The Spaniel Annals

Ruckus is a highly accomplished show Irish Water Spaniel (Best in Show and multi-Best in Specialty Show + hunting titles), who is visiting us to work on his rally and novice obedience.  He’s a very willing, athletic young dog who has learned many obedience moves very quickly (scroll down for more on this).  However, understandably he has struggled to make the transition from his show trot with his head level to sustained attention in heel position with drive on the turns and circles.  I say “struggle,” but keep in mind this is something a young dog typically works on for many months, while I’ve had Ruckus for approximately 7 weeks.

Up to this weekend, he’s been doing “spoon heeling,” where he isn’t necessarily in heel position, but is licking a spoon of goodies while we work on head up and some driving in wide circles.  (For most dogs, this works with squeeze cheese.  Ruckus prefers liver pate.  Life is good.) He’s been making progress, but is still lagging at times in this recent video.  I’m also hoping to get him to move from a pacing gait to a trot.   Beyond that, I could just feel that he wasn’t quite getting it:

So I waited for the transformation–the proverbial light bulb moment when his mind and body would come together to give me what I was asking of him.   Of all places, it happened this weekend at a very noisy and busy obedience trial, with collies at their specialty show continually barking on one side of a horse arena, and  obedience dogs working on the other side:

Certainly there is still lots of food involved here, but Ruckus gave me 100% attention in a very busy environment, as well as drive and position.  In this lightbulb moment he moved from continuous reinforcement to intermittent, and a realization of how his body needed to respond when we turn or circle to the right.   (Ironically, the much harder turn to the left he has learned much more easily. Scroll down for a short clip of his turns.)  He is also very dependent on my voice right now, so that will also need to be gradually reduced, and I need to keep trying to get him to trot rather than pace.  Overall, though, I’m ecstatic!  Now we can start moving forward more rapidly with his heeling.

Other far more complex moves Ruckus has learned remarkably quickly.  In particular Ruckus is showing great aptitude for freestyle.  Below he is doing a “back,” which takes most dogs weeks if not months to learn to do.  It took Ruckus two sessions.  This is his third session on this move (along with some weaves at the end):

Another move Ruckus learned very quickly was lateral sidepasses, another freestyle move.  Like his back, he learned these in just a few sessions.  His speed and enthusiasm are notable here, especially for a bigger dog:

Back to obedience.  The obedience turns are taught separately at this stage, at first in slow motion.  Here Ruckus is working on his about turn and left turn.  Like the moves above, he has learned the more complex left turn very quickly, which requires the dog to pivot his rear while keeping his front in place:

Finally, his recall is coming along nicely, especially thanks for his owner Stacy Duncan’s field training, that solidified his stay early on.

Good boy, Ruckus!  I am so pleased with his very quick progress.  His intelligence and biddability are first rate!