of the turf fields. I couldn’t believe it!  I sent my son a picture and he recognized it right away.  My husband advised me to not let Winn lose her mouth guard.  That made me chuckle.

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The turf field

Winn’s crate is pretty big and I found a great spot next to a Great Dane and her owner that I’ve seen before at trials.  Once our hang out spot was situated, I wanted to walk her around on the turf so that she could get used to it.  That was a new experience for her. We have always been on hard or padded indoor surfaces and the turf has a very different feel.  I wasn’t the only one curious about how the dogs would do on turf, I watched mixed reactions from many of the other dogs and handlers around us.  All of us had the same fear that they would feel free to potty on the turf, but I don’t think that happened.  At least I never saw it happen which was a relief.

Our set-up for the week-end. I even had our Evanston Lacrosse blanket with us!
Grace and her tent. She competes at the Master level and is very mellow. Not every dog could be trusted in a tent but she was very good.

On Saturday, I entered us into a Rally Intermediate trial to use as a warm-up since we work well together in Rally and followed that with two Beginner Novice trials. Winn was great in Rally and scored a 98 (we even had a Figure Eight to navigate), one of our best scores! I quickly put her in her crate and went straight to the walk through for the first Obedience trial. We were the first dog to go, so I hustled back to get her and did my best to keep calm while waiting for the judge to call us into the ring.

We did pretty well, but the Figure Eight was the tough one for us.  Winn kept stopping to  smell the shoes of one of the stewards and I’m pretty sure I gave her several voice commands to keep us going.  Fortunately, that didn’t disqualify us, but we did lose 8 out of 40 points on that. She lagged once (walked behind me) in the heeling pattern but every thing else was perfect on her part.  The judge let me know that I should use a different hand position on our recall for our next trial but she congratulated us for qualifying (scoring 170 or better) on our first try! We scored 188 1/2 out of 200 and were the only ones in our group to qualify so I was really proud as we left the ring.

We did even better the next time around.  We lost only 2 points out of 40 on the heeling, 4 points on the Figure Eight and 1/2 point on the recall  (my hands were in the right position but my head bobbed a little) for a score of 193 1/2.  She was perfect for Sit for Exam and the Sit Stay while I walked around the entire perimeter of the ring. Once again, we were the only dog in our group to qualify and I was so happy to score in the 190’s. I really didn’t expect that! We ended the day with three blue ribbons, which are fun tokens for the day, but two qualifying scores in Obedience on our first two tries were the best prizes in my opinionIMG_7452.jpgOn Sunday we entered 1 Rally Intermediate trial and 1 Obedience trial.  Day 2 has proven to be more difficult for us as a team in the past and we were definitely more sloppy.  We scored an 85 in Rally which I think is our worst score ever, but I really didn’t care because I was just using it as a warm up for our Obedience trial.  The Figure Eight was a challenge, Winn actually stopped to stare at one of the stewards and I had to give her a quick tug to get her going again. Our heeling didn’t feel as crisp as it should have and I bobbed my head again on the recall, but we did qualify along with one other dog.  We scored somewhere in the low 180’s and got second place. I forgot the score because all I really focused on was that we qualified and got the title (3 qualifying scores under 2 different judges)!IMG_7467I have to say, I really enjoyed the Obedience work.  It’s a new challenge and Winn and I have a good time working together.  We hung out with some friends who we’ve seen at previous trials and I connected with someone to start training with for Obedience.  I’ve haven’t found someone in my area and this woman told me she teaches at a dog club not too far from my house so I’m planning on checking that out next month. She and her Doberman had such a perfect Figure Eight that the judge complimented her. She gave me a couple of tips but I know that we need a lot more practice to better master the timing, pace and focus that it requires.

As a special reward for Winn, when she does well in trials I whip through the Chick-fil-A drive thru and get her a small box of chicken strips.  She loves them and now she knows what that red box is.  On Saturday I was feeling so good about our success that I bought two boxes so that she could have one after Sunday’s trial as well (they are closed on Sundays).  When we got home Sunday, I made her pose for a picture with all of her ribbons and then I went to get her reward.  I opened the refrigerator and it was gone! I knew immediately what had happened. My son Thomas had eaten her chicken! I hollered down the stairs at him and he stared up at me like I’d lost my mind when I told him that was for Winn. His response was a logical one. He said, “I thought food in the refrigerator was for eating.” I had to laugh, just a little.  Winn did find the empty box, and tore it to shreds looking for her prized chicken strips, but I found some chicken jerky in the dog treat bin that she also thinks is pretty delicious. That made her happy and was good ending to a very successful weekend.IMG_7501

Dog training

Friday Night Lights anyone?

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“Clear eyes, full hearts, CAN’T LOSE!”

For those of you who don’t know, this is a reference to one of my favorite tv shows about a high school football team, the coach, his family and a small football-crazed town in west Texas.

Last Friday, Winn got to have her own Friday Night Lights moment by being a rally girl. Granted, her rally girl duties were very different from those highlighted in the TV show, but she had fun nonetheless.

For the last several months, Winn and I have been participating in Rally Obedience classes.  Rally is an obstacle course set up with 10-15 stations, each station involves some sort of obedience trick. Sits, downs, turns, change of pace, weaving through cones in different patterns, changing direction and combinations of any of the above, all while remaining in a perfect heel, can be found in a Rally course.  It has been a great way to reinforce all of the training that we have learned in her previous puppy and manners classes.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Winn and I entered our first rally trial. I wasn’t expecting much from our performance, I thought of it as another training and socialization opportunity.  She (and I) would be introduced to a new environment with lots of dogs, their owners and the noise, excitement and stress that goes along with an enclosed dog sporting event.

That was a long day.  I got there early to find a place to set up her extra-large crate and we ended up being the last dog of the day to compete.  It reminded me of sitting around at a swim meet when my kids were little.  You wait and wait and wait for your brief time in the ring.  CB37FC5A-CA34-49E0-A2AD-A046DC08B6BEWinn was so good that day. I stayed by her crate and read a book.  We went out a couple of times to walk around, do a few commands and then come back in.  By the time it was our turn, she was relaxed and comfortable with the noises and other dogs around us. She did everything she was supposed to, I was the one who almost blew it for us.  I walked right by station 8 (with Winn in a perfect heel of course) but when I approached station 9, I knew something wasn’t right.  Fortunately, I figured it out in time and was able to go back and re-approach the sign with only a small penalty. Even with error, we finished in first place and got our first qualifying leg toward her title.  Now we just needed to do that two more times!277F883C-B2B6-40FB-9B6B-748BEADE952EOn Friday, we did it two more times!

During the first trial, just seconds before it was our turn, the dog in the ring ahead of us decided to mark (pee on) the second to last sign of the course. His handler was mortified, it’s an automatic disqualification and he quickly got his dog out of the ring. As Winn and I stood off to the side, there was a flurry of activity and excitement.  The area and the sign were sterilized and the judge came over and made a point of telling me that he had moved the sign.  I wasn’t all that concerned about it being distracting but maybe it was.  Winn was a little off and didn’t follow my commands as well as she usually does but we qualified, and then waited and waited and waited for our next trial.

Winn napped most of the afternoon, so about 30 minutes before our group was up I took her outside. On the way out, a dog lunged and barked at her, scaring the bejeezus out of both of us.  When we came back in, she quickly squirted into the safety of her crate.  I let her stay there until our number was called on deck, but at that point, she had no intention of venturing out again!  I tried everything; different treats, different voices, my friend came over with cheese but she wouldn’t budge. As I continued to try to lure her out, I nervously watched the progress of the dog in the ring.  I was coming to the conclusion that we would have to withdraw from the trial, and I was now trying to picture how I was going to get her out of the building.

Suddenly I realized that the spot she got barked at was close to the opening of her crate, so I grabbed the sides and whipped the crate around to face another direction.  Winn stuck her head out to take a look, and thankfully decided that all seemed safe, so we quickly headed for the ring.  We walked right in with no time to think about what had just happened and managed to have a nearly perfect run.  It was our best performance of our three trials, and she got her AKC Rally Novice title!

As I was packing up our gear, I was chuckling.  When I was standing in line to check in for our second trial, there was a gentleman behind me asking a lot of questions.  He wondered about novice and I told him we were in that level.  He was curious about doing it with his dog and said he would come back to watch us.  As Winn and I were navigating our left 360 turn followed by a right 360 turn,  I caught his eye and saw him smiling.  He stopped us on our way out and said “beautiful dog, you looked like you were driving a beer truck”.  Hands down, that’s the funniest thing anyone has ever said to me about my giant puppy!

Over the next two weekends, we are doing four more trials with World Cynosport Rally. The signs are the same as AKC Rally, but I can reward her in the ring.  Winn does really well with rewards so I think this will be a little easier for us as we continue to build our skills.

We are having fun, and I’m so proud of my little rally girl.

“Clear eyes, full hearts, CAN’T LOSE!”