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  1. #1
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Man... she is brilliant in the first series!!!

    And she broke in the second.

    The marks and blinds were not long, but with our types of terrain and vegetation, it just ate the dogs up. Kinda lumpy humps of sand with sage brush heavily dotting the area. There was no straight line to anything. You could lose your dog in a split second. The flier was first, by the time the dogs dug that out, many had no idea where the memory bird was. Rocket Dog went directly to both. The blind was through a narrow corridor. One quick step the wrong way, and you could not see your dog. RD did go out of sight... I stopped her, gave her a come-in, a small over, then straight back verbal back and she was on it.

    And she broke in the second.

    I've been thinking about it, and it occurs to me that we ask so much of these high rollers. This was a double header and since it was our club, I was out on the grounds a day early to set up. So here she is watching hundreds of dogs going hither thither and yon, shotguns going off, live and dead ducks being hauled around... She's in her crate most of the time, living in a high intensity environment. OK for most dogs, for one like Rocket Dog... that is a lot to ask. I think by the second series, she is well over threshold.

    So, I've been looking at the issue as one of walking from the blind to the line in good focused condition. I believe the trick will be to help her LIVE in the high stress conditions, and keep her mind on her job. That means learning how to bring her down every time we do anything on the grounds. Eating, airing, going to the sight of the series, waiting, and THEN going to the blind and to the line... THEN doing it again.

    I'm going to keep on with what we've been doing... high standards around the house and in training. NILIF. Had we not been doing that, she wouldn't have made it through the first series.

    But, wow... any suggestions for what to do when the conditions stretch over a period of days??? (I have a dog behaviorist person that I'll be discussing this with. Her bread and butter is over-threshold dogs. But I'm open to other ideas as well.)

  2. #2
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    The only thing I advise is patience and being consistent with what you are already doing. She’s relatively young and green and you are asking a lot, and probably changing the rules from when she first started. Just be consistent and get her out as often as you can to that environment - even if she’s not running, bring her along just for the exposure. Don’t expect too much too soon, but one day, you will look down and realized what a mature responsible dog you have, LOL.

    I know when my dogs first start showing, they are exhausted after a single morning with a single class just from being in the dog show environment. Now Chloe can easily do (at tournaments) 3 classes a day for 3 days in a row ... it takes time and seasoning.
    Annette

    Cookie (HIT HC Jamrah's Legally Blonde, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015
    Sassy (HIT Jamrah's Blonde Ambition, UDX, OM2, BN) 6/4/2015

    Chloe (HIT HC OTCH Windsong's Femme Fatale, UDX4, OM6, RE) 6/7/2009

    And remembering:

    Scully (HC Coventry's Truth Is Out There, UD, TD, RN) 4/14/1996 - 6/30/2011
    Mulder (Coventry's I Want To Believe, UD, RN, WC) 5/26/1999 - 4/22/2015

    And our foster Jolie (Windsong's Genuine Risk, CDX) 5/26/1999 - 3/16/2014

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  4. #3
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Time and experience? Maturity? More acclimation to the environment without running her?

    Congrats on a successful first series. You're halfway there!

  5. #4
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Over memorial day weekend there is going to be a field trial. Not the same thing. But maybe we could go out there to watch and just do obedience. We'll see.

  6. #5
    Senior Dog IRISHWISTLER's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Annette47 View Post
    The only thing I advise is patience and being consistent with what you are already doing. She’s relatively young and green and you are asking a lot, and probably changing the rules from when she first started. Just be consistent and get her out as often as you can to that environment - even if she’s not running, bring her along just for the exposure. Don’t expect too much too soon, but one day, you will look down and realized what a mature responsible dog you have, LOL.

    I know when my dogs first start showing, they are exhausted after a single morning with a single class just from being in the dog show environment. Now Chloe can easily do (at tournaments) 3 classes a day for 3 days in a row ... it takes time and seasoning.
    I concur with Annette47 that ye should see improvement in RD with the passage o' time and still developing maturity. Consistency across ALL training environments and increased frequency of training opportunities in similar environments should produce noted improvements in the ability to adapt to and handle such conditions without breaking down. Our retrievers are creatures of habit and they develop increased confidence o'er time and frequent exposure, especially when they receive highly supportive feedback from their team mate (YOU) in the form of highly desired reward - you know RD best and what those forms of reward are. For meself and the dogs I work with, those rewards are shaped o'er time to move from early on edible rewards and eventually phased out to verbal praise, physical contact, and the retrieve itself as the ultimate self sustaining reward.

    Remain focused and steadfast in ye training and remind yeself frequently whilst training that the objectives ye seek will come with time as the shaping of these desired behaviors generally do not happen instantaneously, but rather through slow and steady progress. I have faith in ye TuMicks, ye and RD will get there. Keep at it Lass.

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    Irishwhistler
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  8. #6
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    Take the things she did right and pride yourself on the hard training that you have done. Note the things that were a problem as you have done and look for solutions to them. You are right in that we expect a lot of our dogs especially in the situation you were in. Working the test and running a dog are hard. Even harder than just running a weekend test. The dog is cooped up in the truck while you are doing a million things to make the tests run smoothly. Even when you go to the line your mind may be thinking ahead to what you need to do next. At the trial I chair, last year the dogs did poorly but I really couldn't fault them.
    I swore that I would not run them this year, but I really want to. Just getting enough airing time is a problem and with high flies like RD and M you need that time.
    Add to it that they have been hear guns and dogs and people and their excitement level is even more intensified.
    On training days I always run M in the last group. Right now she has crate in the back of he Ranger so she can really hear and see what is going on as the others go the line. Simulating the excitement of test or trial day is difficult. We are gong to start some of property training as M needs the feel and look of other properties. It might fool her into thinking she is at a trial. We have often joked that everyone should throw twenty bucks in a pot because they only really mess up when you have money on the line.

  9. #7
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    We have often joked that everyone should throw twenty bucks in a pot because they only really mess up when you have money on the line.


    ​Truer words were never spoken.

 



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