The Spaniel Annals

Happy 9th birthday to Gael, my exuberant and beautiful Gordon Setter.  I can’t believe she is 9, and she certainly doesn’t act like it.  Gordons are known for aging well, and Gael exemplifies that youthfulness.   With the recent changes I’ve made in her training, I do have hopes we can get her Open and Utility titles before she retires to running in her pasture.  But we’re at a sticking point that I’m searching for answers.  What’s the problem?  Well, it’s not her retrieve:

And it’s not her drop on recall:

It’s the standstay.  The plain old seemingly easy standstay.  With the new AKC rules, it comes up in the new Command Discrimination exercises, as well as at the very end of the Open exercises, where she waits in a standstay as I go outside the ring and get her leash.  Prior to this last standstay, Gael will have just completed an arousing exercise, the broad jump, and knows she is about to get her cookies.  Coming up with ways to calm her into a consistent standstay has been a bugaboo.  We do need this consistency for the utility signals, so it’s great that we’re addressing this issue now.  She is pretty consistent using a front foot platform and with a small PVC barrier, but take those away, and I still can get several steps.  One key I’ve learned from Deb Jones of the Fenzi Academy is to better mark her correct behavior and reward frequently at first before adding duration and distance.  It is a work in progress that will be getting tested in some fun matches coming up.

But for now, happy birthday to my Gael.  I hope for many more with her.