The Spaniel Annals

There’s always the first time of taking a dog into the “real” ring that all the matches can’t really imitate, where there’s a real judge, an audience (however small), and the requirement for all the aids to disappear, at least temporarily.  I’ve learned to make these first times very targeted in my goals, and typically the most important goal is to ensure the dog is having fun, and that I think he’s absolutely wonderful.  After all, I’m planning on years of showing the dog, so setting the best tone initially is crucial.

Ruckus had his first time in regular obedience this last weekend, in the subnovice class of a UKC show.  While subnovice lacks the off-lead portion, it still is significantly more demanding than rally or AKC’s beginner novice class.  The voice and body aids have to either disappear or are greatly reduced, the judge is more physically present, and the duration of attention needed extends beyond these other classes.   (UKC subnovice does include an honor down and group sit-stay that is not included in the video.)

I’m developing a consistent system of weaning the dog off of food, toys and my voice (although they never entirely go away), and Ruckus is still working through that process. So I considered pulling him earlier in the week when we had a mediocre training day.  But that little moment of training “crisis” caused me to brainstorm some changes to my handling that made a big difference for him.  My ultimate goal is to maintain his joyful intensity in his work while also gaining precision.    The trick is to maintain duration of that attitude as the aids and rewards get more randomized.   The video below shows me that process is working!

Sure, there are green dog mistakes, like thinking we were halting when we moved into the slow, some slight lagging when he’s supposed to be driving, and botching the front after coming over the jump.  (Not my first novice dog to do that–the jumping is fuuunnn!!  Whoa, front, what’s that???)  But then he gave me a perfect finish!   Overall he earned a 196, a great score for his first time.

Overall I was thrilled with his attitude, effort and focus over a relatively lengthy period of ring time.  In fact his attention was better than I expected it would be.  Maybe he’s making that IWS training leap in understanding that I so often experienced with Journey.  We’ll enter the March UKC trial in the regular novice class, and then give AKC a try.