Brooks puppy class obedience test

[barry581]

We had our final puppy class last night, and the instructor does a basic obedience competition, heeling, stand for exam, figure 8, recall, sit stay, down stay.

The was a possible 160 points. Brooks lost 6 points on healing, mostly on tight leash. He lost 3 points on the figure 8, again tight leash. He aced the recall, and both stays.

Ah, the dreaded stand for exam. For some reason the whole stand concept has been pretty hard for Brooks, and he's been consistently standing on command since Monday, and I've not been successful at walking completely around him while he stands yet. He did stand when I gave him the command last night, but the second the evaluator approached, Mr Happy Wigglebottoms pretty much went nuts and it was all over from there. Lost 30 out of 30 points!!!

Why do Labs have such hard time containing themselves around people!!???

Overall I was pretty happy with how well he did, especially the stays and recall. We'll keep working hard and getting out around as many people as possible!!

[Annette47]

Sounds like he’s doing great! Sass and Cookie still can’t heel more than a few steps without a treat in front of their nose, LOL. Well they can, but not with the type of focused attention I’m looking for. It took a long time for them to be ok with me walking around behind them on the SFE. Was he still on leash? It was mostly the movement of the leash that bothered them - they were/are much better about it off leash.

[barry581]

Yes he was on leash. I think it's just a matter of him needing to learn humans don't mean excitement. Anytime someone approaches him it's full wiggle/excitement. I was working with him today, and had him standing and was able to walk around him. I praised the crap out of him, and a bunch of treats were given.

He actually heals pretty well with no distractions. Good eye contact and position, and will sit as we halt pretty much automatically. I can walk around him multiple times in both directions while he sits or downs.

One thing that was pointed out to me this week was that I'm to soft on the dogs when correcting them. The lady I field train with was pretty much adament that I need to get him under control ASAP. Brooks has a very alpha personality, and I need to enforce sit means sit. Our obedience instructor said the same thing. So Brooks is now on the one command then enforce program.

I think windycanyon was very right when she said this boy was going to test me!!!

[Labradorks]

He's just a baby!

[windycanyon]

Dang, he is a baby but doing FANTASTICALLY!!!! Stand for exam is a big dog thing (note they only do a Sit for exam in BN). So yea for baby boy!!!
I'm going to be showing (yes, in the show ring), a dog who I bred but do not own this weekend who has NO STAND, and very crappy leash manners if I can be honest about it all. I am betting I'd rather have Brooks at the end of the leash... ughhhhh.
Sadly, most people have no understanding of why a Stand / Stay is even important but I personally use it a lot w/ my girls (just getting unders on when in season would come to mind since I've been blessed w/ 3 in season w/in the past 10-12 days!!!).

[barry581]

Anne I'm not sure how he would do in the ring. At class he is actually fairly good around the other dogs, but as you say he's really a baby and his attention span is still pretty short. He will lay down and relax with all the goings on at class, but after a couple minutes he's up and looking around etc, etc. I'm going to talk to our trainer and see how she feels about Brooks moving up to the big dog class that Sophie is in, or having him take her advanced puppy class. I feel Brooks may be a bit young, and doesn't really have the attention span for a class that can last up to 90 minutes.

Overall I think Brooks is off to a great start and I'm having a blast working with him. I am planning on doing some show and go's with him, and getting him out around people as much as possible.

[JenC]

That's a tough test for a baby. You should find a place that does the Puppy Star and CGC. He'd probably pass both already!

[Tanya]

wowza! that's an advanced test for adult dogs! he did amazing!

[Snowshoe]

I think he did really well too, he's just a young'un yet.

In our CGN classes the instructor held the Labs to a much stricter standard on the pets from a friendly stranger station. She said it was so hard for the breed to not get all happy, happy at meeting a stranger she didn't even want to see their tails wag in training. She said it was like their greatest joy in life to get pets from anyone so they had to train harder to stay calm about it.

[barry581]

That's a tough test for a baby. You should find a place that does the Puppy Star and CGC. He'd probably pass both already!

I think he did really well too, he's just a young'un yet.

In our CGN classes the instructor held the Labs to a much stricter standard on the pets from a friendly stranger station. She said it was so hard for the breed to not get all happy, happy at meeting a stranger she didn't even want to see their tails wag in training. She said it was like their greatest joy in life to get pets from anyone so they had to train harder to stay calm about it.

He would ace the STAR puppy test, but I don't think he could maintain his composure for the CGC friendly stranger. He just explodes when someone approaches him. It's definitely going to be the hardest thing to work through for him.