COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING (Part 9) by Sandy Wadhams
Started by
obedienceuk
on
11 Aug 2026 10:47
Just back from Ditton Championship Show. What a marvellously run show this is. Maureen Shelly and the Ditton members
are to be complimented. I often wonder if competitors realise - I appreciate all the time effort and hard work it takes in putting a show together! How nice to see Ditton put up a separate ring near the Secretary's tent for prizes to be awarded . An idea suggested by June Watson and what a good one.
This year at Ditton was a particularly special occasion for one judge, Len Pearce. Len is President of Ditton Oub and chose to judge his last ticket here. As most of you know Len has judged tickets for many years, and Ditton and the obedience folks, as a mark of their respect and appreciation organised a presentation to commorate the occasion. Many many thanks from us all Len for awarding tickets to so many and giving even more of us the opportunity of trying to gain tickets. Unfortunately both Open C Dog stays were timed at the same time as the presentation to Len, so the C handlers missed the celebrations. In the future though we all look forward to working our up and coming dogs in the lower classes under you Len. What I thought was a particu-larly nice gesture from Len was that he personally presented a superb silver tray aptly inscribed to his C winner - Tony Romans, OB CH THYMES SON. To his placed teams a commorative plaque each. A fitting end to a super day.
Last month I talked about Deportment and footwork. To my mind this is where the handler will need enormous self discipline and self control. One of the best exercises to give the handler the confidence that the dog will stay on their leg in heel-work is the closing in exercise. Generally speaking this exercise may be taught ONCE the dog is HAPPY, ATTENTIVE, and bouncing about in the heelwork. It is the basis of the CONTROL and CORRECT position in Heelwork. If taught too easily it will inhibit a young dog. Ideally it should be taught before turns on the sport and on the move, but after lots of the PLAY training heelwork. Sit your dog by your side. Tell him to wait and take a large step to your right. Make sure you are holding your lead in your RIGHT hand. With the command close, taking you RIGHT leg back to balance you, and keeping your LEFf leg STILL, guide the dog up to your left side with your left hand on the lead, as you close your right leg to left leg, sit and PRAISE the dog. After a while your dog should be able to come to heel from the side and be in the correct position - IF you have applied your AIDS correctly. Once this exercise is perfected from the halt then it may be applied on the move during heelwork. It will reinforce to the dog where he should be in heelwork in relation to his handler. Then by simply using the command CLOSE in heelwork the handler may concentrate on themself. The exercise also teaches the dog to sit in heelwork in the correct position.
The other key to good deportment is of course TIMING, for instance its no good turning and THEN telling your dog what you want from him, you must tell him first with the APPROPRIATE AIDS fractionally BEFORE you turn, then your dog will understand you. Turns should also be executed at the SAME speed as the pace, you are working. If you are in nor-mal pace, it's no good at all if when you about tum you change your speed and whizz round faster, and once out of the tum change back to normal pace, you are not then being smooth and even on your turns and you will also create problems for your dog. He will either hang back or race you round according to the type of dog. It is also important to go into and come out of a tum on the same line ie, don't walk into or away from your dog, either before or after the tum, and oh yes - don't step back or wheel on the turns or wait, on them. These points apply to all paces. Gosh isn't it a lot to remember? Occasionally with a lot of hard work you will nearly be perfect in the ring. More often then not though I've found I make deportment mistakes in the ring. The art though is not to make as many mistakes as your opponents, and not to WORRY about the ones you do make in the ring. Just try harder next time.
Perhaps now one may begin to understand WHY it's so IMPORTANT to take your time building up your dogs' CONFIDENCE AND ATTENTION in the early days with PLAY training, BEFORE you attempt footwork and deportment - not to mention handler concentration. But that's another story.
0 👍
Replies
Part 10
Well here we are at the end of another season. Where does the year go? Each year we progress with our dogs through the classes, and more importantly we progress with ourselves. If something has gone wrong in the training or in the ring, then 99% of the time it is OUR fault and not the dogs. But how many times do the handlers realise this, and what's more, if they do realise, do they learn from it?
A handler told me the other day that she was in the lead with her dog but it broke stays. I asked her "how often do you train your stays" "Well I don't" - was the reply. Personally I think the stays should be trained at least three times a week. With Perry I used to train them EVERY DAY. Stays are I know boring to train, but they are part of the test. What good is it if your dog performs beautiful heelwork, super recalls, but can't stay?
Stays are one of the first exercises I teach a puppy. This exercise is after all testing the dog's ability to be disciplined, obedient ana controlled. With a young pup say 12 weeks old I teach the SIT STAY first. Always on the lead. Starting by the dogs side, giving a positive command "SIT STAY" and hand signal. Controlling the lead with my left hand and reinforcing the command "SIT STAY" I take a pace away from him, wait a few seconds, then return to his side. Gradually I take a few steps to the front of the dog then return to his side. Eventually I will be able to walk all round him. During this process I am gradually lengthening the time of the stay. All the time Im quietly repeating the command "SIT STAY" and then PRAISING the dog. Next step is to take the lead off and repeat the above process, ALWAYS make sure your dog is left in a comfortable position. If your dog fidgets or moves now it is because you have not ensured he understands what you want when you were teaching him on the lead. Once the SIT STAY is secure then teach the down stay then the stand stay in the same manner. Don't try and teach all three stays together. This will confuse the dog. So teach each stay separately and then put the three stays together.
When my dog is confident in his stays at home I take him to the club and repeal the above process on the lead. I'm very careful where I place him at the club in relation to other dogs and distractions to begin with. I don't for instance, place him by the entrance of the hall, where the door might suddenly swing open and in comes a boisterous or aggressive dog. I know this sounds like common sense, but you would be surprised how many times handlers do just that and then wonder why their dog breaks or Jacks confidence. Eventually of course I would GRADUALLY introduce all sorts of distractions, clapping, whistling, toys being thrown etc.
Perry could confidently do all the stays at the age of 6 months. By that I mean full 10 mins down, 2 min sit, out of sight and the 1 min stand stay. He was always rock-steady on his stays, except of course the day he was in the lead in the ticket. In the sit stays on return, a horsefly alighted on his nose. With his paw he brushed it off, lost balance and fell down! We lost 1 mark for that and the ticket. Would you believe that was the only time he ever broke his stays! I reckon its 'Im up there - He don't like me! Of course Bing Bellamy had a dog who used to love catching flies during stays. Bing used to catch flies in a jar and release them round him. Stays must also be trained in ALL weather conditions.
Stays of course demonstrate the dog's obedience and the amount of control the handler has over the dog in any situation. Some of us can't get this correct with one dog let alone with five dogs. At Coventry Championship Show though, I was witness to the perfect demonstration of such control - some of you may know the little chap at Coventry called OLLIE McGOVERN, chief carpark attendant and general "dogs body" of Coventry Club, perhaps better known for his ever-cheerful disposition and his famous use of a Sunblest bag to protect his head from the rain.
Ollie has five dogs. Three shepherds, one partly blind, one with new hips, and two cross breeds. It was the end of the day, the only class still working, the bitch 'licket. Several rings away two tables had been left together. OUie was walking round clearing up, his five dogs off the lead, circling round him all the time. At a word - one dog was sent away -jumped onto the tables and sat, then the next, and the next, until all five were sat in line on the table. There they stayed until a casual arm wave and one after another jumped off and raced up to their OLLIE.
How do you get such super control OLLIE, not to mention undivided attention from all five dogs?
As soon as my dog is confident during the full stays in sight. I then teach him the sight stays. If you ever went to Charlies all the dogs were tied up round the hall, away from their handler. They were NOT given a command to stay just left. This teaches the dog to get used to being left and also he will learn that you will return to him, as well as socialising him with other dogs, so it's a good idea to do this with him. When I want to teach the out of sight stays I usually leave the dog near my house, go to the back door and go in, and come STRAIGHT out again, saying stay good boy. Next time I stay indoors 10 seconds, come out again and gradually build up my length of reappearing in sight, (not actually going back) teaches the dog to concentrate on you in sight and when you have disappeared, this helps the dogs confidence knowing you are near and should give very secure stays. TAKE time and CARE in teaching the stays, and then you WON'T be saying "if only my dog hadn't broken stays we would have won the class"!