Archive for the ‘Training’ Category

Posted on May 23, 2009 - by Guro

Obedience Competition - The Heel

Aurora’s first obedience competition - Sandehallen, April 25th 2009.

The Heel is possible the most important exercise in an obedience competition, i.e. it’s the exercise that gives most points (10points x 4 for a perfect performance). Since we did a pretty good performance in the “Walk on a leash”, I was quite optimistic before we started this exercise. However, we did get a really bad start - Aurora stayed put watching a passing dog instead of following me when I started to walk

When we came to the “stop” she didn’t sit down at first, so I had to “cheat” a little bit to get her to sit down! At the turning point of the course we ran into trouble again… it was just too much disturbance near the entrance of the hall, so like most of the other competitors we totally lost focus for a little while

However , the last part of the course went pretty well, so the referee gave us 5 points for this exercise!

Posted on May 16, 2009 - by Guro

Obedience Competition - Walk on a leash

Aurora’s first obedience competition - Sandehallen, April 25th 2009.

We didn’t get the best start with the “Down and stay” exercise, so we had to do a little better in the next exercise - the “Walk on a leash”. In this exercise Aurora should follow me, and it should not be necessary to pull her leash. Every time I pull her leash, or if I have to give an extra command, we get a point (or half a point) off the total score. I’m only allowed to give a command when we start from sit or when we change tempo (from normal walk to slow walk or fast walk).

This is not one of our best exercises, so the goal here was to get a passing score (i.e. minimum 5 points)

As you can see we still need to practice this some more, Aurora needs to have more focus on me and not so much on what’s going on around us! But - we got 5 points, so we achieved our goal!

Posted on May 10, 2009 - by Guro

Obedience Competition - Down and Stay

Aurora’s first obedience competition - Sandehallen, April 25th 2009.
Okay, so we did it! We entered an obedience competition! I’ll tell you - I was very nervous; I’m not sure about Aurora, but I think she was a bit nervous too!
First exercise: Greeting and Teeth Inspection. I’m not sure why, but for some reason Aurora lost focus on the referee and was only looking at the dogs laying behind her. She didn’t even notice that he was looking at her teeth! We got 8,5 points (out of 10), which was pretty good.
Second exercise: Down and Stay for 2 minutes. When we practice this exercise together with our “training buddies” Aurora does this very well. However, it turned out to be a bit more difficult with strange dogs lying beside her. Especially when they were 4 times her size and started barking… no wonder she sat up and wondered what all the fuss was about! Have a look…

Well, we got 0 points on this exercise. I believe we should have had 5 points, she moved from down to sit without standing up, and stayed without moving. However the referee thought she was standing up, so he gave us a zero
Not the best start for us, I must admit I was a bit disappointed, so the nervousness was almost gone when we started the next exercise!

Posted on May 1, 2009 - by Guro

Lydighet - vår første 10-poenger!

Forrige helg debuterte Aurora i LP klasse 1! Vi var utrolig spent på hvordan det ville gå; og alt i alt vil jeg si at lørdagen var en veldig positiv opplevelse, mens søndagen var en nyttig erfaring!
PÃ¥ søndag var vi ved Skraperudtjern (Skullerud, i Oslo) og pÃ¥ forhÃ¥nd ante jeg ikke at dette var et “hundejorde” midt ute i skogen. Da vi kom dit skjønte jeg at Aurora ville ha store problemer med Ã¥ gjennomføre alle øvelsene her - det var alt for mange spennende lukter pÃ¥ dette omrÃ¥det!
Vi fikk imidlertid en veldig god start pÃ¥ konkurransen: pÃ¥ “visning av tenner” fikk Aurora sin første 10-poenger i LP konkurranse! Resten skal jeg ikke si sÃ¥ mye om nÃ¥, referat med film kommer etter hvert!
Her er den første 10-poengeren vår:

Posted on April 18, 2009 - by Guro

Dog Training - The Dumbbell Retrieve (Apport)

When we started to practice the Retrieve it seemed to be impossible for us to learn this command. Aurora did not show any interest in the dumbbell, she would not pick it up from the ground and when handing it to her she would drop it immediately. I was encouraged not to give up, just be patient and reward her every time she showed a little interest or tried to pick it up. Somehow I managed to keep on practicing and slowly we started to have a little progress. After about 5 months of work Aurora would actually pick it up and move 2 or 3 steps before dropping the dumbbell!

From this point in time it was much easier to get her to walk further and further with the dumbbell, and to get her to come to me with it. Right now we’re practicing to get her to sit down before dropping the dumbbell, I’m pretty sure she will do it soon!