Dutch Shepherd Forum

Well despite my nerves and a very long day Force and I passed our BH at the Rose City Working Dog trial 1-29-11
He was very wound up ( picking up on freaked out handler ) and barely under control for check in , but once obedience started he shifted that energy to me. Presented an amazing picture of power, joy and teamwork.
Couple of minor glitches, mach 5 recall with limited braking skills resulted in a handler ramming . Luckily I saw it coming so was able to brace myself appropriately so as not to be taken down. A little joyful bouncing on the fast heeling.

Critique :
" A very beautiful picture very rarely seen at the BH level. A joy to watch."


By the time we got to the traffic section of the test it was dark ( yes a very long day )
The brindle beast was wired having been crated so long and was in play mode. Entertained himself by snacking on mosquitos during the crowd of people work and seriously wanted to play with the bicycle. ( the judge repeated this section for us to be sure Force was in play mode not eat it mode, Force clearly wanted to play - Darn young emthusiastic dog )
At 18 mths he still is very much a puppy despite his grown up looking body. He has so much joy and energy for life.
I'm looking forward to his maturing mentally and the many years of training/trialing fun we have ahead of us.
( well at least if my nerves will handle the trialing stuff )

Congratulations on passing your BH.

I've heard quite a few people say that passing your (not the dog's) first BH is the toughest of all the Schutzhund tests. Just because of nerves and newbie problems.

Super Jen! Congratulations. I know you are a proud parent today.

Way to go! That critique should be sending you all the way over the moon, Alice!

Congrats!

They are also the very first team to earn a title in the Working Dutch Shepherd Association!

Wow! Go team, sounds very good, now it's off to work for SchH-1

Congratulations!!!!! What an awesome critique too!

I am terrified to take our BH this summer...

FG167 wrote:I am terrified to take our BH this summer...

Why?

You'll either pass, or not. If you don't, your dog will tell you what you need to work more on to be successful on the next try.

Better yet, don't attempt it until you're really ready .

All that energy you're putting into being terrified? That's mental practice, and you're doing it in a negative direction, so that you are virtually certain not to do well when you face the test.

Put the same mental energy into imagining everything, down to the smallest detail, going well. Mentally picture each exercise, from the very beginning thru the whole routine, and see each element going properly and well. Practice doing this with your training, so it becomes a routine thing for you. As trial time approaches, do it even more. It makes a huge difference! (You're already doing this anyway, only in the negative direction, so it's not like you'll have to expend more mental energy )

Anyone who is serious about competing (and wanting to enjoy it as well as do well at it), should check out Lenny Bassham, and his book, With Winning in Mind. It's on cassette, probably on some more current medium now. He's developed a mental management system that enabled him to win multiple gold medals in the olympics, and then, go on to work with many athletes. I use his system, and it's made all the difference in the world to me, enabling me to be a good team member with my dog.

It's not really fair to expect our dogs to excell if we don't do our part to make that happen! And, when there are tools out there to help with that critical mental management part, well, not to use them is kind of silly .

leih merigian wrote:

FG167 wrote:I am terrified to take our BH this summer...

Why?

You'll either pass, or not. If you don't, your dog will tell you what you need to work more on to be successful on the next try.

jee, I wish someone told me that before I entered my first examn

I had a LOT of trouble with examns too, untill someone asked me what was so imported about it anyway, so what if you don't make it, as long as you learn from it. I failed one examn SO badly, I was the clown of the day Not that the dog couldn't do it, he was just confused about what the *beep* was wrong with me today, and decided to take control himself, it is afterall a DS
Ever since that day I wondered why I made such a big deal of it, and tried just the tracking examn, we had 97 out of 100 points Just because I was relaxed

LOL, see that's the thing. I have no fears about Madix. He'll either do it, or he won't. And if he doesn't, then I'm totally fine not passing and working on what we did wrong. It's me, I hate being in front of people like that. It makes me physically nauseous- until I get out there. Once I'm out competing, I'm calm and collected and usually do quite well. It's the before that makes me so sick to my stomach that I can barely imagine getting out there. Then I do, and all is well. It's like, before-hand I can see all the people that will be watching and judging and I can't distract myself. Once I'm out there, I have to do credit by my dog and focus, so I don't notice all the outside stuff then....hard to explain...

Here's our BH obedience routine.

Nervous novice handler and young enthusiastic Dutch Shepherd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4AUj327emU

Apparently I got a little carried away/confused in the group heeling, both on and off leash
Won't do that next time !

Force hit Mach 10 on the recall and had a brake failure
At least I saw it coming and was able to prevent a handler take down !

Got a few things to work on but I think team Force is off to a good start
Enjoy,
Jenny

Nice vid! He made me laugh with the "down" command, the sniffin' around, turning his butt a bit to sniff better, whaha! Nice young dog that is free, I hate it when they are robots at that age But he shows he can do perfect over time

Great job!!!! Thanks for posting the video.

I forgot how much heeling there was in the BH. Glad to see there is no send out though.

Marjolein : Don't you just love how he fakes me out ? I had NO idea he'd had some speed sniffing & moving on the down in motion. I tell him 'platz' , see him going down nicely out of the corner of my eye, walk the required distance, turn around to Force in perfect position.
What a brat ! The camera doesn't lie . We'll be working on solidifying the correct behavior !
I do love how happy and 'free' he is. A young dog having a blast. We got a lot of nice comments from the spectators on the joy he exhibited while trialing.

k9katet : Yes, it seems like you're heeling for days in the BH !!!!! ( especially being nervous and trying not to lose count of steps )
At least now we only have to do the pattern once
Retreives are going to be a challenge for us, and that send out will be an intresting addition.

Fun with Force !
I've SO much to learn.

Brindle wrote:Marjolein : Don't you just love how he fakes me out ?

That just proves he's of the same breed my dogs are Little sneaky RATS!

Marjolein wrote:That just proves he's of the same breed my dogs are Little sneaky RATS!

They're always planning something !
Sneaky crafty brindle beasts !
:dswink"

I just saw this video. Great job! You can tell he really settles in to the heeling after a while and just gets better, instead of losing focus or something. I am so jealous that you are trialing in January in a T-shirt! I am excited for Ember to be able to go for her BH, hopefully this fall but we will see how this summer goes.

bestlind wrote:I just saw this video. Great job! You can tell he really settles in to the heeling after a while and just gets better, instead of losing focus or something. I am so jealous that you are trialing in January in a T-shirt! I am excited for Ember to be able to go for her BH, hopefully this fall but we will see how this summer goes.

Thankyou
I'm sure he settled into heeling as I also settled some. They are so sensitive to us.
I was on nervous overload getting started , but once we were going I just focussed on counting my steps so I relaxed a little ( just a little ). Hopefully as time goes by I can learn to relax more as I know it'll help 'Team Force' be the best they can be
The t-shirt thing is very regular for me. I'm always overheated regardless of the time of year. The rest of the competitors were very bundled up.

Good luck to you and Ember. Hope you'll share video too.