Beginner Rally-O Classes - OUCH!

[Tanya]

haha I learned not to give any "correction" on a course. Penny does nto respond well to even soft corrections anyway.

so for fun we worked on "stand' yesterday and Penny apparently has been reading these posts and said "as if, I know stand, that's easy" LOL! we have the beginnings of a stand.

I do have a question. I use a treat (and now no treat) in front of her nose to get a stand. How do I change that into a signal that isn't like - right in her nose.

We practice the signs we had in homework and she of course did 100x better at home. even her down to sit was nice. it's hard as the space in my house is confined so it's "easier" VS a hall wtih tons of extra room. but it's cold and so very dark when I get home rom our walk (and before I leave for work) that working outside isn't possible. oh well, we will keep doing it at home, maybe next down downstairs.

[Tanya]

I guess Canadian judges just don't have much of a sense of humor!
Funny story, a gal who is very straight laced was running agility w/ her Papillon here a couple years ago. She said Freck! (her dog's name was Freckles). She got whistled off and turned to the judge dumbfounded as to what for... Judge thought she said a different F word. Boy was that judge ever embarrassed!

ahahahha! too funny!

[xracer4844]

in a heel, I use a wave of my left hand in front of the dogs face - sweeping from my leg out. The hand out is "stay". If the dog sits, just use the foot under the loin. If the dog is too far ahead of you, even a head length, this is difficult to use as now you have to lean and jump forward so they can see the stay hand.

When we teach transitional work, our head trainer will set up a square and have everyone walk the perimeter in a heel usually and then the other side. If you command the stay, or a sit, or anything else, and you turn and look she will yell at you haha NO LOOKING NO PEAKING, etc.

She is awesome and always makes me laugh - shes right though. In the real world, especially when we are working and in a store or something, I won't be bending and looking and paying attention to the dog.

[Snowshoe]

I know you can't say it during training however when teaching a dog in a heel or foose I usualy tell people to use an ah ah and just the hand signal, after the dog understands the hand signal begin to train with no AH AH and only hand signals - this is just how I was taught. It probably makes sense to use something different though haha

What is foose?

[xracer4844]

What is foose?

SORRY- foose is anything right side - it's actually German for heel, however we use it for right side, heel is left side.

We use a lot of German words for training...especially defense commands.

[Snowshoe]

Ahhh.

I say SIDE for right side heeling. I come from horses, I'd say GEE or HAW if I could only remember which is which.

[xracer4844]

Ahhh.

I say SIDE for right side heeling. I come from horses, I'd say GEE or HAW if I could only remember which is which.

If I'm not mistaken, I believe GEE is right, HAW is left haha

I've heard other people use side too! I dont give my dog enough credit and try to keep words different Sit, Stand, Side, Stay, are all so similar so I usually train Sit, On your feet, Stay, Heel, Foose - not that my way is correct, just my old school thinking.

Search and rescue we say SUCH pronounced ZOOK to find human scent. We would say Pass Auf pronounced Pass oof which is a command to guard. Zadrrz prounounced zadrish is an attack command etc. I like commands (especially attack/guard commands) that will never come up in regular day to day language.

[Tanya]

haha a friend helping me with canicross was talking about Gee and Haw

Good point about words being similar.

Training this week is going slowly. Some nights Penny is not into training at all so we have to work on other things. Some days have been good. Sessions have to be super short so I try for 3 with breaks (by short I mean 1-2 minutes). She is not understanding the cones yet haha, but we are practicing.

I use my hands/arms A LOT. LIke a dance. Is taht considered "leading"? (I don't wave hands when there is a treat, leave those in the pocket, but lots of waving and poitning LOL)

[Scoutpout]

I haven't seen anyone penalized for large/lots of hand movements yet (you should have seen me at our last trial, what a muck-up, lots of large movements, penalized very fairly only for "slow response"). Just DON'T MOVE YOUR FEET once you've stopped at a stationary sign, and that includes falling over after loosing your balance doing large arm signals! Yes, it's happened in trials, all you can do is laugh and accept the likely 3pt deduction.

[Labradorks]

Sounds like a tough class! It is a class, not a drop-in, right? And yeah, the stand it definitely not a novice move. In my novice classes we do learn a right finish and all the heeling, down, sits. She shows us the stand, but we don't really work on it.

My trainer has me not correcting Linus, either. They way he is corrected is to bounce a treat on his nose. Weird, right? But it works. The other thing we did was to use his collar. So, for example, if he lays down during a sit stay, I would grab his collar, pull him up to a sit while asking for it and bouncing the treat on his nose, and then when he was in a sit, he gets a treat and a good dog. It helps that in puppy-K and novice, collar grabs with treats are a big part of class. It's been amazing. He's no longer worrying about doing the wrong thing or getting in trouble and he's just being great and having fun.

You can download the rally signs and YouTube examples. When I was at a show, I blanked on a sign so I YouTubed it before my turn and got my answer.