COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING (Part 11) by Sandy Wadhams
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obedienceuk
on
27 Sep 2026 11:40
Once again the year has flown bv. ln January this year I thought "Oh great a whole year of shows". Now the season has finished and I can't wait for next year.
Thoughts will be turning to Christmas ,11 days away from dog training. Although I personally
don't like Christmas (particuiarly the commerculism of it I'd much rather go to a dog show), the enforced break does my dogs and I the world of good. If I had my way I'd train my dogs all the time - in fact I've been known to train on Christmas day! However experience has taught me that to rest myself and dogs from the discipline of competition training, refreshing the dogs and gives me time to unwind, relax and recharge my batteries. Some say "It's holding on that makes you strong, some times it letting go". How true!
One of the easiest exercises to teach your dog is the A recall. If you have taught your dog to come in close in the heelwork (see August issue) the dog should have a fair idea where he should be when he joins you on the move. Tne first stage is to sit the dog on the lead, tell him to wait and take a large pace forward and hait. Holding the lead in the Right hand, and, remaining stationery - turn around and call the dog using his name, command close or heel, and a zip on the lead.
As the dog moves to join you, step buck with the LEFT leg, but keep the right leg STILL and run your left hand down the lead guiding your dog into the heel position, closing your left leg to right and then sitting the dog in the heal position and PRAISING. In this first stage of teaching the A recall it is important to use ALL THE AIDS and remain on the SPOT once you call the dog to you. Repeat this stage several times. To test whether or not your dog understands, the next stage is to repeat the first stage WITHOUT all your aids i.e. On a loose lead sit your dog, tell him to wait and leave him, one pace forward from him and when you call him this time don't apply the zip on the lead, or hand aid on lead, or step back, simply remain still and call the dog toheel. If he has understood he will come to heel in the correct position and sit. If he shoots forward or sits wide or back, then you huven't applied your aids correctly. You must then go back to stage one. When stage one and two are correct proceed to stage three as follows.
On the lead sit and command dog to wait, leave him and when you reach the end of the length of the lead instead of stopping keep MOVING applying STAGE ONE AIDS i.e name command zip on lead, hand on lead as dog joins you. Continue then in a STRAIGHT LINE of heelwork for some distance before siting the dog.
Once your dog has learnt to join you in a straight line then teach him to join you on the turns. ALWAYS teach the dog to collect in by doing a straight line of healwork then after a bit turn leit. Wnen the left hand collection has been mastered then teach the right hand collection, again allow the dog to join you on a straight line, then some healwork turn right. By doing a straight line BEFORE you turn rreinforces the heel position to the dog and helps to prevent wides, forward collection etc.
Graduailv vou will be able to collect the dog do only a few steps forward and then turn. Eventually when you have to turn as soon as, or before, the dog collects in he wi11 be accurate even if he is comng fost, because you have carefully TAUGHT him where to be. Some handlers like to leave the dog in the down for the A recall. This helps to prevent anticipation and control the keen fast dog as well as preparing the dog for the sendaway collection. It also helps prevent any contusion between the A rccall and the novice recall. i usually tell my dogs the name of each exercise before we start and for the A recall generally leave my dogs in the sit. Although with Perry l would leave him in the down for the above reasons, but as I became more experienced and had greater control over my dogs I then left them in the sit.
[ am writing this having just returned from Cheshire Championship Show at Shotton. Traveling up the night before towing the traiier tent, what a drive! The traffic was horrendous and the rain slashed down and the wind! Near!y ended up in the Mersey Tunnel, but finaily found the venue. What a super venue, lovely rings, large and even, such a well run show. The late evening tea was great.
The club had the two ticket rings and the PRO-DOG ring next to the club house which created a focal point and a super atmosphere.
This was the Final of the PRO-DOGS competition and the winner was CAROL PATRICKS, OB.CH. MAC BELAN. Not many dogs have won Crufts and Pro-Dogs. What a great little dog he has been Carol - many congratulations and enjoy the special PRO-DOG's awards evening. I was also delighted to see ANDY FlSHER, and his lovely G.S.D. ANDJAN CON-CERTINA win their first ticket. So many near misses Andy and such a long wait - very well done. The shout Andy gave when he knew he'd win reverberated right round the show ground. There is nothing but nothing more exciting than your first ticket win. Great stuff Andy!
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PART 12
Well here we all are at the start of a New Year. Isn't it GREAT - all those shows to look forward to!
What New Year resolutions have you made then?
This year I will do better, I will be in control in the ring, I will be POSITIVE. None of that is
any good unless you regularly train your dog. So EVERY DAY this winter make sure you run through the BASICS in each exercise with your dog, not forgetting to PRAISE him when he's correct and PLAY with him so he enjoys working for you. Don't make excuses not to train him, because it's cold or it's snowing, or dark, or raining etc.
Most of your training can be done indoors, your HEARTHRUG training, as Charlie used to call it. All the positive thinking in the world is of no use, unless you methodically and consistently train your dog every day. The dividends will be enormous once the show season really gets into gear.
One of the exercises which handlers seem to have great difficulty in teaching their dog is Scent Discrimination. As far as the dog is concerned this exercise is a piece of cake - dead easy for him - it's only us handlers who are confused. Before commencing to teach the scent exercise, the dog must be able to retrieve any article (including a weighted cloth), cleanly picks his rag up. Once he is retrieving into the scent area confidently, i.e. without looking at and confidently, and of course a nice fast accurate recall. Many the times I have seen a dog discriminate perfectly, only to be nagged and scolded by his handler for a messy pick up - or mouthing, or a poor retrieve. The dog then quickly loses confidence. So handlers make sure you have a perfect recall and retrieve BEFORE teachingscent.
As I have just said scent discrimination for the dog is easy. Many handlers however overlook how important it is to TEACH the dog to TAKE the scent you OFFER him. How can a dog find a scent if he hasn't taken it in the first place! The first scent you want your dog to find is your own so simply hold a tit-bit in between your hands and pretend to rub them together saying to your dog, "what have I got
- smell this". Natural curiosity from the dog will encourage him to sniff your hands, then open your hands give him the tit bit and praise him. Once the dog has cottoned on dispense with the tit bit. So whenever you pretend to rub your hands together saying "smell this" your dog will come forward to
sniff your hands. Now of course he will be TAKING YOUR scent. Don't force him to take scent - offer your scent to him in this manner. Now you have him taking your scent you can start to teach him to discriminate. Personally I am not in favour of all the changes in scent we've had over the last few years. Since the first change from the old A scent i.e. - selection of different articles, handlers own article, I have seen nothing but confused dogs, worried handlers and many many scent failures in A, B, & C. Like every other exercise scent should be taught with a simple step by step process. Handles must never touch any of the neutral or decoy articles. The only article the han-dler ever touches is their own.
What I want from my dog in scent once he has discriminated and found his article is to return with it to me as quickly as possible. This is achieved by setting out IMMOVABLE objects i.e. - Road cone, brick, chair, dustbin lid, large tin etc. and then teaching your dog to RETRIEVE (yes retrieve), a knotted rag out of the immovable objects. So just throw the rag into the scent area tell your dog to fetch and call him back immediately he picks his rag up. Once he is retrieving into the scent area confidently, i.e. without looking at the immovable objects. THEN when he is returning with his rag VARY the point on return at which you call the dog back. This will prevent the dog from waiting for a command at the same point on return, but will also ensure a prompt attentive return to you. Occasionally leave the command off. So the dog never knows when the command is coming. What all this achieves is a CONFIDENT return to han-dler. Once the dog picks up his rag, he KNOWS he is right and this will stop him later picking up his article and then putting it down to go and check the articles he hasn't covered. Now we will start to teach him to use his nose. This time hide the rag behind one of the large immovable objects. Give him the scent from your hands in the manner already described and send him out with the command fetch find. Because he can't see his rag he will put his nose down and start to discriminaJe and BOY will he be pleased when he finds it, and he should come racing back to you with it! DON'T leave off the novice recall return aids, just remember to vary when to use them. Each time you send him out, place the article behind a DIFFERENT immovable object. This is begin-ning of scent teaching and it is important that the dog has a CLEAN rag each time - otherwise he will learn to search for a mixture of handlers and dogs scent. You only want him to learn to find your human scent. At this stage its a good idea to have one or two of the immovable objects decoyed. After all he won't be able to pick them up and he will be getting used to going over different scents.