COMPETITIVE OBEDIENCE TRAINING (Part 13) by Sandy Wadhams
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14 Oct 2026 15:02
All thoughts must be turning to Crufts. The major event in the doggy calendar. The build-up for the judge and his team and the competitors is tremendous and everyone looks forward to the few days at Earls Court. A chance to meet friends and make friends. Take in a show in the evening or try out a nightclub.
BUT best of all to watch the Ticket Dogs work. You can be sure that the majority of handlers competing will have trained their dogs methodically, and with dedication and single mindedness trailed up and the down the country every week in their quest to win that Green Card, so they can walk in that big ring at Crufts and work their dogs. To me the achievement is winning that Ticket to work at Crofts, and I personally feel that, that is the ONLY way to go to Crufts with your dog.
This year's judge is Roy Page. I am sure if his test is laid out and organised like Lichfield Championship Show - Competitors and Spectators will be in for a real treat. So good luck to Roy and his team, to all the competitors, the regulars, the first timers and those retiring. Sadly we shall miss seeing OB. CH. TYROCOLL BHEINN TOKEN, who so tragically and suddenly died after already winning several tickets this year. Another dog who will not be gracing the big ring this year is OB. CH YVO5 CRO5S PURPOSES. Retired at the end of the season to health problems. To me one of the most STYLISH dogs on the circuit and always loving every minute of it. Retiring at Crofts this year is one of the great Champions of the decade, OB.CH. MAGIC SUNDAY (SUNNY). A long and happy retirement to a super dog.
To continue from last months article on scent discrimination you will remember that we had started to hide the dogs rag behind immovable objects. After a while the dog will learn that his rag is behind an object and instead of using his nose he will start to use his eyes. At this point introduce some Tent Cards. The tent cards may be made of cardboard or aluminium - the latter for the very keen dog.
Say put out two tent cards amongst the immovable objects. This time place your knotted rag in one of the tent cards. Now the dog cant see the rag. First of all he will look behind the immovable objects - no rag - so he will eventually investigate the tents and to find his rag he will have to use his nose. So now he is discriminating again. Incidentally don't have the immovable objects in a straight line - have them in a sort of jumble and don't place them in the middle of a field. Start your scent training in a small confined area, otherwise the inexperienced dog will not always realise where the scent articles are and start wandering out of the scent area, become confused and lose confidence before you have really got going.
Once the dog realises his rag may be in a tent or behind an immovable object move on to the next stage of training. At this point in the training, the handler must be extremely careful and observant.
The dog must be weaned off so to speak this easy 1st stage scent to eventually working articles all the same i.e. a line of cloths. But you don't suddenly put out a line of cloths you must GRADUALLY build up to this in the following manner. At this point its a good idea not to always use a knotted rag for your dog to find but to use a retrieve article that you or the dog haven't previously touched. So sometimes you use a knotted rag, sometimes a different article. So the dog never knows what to expect. Also at this point you must gradually move away from the immovable neutral and decoy objects to smaller ones. Each time you send your dog into the scent area, substitute one of the immovable objects for a smaller serri immovable object i.e. large spanner, aluminium tile etc. The smaller neutral objects could be picked up by the dog - but must be of a type that would be extremely difficult for the dog to pick up - so if by chance he is tempted he will correct himself. When teaching scent NEVER do the scent for the dog. NEVER say NO when he is over the neutral or decoys or speak to him when he is over your article. If you do, he will wait for you to tell him which is the right one. If you go carefully and read what your dog is doing, and make it so your dog can only ever pick up YOUR ARTICLE - he will learn to work it out on his own and eventually discriminate perfectly.
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PART 14
WELL HERE we are back to normal after the excitement of Crufts. What a Crufts it turned out tobe. Many congratulations to the winners. A well presented test from Roy Page and his team, as a competitor very flowing to work and all his stewards enabled the handlers to enter the ring in their own normal manner without any pressure, which was much appre-ciated. As a spectator I enjoyed watching the round.
My thanks to everyone who sent Ricky and I Good Luck Cards, little gifts and of course the sprays of heather. It really is appreciated and helps make Crufts the special occasion it is.
Let's hope Crufts has motivated everyone for the coming season and you're fired up and ready togo.
In this issue: the next stage on scent training. If you remember from last month's article we had the dog working a scent area of tents and semi-immovable objects to find either his knotted rag or a retrieved article. Now we introduce a NEUTRAL knotted rag under another tent. The dog should use his nose in the tents and therefore ignore the neutral rag and return with your retrieve article. If this is ok next time place another neutral rag under a tent, so there are two tents with your scented rag under-neath. Plus a few tents with nothing under them plusa few semi-immovable objects. If the dog returns with your rag which he should do, next time, place another neutral knotted rag under a tent so there are three neutral rags out and also place a neutral rag fixed to a alumini-um tile amongst the semi-immovable objects, and the dog will be sent to find and retrieve article placed under a tent. Gradually increase the number of neutral knolled rags under tents and also the number of neutral rags fixed on aluminium tiles in the scent area. At the same time each occasion you send the dog into the scent area remove one of the semi-immovable objects. ALtemate between usinga knotted rag or a retrieve article for your dog tofind. Sometimes place your article under a tent sometimes not.
The dog should by now be discriminating confidentially. So we start removing the tents, firstly just remove the tents a little way from the knotted rags. So the dog can see the rags but because you have taught him to use his NOSE NOT his EYES he should discriminate when he's sent out. Secondly, remove the tent cards, but one at a time. So eventually your scent area will consist of neutral rags fixed on tiles and knolled rags.
It is important to remove the tent cards ONE at a time, so each time you send your dog out you are gradually moving towards the scent on all cloths. If you untied the knotted rags you would have a scent cloth. During this phase also start removing one at a time, the knotted rags as well as the tent cards and you will be left with your neutral cloths fixed on aluminium tiles. When you start removing the tent cards and knolled rags, have a aluminium tile for your dog and place your scented cloth flat on the tile, sometimes place your knotted rag under a tent, sometimes your cloth on a tile. So the dog never knows whether his scent cloth is under a tent or on a tile. If the dog pecks at the neutral rags or cloths during this process it is probably because you have gone through the method too quickly. Go back and go through the stages SLOWLY. If he still pecks at the neutral knotted rags make sure they are then pinned down, so he cant pick them up. The only article he should be able to pick up is yours. This way the dog learns to correct himself. Make sure your cloth is always placed on a tile. Otherwise, the clever dog will know the difference.
Now your dog will be finding your cloth over neutrals. Next month I will discuss the introduction of decoys scent patterns and C scent.
I taught Perry scent using this method and he always found the correct cloth, but oh dear me! the manner in which he did scent left a lot to be desired! The whole problem was of course a retrieve problem. If you remember my article on retrieve, and how I missed out the important stages when teaching Perry. Well I paid dearly for that mistake, because the weakness always came through to scent, and when I was under pressure. When in the lead in C or ticket, he always waited until then of course, he took GREAT delight in either doing a mass retrieve in scent, or chewing doing a mass retrieve in scent, or chewing the cloth, or purring his paws on the correct cloth thus making it almost impossible to pick up, to name a few of his antics.
All this was my fault of course for not teaching retrieve correctly in the first place. One year at Cambridge he had worked a cracking round in ticket, went out in scent, discriminated perfectly; picked up the correct cloth, "Oh great, at last I'm going to win", WHOOPS spoke too soon, he started mouthing the cloth on return and dropped it on top of the neutral. Without hesitation he scooped up tye neutral and the correct cloth together. Needless lo say we did not win, but I still bought him fish and chips on the way home, spoilt little...
I made sure that Kim was taught retrieve correctly and scent carefully and methodically. An added bonus was the two years Kim worked B. Every week he did a B scent and decoys in the ring for two years. These three factors certainly paid dividends when Kim qualified to work Ticket, he was the most superb scent dog. He won many classes and places on his scent and could always be relied on to do a good scent
when in the lead. Kim worked Ticket for 8 consecutive years and every week at a show executed a perfect C scent, sometimes two. He must have done at least 70 C scents every year and I can count on one hand the number he failed in eight years and on the rare occasions when he did fail there was also a logical reason for it.