Schutzhund Training Last Night

Dottie and Pie did well at schutzhund last night. At one point C (the helper) hid on one side of the blind, not in it. Dottie ran into the blind and popped into her sit and was about to start barking when she realized no one was in there. She spun out and around the blind and started her barking in front of C. We are having a BBQ this Sunday and K wants to recreate it and get it on tape, but I’m not sure she’ll fall for it twice. Pie is doing good at calling out of the blind. Dottie is not as good so we are doing a pick up with her when I walk in, tell her to sit, then heel her out. I was attempting to practice this and she wouldn’t look at me when I said heel. I popped her leash a few times to get her attention. It did not work. After I stopped yanking on her, C said, “What collar is she on?” She was on her small prong, which is harsher than Pie’s big prong. He was amused and told me to move it up higher, which I did with better results. Then, I tried to turn away from him into Dottie (left) but he told me to go right. Dottie would not come with me. She would look at me when I said, “Heel” then as soon as I tried to turn to the right she would just stare at the helper. Corrections had zero effect. Eventually K (who has Belgians) shouted, “Have her go left” and as soon as I pivoted left it was perfect. K said Belgians do not have the genetic material to go right. Silly, but maybe true?

All three (that includes Fancy) did well at tracking on Monday. The other day they wouldn’t down on the articles. So K (who has been helping me so much!) told me to make the track harder and now they are downing again. It is so cool because I am not using any food in the footsteps now, so it is totally real tracking. They get food reward after they down on the article. I love tracking and will write more about it later.

I did my run this morning and really pushed myself hard. Felt a little nauseous but my time was not better than my last time. I have trained the dogs to run at my slow pace so I know when I am going faster when I have to tell them to go faster because I end up between Dottie and Pie or kick the back of their legs with my toes.

I was just about to step out the door to go to agility when it started raining. I'm now waiting on a call to tell me if class is still on.


Just got the call and I'm off!