Mountain House DogSports

06/23/2024

Working on stand to sit transition. Roustie doesn't know "sit", so we are starting from scratch.
In my world, sit is a weight shifted forward exercise, so I am luring him forward and upward. I get two sits I like and then the last is a rear shifted sit, but I reward it anyway because he is trying and motivation is more important than his mechanics atm.
And then I let him try to bite my face for fun 🤣

I pooped out on starting Roustie at an earlier time because in my head, there is only AKC obedience. Not so! When I looked to see if earning ASCA or UKC titles was a possibility, it looks like it is! Not as many opportunities for trials, but enough to make training him worth it for me. (He is an intact crossbreed, so no AKC for us)

Both my boys are socially sensitive and handler soft. This is my weak spot; I am reactive and churlish 😅 I have pushed to hard on soft dogs before. So, tip-toes, tip-toes. It's just a game.

06/23/2024

This is my border collie, Roustie. I haven't done any work with him since he was a baby, so he's basically naive to the training game.
Here I am working toward getting all four feet up on the step. He will put his front feet on things, so he offers that right away (oh! I know this!) I mess around a little with luring him toward getting a hind foot on. Turning his head to shift his rear doesn't work--he doesn't know that yet. So I try luring him forward. He doesn't want to step up 😅 but he's shifting his weight forward and eventually he puts a foot on to regain his balance. Click!
We end up getting three feet on a couple times.
He's still pretty happy, so we end it there.

06/21/2024

Let's talk about a dog's ability of generalize a concept.
When you introduce a new behavior to a dog, the dog learns a cue "constellation" of sorts. You may think your verbal or physical cue is the relevant point to your dog, but dogs are more specific than that. They will wrap up the whole environment into their early understanding of the new behavior.
This is why, when you teach your dog to sit, say at home, in the kitchen, and then you go outside with the dog and it seems slower to respond or simply doesn't. Part of the cue is missing, ie the location in the kitchen. So, you get the dog sitting outside. Now take your dog to a park, with children playing nearby. Do you have to lower criteria again? Most probably. The new location and the presence of children aren't part of the original cue constellation. The dog can add them, but unless you train that sit cue extensively, in many different contexts, you can still expect to get failure to respond in new situations.
The dog is not being stubborn. He really doesn't know for sure. In dog training, we call this proofing. It means to help the dog generalize the concept of a cue.
"Oh," thinks our dog, after 1000 repetitions of sit in different contexts, "sit always means butt on the ground, anywhere, and even if mom's back is turned, or she is wearing a sombrero or there is a rabbit running between us."
And sit is a simple behavior! In obedience, you are taking complex behavior chains on the road. There's a lot of room for "known" behavior to break down.
So proof and proof creatively! Train for worst case scenarios! Ask your dog to prove she knows! Train everywhere. And don't hurry to trial. Set yourself up for success by building your dog's confidence in the task at hand.

I can easily think of a couple examples. Once, at a crowded indoor trial, the go-out went to a blank concrete wall. No ring gate. The failure rate was very high. Most dogs were thrown by the unfamiliar picture of the wall; they were used to seeing ring gates or stanchions or fencing. These dogs were well trained and "knew" the go-out behavior. The dogs adequately prepared to go out despite an unusual backdrop, had generalized the concept. The others needed more proofing.
Another: once at a trial, a dog was rushed and circled by a dog just after he was left on a down-stay for the group stays in Open(yes, a looong time ago 😅) That good boy stayed put and did not break! I'm quite sure the other dog had been taught to "stay", too. The difference? PROOFING. When that dog showed up in his face, the proofed dog thought "This is another one of Mom's tricks!! I know what to do. I wasn't born yesterday."
The other dog thought that "stay" meant stay at the training yard, or the club, or the backyard, or something. It did not mean stay when there were fascinating strange dogs around, at a strange place and Mom not around.
We will work on this in class as we progress, but you will always need to seek out training opportunities in a variety of places.

06/19/2024

06/19/2024

Dorris and Sophia working with sweet boy Skittles.

06/17/2024

As a dog trainer, I see how often the dog-human relationship is rife with misunderstanding. On a practical note, this has serious welfare implications for both, but esp for the dog. From a competitive standpoint, this means lackluster, imprecise, inconsistent performance.
You owe your dog clarity and motivation! You owe it to yourself, as well!
Obedience is basically a complex dance between dog and handler, a blend of precision and technique, energy and engagement. It's challenging and fun. In my perhaps biased opinion, it is one of the hardest disciplines in training to do well.
Which brings me to foundation work, which we are working on in class. This foundation is the basic grammar of your communication with your dog. Over time, these component pie es become a more complex whole, but if you ask for the whole before showing your dog the parts, you will have misunderstanding. For example, your dog cannot heel beautifully without a precise understanding of where to be, when to be, how to manipulate her body to achieve this position and the want, no, the demand to be in that preferred position.
So, foundation.
Can't wait to see our teams in class!

Video is of a client puppy playing with flirtpole for the first time. Isn't he awesome?! And yes, this too, is foundation.

06/13/2024

Good morning!
I thought I would post a short vid of me and Baby Fred doing some perch work. This is the progression once you have got good hind foot movement. Your dog should be able to turn all the way around the pot, both ways, facing your front. Next, you step back with one foot and lure the dog to twirl himself around the pot, and over your foot, with you staying in place.
Food placement is key!!!
You can see me bungle it (😆) and I tend to be a little high in placement, but in my defense I am used to taller dogs! Anyhoo, feel free to play around with this ahead of class if you like!
Remember to keep your sessions short and sweet! The dog should be still wanting to continue! Have fun! Post video!

This is my disclaimer: yes, I always look this....ahem...."disheveled" in videos 😅 I apologize, but will continue to look exactly this not-put-together, I'm afraid 😅🤣🤣

06/12/2024

For today's class I remembered to line up some video. Video is always a great learning aid because there's nothing like being able to critique yourself from the outside. These dogs are all working on foundation for obedience and rally and they are all "A" dogs, so these teams are new to this game.
We're mostly working on getting the dogs excited to play with us and beginning skills. A solid foundation makes for a polished performance in the ring!
Great job today everyone!

Ps. Feel free to share video/photos of homework and ask any questions you might have!

06/12/2024

Gemma.
This girl has a lot of pizzazz and flash!
Absolutely spectacular heeling in the works.

06/12/2024

Callie is right there with great energy and enthusiasm!
She wants to be off her mom a little because it's easier to look at Mom's face that way. With just a slight adjustment, she is going to show us some gorgeous heeling!

06/12/2024

Nice work from Thor here
With my little jumping bean for distraction.
I'm happy with his position and energy.
Remember to walk briskly!

06/12/2024

Wow, Skittles is right on point here!
Good lure placement and good speed!!

06/12/2024

Thor and Bodie doing some nice passes! Neither breaks attention to look at the other.
Great job, boys!

06/12/2024

Thor.
Very sensitive to social pressure. This environment with movement, dogs and people made it hard for him not to break focus.
He needs a very high rate of reinforcement to help him work through it.

06/12/2024

This is beautiful Callie.
Position is a bit wide, but look at her attitude!

06/12/2024

Getting the dogs moving on a lure.

Great job getting Bodie with you and engaged!! This is really great.

06/06/2024

The week one exercises are all basic attention and engagement play. I find that most new handlers have forgotten, or rather, haven't even been taught, that the very basic cornerstone of building that joyous, animated attitude we all love, is asking the dog to "buy-in" to the game.
"Do you want to play with me this way?"

Think about this question! If someone asked you this, what would your response be? For myself, the answer would be highly dependent on how I felt about the asker and how fun the game looked. If the asker was always nagging at me and pushing me around, I'd be hesitant, to say the least.

Obedience is complex, technical and requires intelligence, confidence and problem solving for the dog. At higher levels it requires the dog to work for long duration, away from handler, with very delayed reinforcement. So, when you ask the dog to play, you better make it worth their while!

So, week one: showing your dog that you're fun and interesting and worth paying attention to. We are working basic attention, playing games with reinforcement, charging the clicker, and teaching luring. I can't wait to see what my students have to show me next week!!!

06/05/2024

So after about a zillion years, I'm finally back to doing some small classes. Foundation competition obedience with the goal of bringing some new handlers along to their CD and rally titles. We're at competition canine on Tuesday evenings right now, and if you'd like to join in, just go to the website and add the 5:30 or 6:30 obedience class with Dorris.
Or show up and we'll work ya in that way!

10/23/2023

These boots are made for walkin!
Floki and I are adding steps to our heel
It's pretty rough, but I'm happy with the boy!